Stand Your Ground Self-Defense Essay

Stand Your Ground: Our Individual Right to Self-Defense As of late, self-defense has been a very controversial topic thanks to the trial and acquittal of George Zimmerman in the murder of Trayvon Martin. This case gave American’s the cause to question Stand Your Ground Laws, the President of the United States Barak Obama even showed his concern for our nation. Many people felt that Zimmerman was acquitted due to a racial bias, but in accordance with Stand Your Ground laws and other self-defense statutes it is clear that this is not a racial issue. George Zimmerman is a 33-year-oldHispanic man running a neighborhood watch in his affluent gated community in Sanford, Florida. On the evening of February 26, 2012 Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old

This case, among many others have caused our legal system to decide whose rights should be upheld, the victims or the aggressors? In this paper the history of self-defense laws, psychological benefits, and societal benefits will be discussed. Ultimately, the evidence shown throughout this essay will prove the absolute necessity of self-defense and Stand Your Ground laws. Not only does Stand Your Ground shift the focus of criminal law from victim to perpetrator (as it should be), our right to self-defense is written in the Constitution, and studies have shown that Stand Your Ground deters criminal behavior. (Holliday, 2012) Although some find Stand Your Ground as an open door for racial biases in criminal proceedings, the studies that prove that statement to be true are not taking into account the background and environment that the crimes occur in, simply looking at race and not any other factor of the case is not enough to prove a racial

(Roman, 2013) In the case ofTrayvon Martin many believed the Stand Your Ground laws gave George Zimmerman a free pass to kill anAfrican-American boy. However, not every case is the same and a law cannot be repealed due to one failed case. Stand Your Ground laws value the life of the victim over the life of the criminal, which means that even if a criminal enters your home without the intent to kill or cause physical harm, they are still entering with a criminal intent. Proof that the victims life was in danger is no longer necessary because the presumption that the criminal intended to commit a crime speaks for itself. Many don’t agree with taking the life of a criminal if they didn’t intend to do physical harm to a victim, but it is impossible to know what an aggressor is planning on doing. It’s better to be safe than to have a dead victim with their back against a wall. Another issue that many find with Stand Your Ground laws is the propensity of racial bias within the court room. In a recent study done by the Tampa Bay Times newspaper, it was found that the courts seemed to value the lives of white victims more than those of black victims. (Ackerman, Goodman, Gilbert, Arroyo-Johnson, and Pagano, 2015) However, this study did not discuss the amount of black on white crimes compared to