Stand your ground.

I apologize for missing a round. Back to it: My source for specific cases is the Tampa Bay Times, linked above. They did an extensive review of Stand Your Ground cases and created a comprhensive database. In 43% of the cases, the person claiming an affirmative defense under stand your ground initiated the confrontation. www. tampabay. com/stand-your-ground-law/ You have not provided any research for me to rebut. Your source above merely is an opinion decrying the high rate of african american homicide rates compared to other populations in the US and abroad. SYG only increases this statistic. SYG was SUPPOSED to protect law abiding citizens, but it fails that objective miserably. It only serves to increase the odds that murderers will walk. In my sources above, and you click around the database, there are plenty of cases that make you cringe. This is not what the law is designed for, but that is how it is being used. Many confrontations are not as simple as "Good guy vs. Bad Guy". In those cases, there are already plenty of laws that provide sound affirmative defenses. IE castle doctrine and self defense. I understand your empathy with victims in a case where someone is accosted by the real deal criminal, but self defense law already protects them. Why should you have no choice in your actions because someone confronts you? This is a false dillemna. There are plenty of choices. The choice to engage in deadly force should be the least preferable option, and the law should provide incentives that serve to decrease resorting to this option unless absolutely necessary. You should not shoot to kill someone else, but to protect your own. This is the principle of double effect. Before shooting, if the situation could be avoided, that would protect both lives. The SYG law provides legal protection for violence that otherwise would not take place. Plenty of cases where the SYG has been applied could have been completely avoided with a little more sound judgement. I believe that, specifically in the George Zimmerman case, the violence episode could have been completely avoided. I believe that if TM would have won the fight, it is reasonable that he would have applied the SYG law and claimed that he was being pursued by an unknown armed assailant for unknown reasons and he acted in self defense when Zimmerman egressed from his vehicle and starting chasing TM. There is already legal protection for cases of self defense. I believe that part of the law should be an obligation to retreat, like there was before SYG. Before SYG if an intruder is in the home, the "make my day law" applies and the homeowner has much more legal protection. You should not have the same legal protection following around teenagers inviting confrontations. I've shown multiple cases where the SYG has been applied to protect criminals and people who acted criminally when they could have easily avoided the whole situation. I believe that if the SYG would never have been passed, more people would be alive, because shooters would not be so eager to pull the trigger. I believe I have provided ample evidence to support my claim that the SYG law is garbage and should be repealed.