Stand-your-ground laws prove harmful to communities
Graphic by Olivia Signorile ’25
Ralph Yarl, who is 16 years old, was shot after he rang the incorrect doorbell among other incidents. These acts are permitted by the Stand Your Ground legislation, which must be prevented.
A teenage boy rang a doorbell; two girls walked to the wrong car; a woman entered the wrong driveway. These random, every-day occurrences resulted in someone suffering injury or death because of stand-your-ground laws. What used to be simple mistakes now result in severe consequences for individuals and communities alike.
Laws permitting violence only fuel more danger, and shifting the direction of
stand-your-ground laws to duty-of-retreat is the only way to stop crimes against innocent individuals.
Thirty-five states have stand-your-ground legislation, while 15 states have duty-to-retreat, Connecticut being one of them.
When individuals in their home or in public believe it is necessary or they are in danger, certain states permit the use of deadly force under the country’s stand-your-ground legislation.
The duty-to-retreat approach is an improvement over stand-your-ground because it requires an individual who believes they are in a dangerous situation to attempt to flee before using deadly force.
This law is not utilized in most states but should be implemented in all states in order to protect innocent individuals from injuries or death.
A study conducted by RAND, an organization providing information on gun policies in America, provided information on the law’s impact.
“The models showed stand-your-ground laws that removed the duty to retreat in all public venues” RAND Corporation said, “were associated with a suggested 8% increase in firearm homicides”
One of the numerous acts that prove stand-your-ground legislation should not be permitted was the shooting of Ralph Yarl. On April 13, an 84-year-old man in Kansas City shot Yarl in the head. The homeowner believed the teen was trying to break in and shot him in the head.
The duty-to-retreat laws would have prevented such a shooting. It would, by law, require the homeowner to flee at first, rather than simply shooting the young boy.
While self-defense laws are meant to shield people from harm, they result in racial violence while doing little to reduce crime; therefore, America must re-examine protection laws.
In recent studies on stand-your-ground legislation and statewide rates of homicides, it was proven that these legislations relate to 700 additional deaths this year alone. Although stand-your-ground laws are not new, they are frequently used to justify racial violence to this day, and the recent shooting of Yarl brings these issues to the spotlight once again.
I believe the law enables further violence, and a change to these statistics can be made by enacting the duty-to-retreat legislation.
Ultimately, adopting duty-to-retreat laws in the place of stand-your-ground laws is the best approach to prevent the rise in horrible acts on innocent people. I believe that this will help to save many innocent Americans’ lives.
Olivia Signorile ’25 has always had a creative eye. From a young age, she expressed her imagination through drawings. In high school she had an awakening...
