Stand your ground rule
Julio Martinez
ITT Technical Institute
Mr. Horne

Abstract A "stands your ground" law states that a person may use deadly force in self-defense without the duty to retreat when faced with a reasonable perceived threat. So what's the problem with this law, it seems that since the shooting of Trayvon Martin this law got put in the spot light, or is it racial profiling. Can the press play a big part on how this law is being criticize or are they using these shooting for rating.

Stand your ground rule
So what is the stand your ground rule? A “stands your ground” law states that a person may use deadly force in self-defense without the duty to retreat when faced with a reasonable perceived threat. The laws expand on the “Castle doctrine,” which says that a person is protected under the law to use deadly force in self-defense when his or her property or home is being invaded.
About sixty percent of the states have some kind of “Castle doctrine” or “stand your ground”. So what’s the problem with this law, it seems that since the shooting of Trayvon Martin this law got put in the spot light. Are we the people abusing this law or are we just ignorant to the law. So is this law case in particular out in the spot light because of a young black man been shot or because the shooting was wrongful. What about Jordan Davis? Did Michael Dunn have the right to shot Jordan Davis in self-defense? Did he deserve to die because of loud music? So here we have a law design to protect you or your home, and Michael Dunn try to justified self-defense at a gas station over some loud music or was it just because he was racially prejudiced.
Let’s look at the Trayvon Martin shooting. Although Zimmerman apparently perceived Martin as a threat, at the time of his death Martin had no weapon but was instead carrying a bag of Skittles candy and an iced tea. Still, new reports suggest that Martin and Zimmerman may have been involved in a scuffle before Zimmerman shot Martin. Zimmerman claimed he killed Martin in self-defense, and under Florida’s “stand your ground” law he was not arrested on the night of Martin’s death. So why did he not get arrested the night of the shooting? Was it because after the incident was released to the press about a white male shooting a young black man so it became a hate crime, or was it because the investigation determine that the use of deadly force was not justifiable. Some of the question that arises is: What was Trayvon Martin doing in that gated community? Why was a person on neighborhood watch carrying a gun? The truth is that we will never know what really happened that night, but what we do know is that the shooting of Trayvon Martin has trigger similar claims of self-defense.
Let’s look at Jordan Davis shooting, and let’s take race out of the question. Michael Dunn shot a young man over loud music. He claims that he was pumping gas in his truck when a sport utility vehicle pull over at the pump next to him, and the music was so loud that he couldn’t concentrate. So he claims to approach the vehicle and calmly asked them to lower the music, the young man reacted to the request, and the situation got out of control. Dunn claims that the young man had a weapon and was afraid for his life so he shot Davis, and still while the SUV drove away he continued to shot. So why keep shooting at a vehicle that’s driving away? and was loud music justifiable to the extent of a death sentence. Where is the threat in it? What it really comes down to is profiling, racism, lack of education, or just plain ignorance.
So why is it that we always see in the headlines all across the country, “Another black teenager shot by a white man”, so do we blame the press, racism, ignorance or the stand your ground rule. Is the press using color for ratings? Prime example is the young black man shot by the police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. The headlines read’s “The white cop who shot dead unarmed black teen”. It is sad when anybody’s life is taken away under any circumstance but does the press needs to blow it out of proportion, are they doing the responsible thing. If the press continues to approach this unfortunate events in a matter of ratings instead of informing, and educating we all are heading for some bad times. This type of reporting all is doing is creating a chain reaction as we are seeing now. So why when a young white man gets shot by a black man or by a cop it never makes nation news?
Who is Dillon Taylor? Dillon Taylor was a 20 year old young man that was shot by police in Salt Lake City on August 11, 2014 but this incident did not make national news, this young man was shoot outside a 7-Eleven convenience store, when a black police officer, whom local media are referring to as “not white,” shot and killed 20-year-old Dillon Taylor, who was unarmed at the time, according to his supporters. “Police said officers were responding to a report of a man “waving a gun around.” When officers arrived, they found three men leaving the convenience store, with one, later identified as Taylor, reportedly matching the description of the person reported in a 9-1-1 call. Witnesses say Taylor was wearing headphones at the time and may have been trying to pull his pants up when he was gunned down”. (Rush Limbaugh 2014). Why not try to get national attention on this incident? Did President Obama send four White House representatives to Dillon Taylor funeral? Enough said, race still has a huge influence in society, and the press knows it.
This great country is based on rights, and the freedom of speech but do we really lived by it. All of us need to understand that this law is not going away; we need to educate our self-first so we can pass this down to our children because they are the ones that have to deal with it, and they have to understand that we live with the fear of ignorant people carrying guns.
The argument behind the law was that civilians have the right to use force rather than to evade or retreat when in danger making self-defense a good strategy in court where we all know it goes overboard. It is simple we need to educate our self’s specially our children, we to learn that is easier to walk away than to get shot, unfortunate that’s the world that we live in and we just need to adapt to it. We need to stop blaming race for what happens when the real blame is education, and bad press.
I hope that we all can see what is really happening; we are not to blame the stand your ground rule, this law has nothing to do with the press taking advantage of color for ratings.

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