Florida’s new open carry law combines with ‘stand your ground’ to create new freedoms – and new dangers
Florida’s new open carry law combines with ‘stand your ground’ to create new freedoms – and new dangers
Florida’s new open carry ruling combines with ‘stand your ground’ to create new freedoms – and new dangers
Evidence shows that 20 years on, Florida’s stand your ground law hasn’t made communities in the state any safer.
Twenty years ago, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the first “stand your ground” law, calling it a “good, common-sense, anti-crime issue.”
The law’s creators promised it would protect law-abiding citizens from prosecution if they used force in self-defense. Then-Florida state Rep. Dennis Baxley, who cosponsored the bill, claimed – in the wake of George Zimmerman’s controversial acquittal for the killing of Trayvon Martin – that “we’re really safer if we empower people to stop violent acts.”