At Least 26 Children Or Teens Died In Florida Stand Your Ground Cases

[diabeticman]

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/02/05/3252511/jordan-davis-26-children-teens-died-florida-stand-ground-cases/



Michael Dunn stands trial this week for the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis after Dunn complained that Davis was playing loud music. Dunn is expected to raise the defense that gained notoriety after the death of Trayvon Martin, Stand Your Ground. (If Martin were still alive, he would turn 19 today.)

Martin and Dunn are two of at least 26 children and teens who have died in Florida Stand Your Ground cases. Stand Your Ground laws that have proliferated in at least 20 states are associated with vigilantism, authorizing violence by individuals who perceive a “reasonable” imminent threat to their life, without any duty to attempt retreat. But they have also taken the lives of a dramatic number of young victims. Out of 134 fatal Florida cases analyzed by the Tampa Bay Times in which the Stand Your Ground defense was raised or played a role, 19 percent saw the deaths of children or teens. Another 14 involved victims were 20 or 21. And another 8 teens were injured in nonfatal cases. The Tampa Bay Times last updated its database last year, and there have likely been more such deaths since.

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[Walk away]

1. These laws are a national disgrace.

They amount to giving violent, cowardly people the right to shoot and kill anyone they are frightened of or even just dislike. Bigotry and stupidity become a free pass to murder. The fact that young people are so often the victims is appalling.

[Vattel]

2. SYG laws suck, but they don't seem to apply to the Zimmerman or Dunn cases.

If Zimmerman was attacked by Martin as he claims, then he had no opportunity to retreat.

The Dunn case is less clear, but if Dunn's story is true, then it is not clear that he had an opportunity to retreat either.

I am not saying that Zimmerman's or Dunn's story is true. I don't pretend to know.

[BrotherIvan]

3. "...without any duty to attempt retreat"

Just shoot.

The Nunn guy said he always had a loaded pistol in his glove compartment. Why? Because he was afraid. Afraid of his own shadow. Afraid of all the scary stories he heard on the news, sensationalized to keep Americans in fear. Fear sells guns.

Gun nuts love to tell us that crime is down. They think it's because criminals are afraid of the armed populace. And yet they show their paranoia by not believing their own statistic. But I need guns to protect myself! Afraid of every dark street. Afraid of every dark skin.

But why should their paranoid fear equal a license to kill?

[Boom Sound 416]

4. I guess it's notable only when it's biracial

[napkinz]

5. kick

nt