New Study Finds ‘Stand your Ground’ Laws Linked To 11% Spike In U.S. Gun Homicides
Researchers say state-level “stand your ground” laws “should be reconsidered to prevent unnecessary violent deaths.”
Such laws are associated with hundreds of additional homicides each year in the U.S., according to new research by public health scholars.
The study was published Monday in JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed medical journal.
It compares homicide trends in roughly two dozen states with stand-your-ground laws between 2000 and 2016.
It also examined patterns from 18 states that didn’t have such laws during the study period.
Researchers found stand your ground laws were associated with an 8% to 11% national increase in monthly firearm homicide rates, causing 58 to 72 more deaths per month.