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‘Stand your ground’ laws tied to rise in self-defense killings

Trayvon Martin case highlights growing concern

By Dan Eggen

 |  Washington Post  

  April 15, 2012

In Florida and across the country, “Stand Your Ground’’ laws - the same kind of legislation that authorities cited for not arresting a neighborhood-watch volunteer after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was killed in Florida in February - have coincided with a sharp increase in justifiable-homicide cases. No long-term studies definitively tie the rise in justifiable killings to the passage of laws that relieve citizens of the responsibility to back away from threats. But the Florida shooting has sparked new questions about whether such laws go too far.

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