Stunning Report: "Stand Your Ground" Laws Responsible for 500-700 Homicides Per year

WOAI Radio ^ | 06/11/2012 | Jim Forsyth

[Afisra]

Research conducted at Texas A&M University concludes that far from reducing crime rates, so called 'Stand your Ground' laws are actually responsible for a drastic increase in the number of homicides nationwide each year.

[Afisra]

Here comes the opposition.

[yldstrk]

“murders”

hahahahahahah

Velly funny

Deaths, ok, but murder implies innocence and these perps who got killed were not innocent.

[Venturer]

There is a big difference between murder and homicides.

It is not murder to kill someone who is trying to kill you, rob you ,or harm your family.

I have read many posts in Free Republic of burglars being shot and killed while in the act, it cuts down on the cost of a trial and makes the world safer for honest people.

[grb]

It is responsible for 700 bad guys dying each year instead of 700 good guys. I’m good with that.

[grb]

It is responsible for 700 bad guys dying each year instead of 700 good guys. I’m good with that.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

It's called "taking out the trash."

Now we know what the Saint Skittles public relations event was all about.

[jdsteel]

Any source that equates justifiable homocide with murder should be laughed out of town. It would be more accurate to claim that the castle doctrine has saved taxpayers millions of dollars annually. Factoring in the reduced future robberies and injuries to victims as well as the cost of jailing the criminals and the number gets big fast.

[Mr. K]

"Stunning Report: "Stand Your Ground" Laws Responsible for eliminating 500-700 Murders Murderers Per year"

There... fixed it

[jdege]

responsible for a drastic increase in the number of homicides nationwide each year.

Except, of course, that the homicide rate has dropped by half in the last fifteen years.

[MrB]

Murder has a specific definition, it means the intentional killing of an innocent person.

The left would LOVE for it to be illegal to defend yourself.

[oh8eleven]

'Stand your Ground' laws are actually responsible for a drastic increase in the number of homicides nationwide each year.
If this is true, then 500-700 bad guys died instead of 500-700 good guys.
I can live with that.

[tacticalogic]

"While castle doctrine law may well have benefits to those protecting themselves in self-defense (meaning the individual cases where a person uses a weapon to deter a specific crime), there is no evidence that the law provides positive spillovers by deterring crime more generally," they say."

That it benefits those protecting themselves in self-defense should be enough.

[bboop]

I want to know how much money Stand Your Ground laws have saved the states, prison systems, feds, etc. And how many innocent lives have been saved.

I think it should read, “500-700 criminals killed as citizens self-protect, saving the justice system zillions of dollars annually. Second Amendment groups honored.”

[TurboZamboni]

here in MN, that’s around 40k per year.

It’d be cheaper to buy the murderer a house with inoperable doors and windows.

[Dead Corpse]

Defensive use of force is ALWAYS ethical. You are preventing further harm being done to yourself, and to society at large.

Anyone suggesting otherwise is an active danger to our freedom. Period.

[dangus]

Actually, no. That’s not what the study claims.

“In fact, they say the response of criminals to the idea that the victim may be armed is to arm themselves as well, turning what otherwise would have been burglaries and robberies into homicides.”

Not saying I believe in their statistical manipulations; it just helps if we understand what the Left is saying.

[detective]

“We find the laws increase murder and manslaughter by a statistically significant 7 to 9 percent, which translates into an additional 500 to 700 homicides per year nationally in states which have adopted Castle Doctrine,” researchers Cheng Cheng and Mark Hoekstra of the Texas A&M University Department of Economics say in their report.

The report also shows an increase in what is termed ‘justifiable homicide’ by up to 50% annually. They say data released by the states showed a sharp increase in justifiable homicide in the years immediately after they approved Stand Your Ground laws.”

The “study” is just a correlation not an analysis of actual homicides and how they relate to the stand your ground laws. Correlation does not prove causality, there are probably many other factors influencing the data. The “study” also says justifiable homicide increased.

[SWAMPSNIPER]

There was a whole bunch of people needing to be shot that weren't getting shot before!

It might taper off when things get caught up!

[liberalh8ter]

So, if we take out 500 to 700 criminals every year, we can soon reduce our costs of housing, feeding and entertaining them in prisons. Win/win!

[mountainlion]

It seems to me that the FBI report said that homicide was down. Murder of homeowners by armed invasion seems to be down. It seems that these people want to give criminals the right to rob, rape and kill homeowners.