Analyzing the Stand Your Ground Law

Within the recent years, the American legal system has encountered a number of cases that have questioned whether certain laws are more harmful to the community rather than beneficial. In the year 2010, Americans were outraged by the case of young Trayvon Martin, whose murder was deemed justifiable by the “Stand Your Ground” law found in Florida, and many other states. This case, amongst others has caused a stir about the usefulness of the “Stand Your Ground” law and whether the law should be abolished. When deciding whether a law should be kept in place or abolished, we as American citizens must look at what the law seeks to prevent; how effective was the law once put into place; is there another law that covers the crime or sanction covered under the law, and what new laws can be put into place, if any, to better fix the problem.

To further clarify, the “Stand Your Ground” law provides the ability and the right to anyone to use deadly power against someone who that person feels threatened by. The premise of this law is to hopefully deter any criminal activities that can range from petty theft all the way to grand larceny (Chuck). It has been proven that when a state allows for its citizens to protect themselves according to their personal judgment, criminal activity has gone down drastically (Maclean). However, as the late Dr. King would say,” Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” On November 23, 2013, young Jordan Davis, a black male, was in the car with some of his friends when Michael Dunn, an older white man, fired upon the group of teenagers for playing loud music. Dunn later received a prison sentence of over 50 years on four accounts of attempted murder, but when questioned about his feelings all Dunn...

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...e everywhere. The Stand Your Ground Law, has become a huge controversy in American society , however it is hard to state whether the law should be eliminated or kept in play due to flexibility and array of cases that can be affected underneath this law. Though a definite response on how the law should be handled has yet to be reached , it is still a law that should be furthered researched and carefully monitored.

Work Cited

Botelho, Greg A. "Florida Had First Stand Your Ground Law, Other States Followed in 'rapid Succession'" NBC News. CNN, 17 Feb. 2014. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.

Chuck, Elizabeth A. "Florida Had First Stand Your Ground Law, Other States Followed in 'rapid Succession'" NBC News. NBC News, 8 July 2014. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

“What happens when a country lives in fear?” Maclean’s 29 July 2013: 6+. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 26 Sept. 2013.