Laws are granting individuals a license to ‘kill now and ask questions later.’

Deaths occur every day in the United States. With the help of laws that don’t provide justice for victims, suspects are killing without fear of being punished.

Stand Your Ground laws have become the epitome of why we shouldn’t put so much trust into the legal system.

Right now the law is too broad and is commonly used to save the suspects in fatal situations. The language of the law should be changed to clearly define what a justified reason for using deadly force is.

The Stand Your Ground law, which varies among different states, generally implies that under certain circumstances individuals can use force to defend themselves, according to FindLaw.com. States with Stand Your Ground laws differ based on certain criteria and the duty to retreat.

In 2005, Florida became the first state to enact a Stand Your Ground law.

The Florida law states people are justified the use of deadly force and do not have a duty to retreat if the reasonably believe that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to themselves or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.

In Florida alone at least 26 children and teens and 134 individuals overall have died in Stand Your Ground cases, according to ThinkProgress.com.

Lethal force should be an absolute last resort that can be proven thoroughly.

Countless individuals have been able to walk away with murder because of Stand Your Ground laws.

The most publicized case being George Zimmerman, who received massive media attention after he shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in February 2012.

Regardless of the fact that Zimmerman is living free with no charges from that case, Martin is dead because of an incident that could’ve been prevented by so-called protection laws.

Stand Your Ground is allowing a potential increase in violence and wrongful deaths because of the flaws in the criteria.

More strict qualifications will make it easier to convict individuals for crimes that started because of ridiculous reasons.

Michael Dunn, 47, faces first-degree murder charges in the fatal shooting of 17-year-old Jordan Davis, according to Reuters. A dispute over loud music resulted in Dunn firing 10 shots, three of which hit Davis, at a car with four teenagers that was parked next to him at a gas station and convenience store in Jacksonville, Fla.

If Dunn is found guilty he faces up to life in prison, according to the article.  However, Dunn is claiming self-defense and using Florida’s Stand Your Ground law to protect him.

When dealing with fatalities that have happened with Stand Your Ground based cases, lawyers, judges and jurors can only make their decision based off evidence, witnesses, and what the defendant says.

The voice of the victim should be represented by the justice served to prosecute the suspect.

However, based off of the history and statistics there is no guarantee that justice will be served.

Stand Your Ground needs to be examined and edited in all states for the sake of society.

Laws like these, for example, will continue to reinforce the brutality of American society, which is driven by a fear of being ‘threatened’ by unarmed civilians. When people claim self-defense they already possess a pre-conceived notion of innocence.

President Obama called for a review of the Stand Your Ground laws during a press conference in July 2013, according to The Huffington Post. He said, “I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws . . . if we’re sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms, even if there’s a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we’d like to see?”

Continuing to encourage this disturbing behavior will only bring forth more questionable cases and cause problems.

It is critical that state and local laws like Stand Your Ground be addressed. In doing so, many deaths will be prevented and the individuals who are charged with a crime will be prosecuted.

-Chelsea Keyes is a sophomore communication major from Tacoma. She can be contacted at 335-2290 or by [email protected]. The opinions expressed in this column are not necessarily those of the staff of The Daily Evergreen or those of Student Publications.