EDITORIAL: State doesn't need Stand Your Ground law – The Daily Gazette - The Daily Gazette

New York doesn’t need a law to make it easier for people to justify killing someone.

So let’s hope state lawmakers don’t waste their time on a law proposed by a western New York senator that would remove a citizen’s “duty to retreat” before resorting to force in a situation in which they feel their life might be threatened.

The proposal wouldn’t make anyone safer and could lead to an escalation of violence and preventable deaths.

The bill (A5269/S8026) is a version of the so-called “stand your ground” laws that allow people to kill someone when they believe their life is being threatened.

That sounds reasonable.

But in practice, the laws have been used to justify killings in which someone fears for their life because of the type of music the person is playing or when they’re approached by someone wearing clothing they consider threatening, such as a dark hoodie, even if that individual made no threatening gestures and wasn’t carrying a weapon.

It’s also been used as a cover for racial profiling and discrimination.

Proponents of stand your ground laws want the public to believe that you have to flee any situation in order to justify defending yourself. But that’s not what the statute says about the obligation to retreat.

Under state Penal Law Section 35.15, an individual feeling threatened may not use deadly physical force “if he or she knows that with complete personal safety, to oneself and others he or she may avoid the necessity of so doing by retreating.”

In all other circumstances in which there’s no way to safely retreat, you’re perfectly entitled to defend yourself under the law, as long as you “reasonably believe” the other person “is using or about to use deadly physical force.”

Why wouldn’t anyone at least try to flee or get to a safe location or remove one’s self from a situation before pulling the trigger?

There’s another misunderstanding people have about the duty to retreat: The duty to retreat doesn’t apply when you’re in your home and an intruder enters.

As long as you’re not the initial aggressor, you don’t have to wait around for an intruder to hunt you down in order to justify protecting yourself and your family.

Since this new bill would have no impact on the right to protect yourself in your home, it’s not needed.

Given all the bad, and mostly false, publicity surrounding the state’s bail reform laws, and given the rise in violence during the pandemic, it’s reasonable for people to want more protections in place to help them defend themselves.

But New Yorkers are already entitled to defend themselves, inside and outside their homes, without needing an extra right to kill when they don’t actually need to.

The potential problems with a law like this far outweigh the potential benefits.

State lawmakers should seek out more effective ways to reduce crime and gun violence than this.

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Categories: Editorial, Opinion

source: https://dailygazette.com/2022/02/02/editorial-state-doesnt-need-stand-your-ground-law/

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