Stand your ground is drastically misrepresented. It's an element of self defense.
It merely eliminates an obligation to retreat. An obligation to retreat is absurd, anyway. Faced with an imminent threat of violence, a person has a justifiable right to defend himself/herself by any means necessary. There is absolutely no reason to ask that person to attempt to retreat or face legal consequences. If a guy with a ski mask hits me in the head with a pipe and I have a gun, I'm not going to challenge him to a race and see who wins.
The application of the stand your ground law can be imperfect because it has grown to account too much for perception. Just because someone is perceived as a threat shouldn't grant you the right to use deadly force. In my estimation, the law should be corraled to only protect those who have used force against someone actively engaged in unlawful and dangerous behavior. This is also a state-by-state matter. Some states enforce this law extremely well. Others, not so much.
If this is being discussed in the context of Trayvon, stand your ground is not being abused.
|