How Shoot First laws are contributing to more deaths in the USA
Shoot First laws allow a person to use deadly force in a confrontation without any duty to retreat, even when they can do so safely.
Shoot First laws allow a person to kill another person in a public area, even when they could have clearly and safely de-escalated the confrontation by retreating, upending traditional self-defense law. Under traditional self-defense law, a person can use force to defend themself anywhere and at any time. When they are outside their home, however, they cannot use force that is likely to kill or seriously injure someone if there is a safe way to avoid it. Shoot First laws are often misrepresented as simple adjustments or codification of common law, but in reality, they aggressively alter criminal procedure in a way that makes it difficult for a person who invokes the law to be arrested, prosecuted, or convicted for using deadly force. In addition to these legal mechanisms, these laws distort the public perception of lawful self-defense and encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later.
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Traditional self-defense law already gives people the right to protect themselves. These laws only require a person to de-escalate a situation if there is a clear and safe way to do so; they do not require a person to attempt to de-escalate if doing so would put them in danger. In this way, traditional self-defense law respects both a person’s right to defend themself and the value of human life.
Shoot First laws, also known as Stand Your Ground laws, distort the public perception of lawful self-defense and encourage people to shoot first and ask questions later.
The distortion of self-defense law in the United States began in 2005 when the National Rifle Association (NRA) helped draft and pass Shoot First legislation in Florida in an attempt to make the purchase and use of guns more attractive. Later, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), backed by the gun lobby, adopted Florida’s legislation as a model for extending the reach of the law. Today, the NRA and ALEC have successfully promoted Shoot First legislation and seen it passed into law in 29 states.
Shoot First laws have deadly effects across the country.
In 2020, the RAND Corporation released a research review of the impact of various gun-related state policies and found that strong evidence linked Shoot First laws with an increase in firearm homicide rates. None of the research found that Shoot First laws prevent violent crime.
Instead, these laws are associated with an increase in homicide rates translating to 700 additional gun deaths each year in the US overall. A recent study comparing the five years before states began enacting these laws (2000–2004) to the 13-year period following their enactment (2005–2017), found justifiable firearm homicide rates increased by 55 percent in states that enacted Shoot First laws, while these rates increased by 20 percent in states that did not have such laws. During this latter period, overall homicide rates increased by 11 percent in Shoot First states yet decreased by 2 percent in states that did not have such laws.
At the state level, Shoot First laws have been associated with considerable increases in gun deaths, including unintentional deaths: 6 to 7 percent more gun deaths occurred in suburban counties, 12 and 8 percent more gun deaths occurred in urban counties in states that adopted these laws. Shoot First laws have also been associated with an increase in nonfatal firearm injuries resulting in emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Because Shoot First legislation leads to an increase in the number of gun deaths and injuries, these laws add to the financial toll of firearm violence in states that pass them. Each gun homicide, for example, costs taxpayers $688,600 on average, covering expenses related to police response, criminal justice, and healthcare. Families and communities bear a heavier burden, enduring losses in income and quality of life exceeding $7 million per gun homicide.
Shoot First laws, also known as Stand Your Ground laws, have a disproportionate impact on people of color.
Across all states, homicides in which white shooters kill Black victims are deemed justifiable far more frequently than when the situation is reversed. In Shoot First states, these homicides are deemed justifiable five times more frequently than when the shooter is Black and the victim is white. Controlling for other factors — such as who initiated the confrontation and whether or not the victim was armed — Florida Shoot First cases involving minority victims are half as likely to lead to conviction, compared to cases involving white victims.
It is no accident that white people who shoot and kill Black people out of fear are frequently given immunity through Shoot First laws. We know that in this country, minorities are implicitly associated with crime and danger. Since Shoot First laws permit people to shoot and kill others based on a perceived threat, it follows that individuals in Shoot First states would be more likely to avoid culpability for murder if their victim was a person of color.
Shoot First laws were created by the gun lobby to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
People with a legitimate reason to defend themselves are already fully protected under traditional self-defense law. What’s more, research shows that the average person is extremely unlikely to ever be in a situation where they would need to use a gun to defend themself in the first place.
Impact of Florida’s Shoot First Law
In 2005, Florida adopted its Shoot First law. This law is the blueprint for the Shoot First laws subsequently passed in dozens of states. It has garnered significant media attention and has been extensively studied. Florida now serves as a cautionary tale of the inherent dangers of Shoot First laws and the means by which these laws become licenses to kill.
Florida’s Shoot First law has increased both the state’s overall homicide and firearm homicide rates.
The implementation of Florida’s Shoot First law was associated with significant increases in both monthly homicide rates (24 percent) and an even larger increase in monthly firearm homicide rates (32 percent). This included a 75 percent increase in monthly justifiable homicide rates and an estimated 22 percent increase in monthly unlawful homicide rates after the passage of Florida’s Shoot First law. Additionally, the law had the most negative impact on counties that initially had the lowest homicide rates prior to the law’s enactment. This impact included significant increases in homicide rates in suburban communities.
The effect of the state’s Shoot First law is felt across demographics of age and race.
Florida’s Shoot First law was associated with a 45 percent increase in monthly firearm homicide rates among white residents and a 23 percent increase among Black residents. Young adults between the ages of 20 and 34 years were most impacted by the state’s Shoot First law compared to all other age groups, with a 36 percent increase in monthly firearm homicide rates following implementation of the law. Newer research has also found that the passage of these laws was associated with a 45 percent increase in quarterly rates of adolescent gun homicide driven by a 52 percent increase in the gun homicide rate among Black adolescents.
CASE STUDY
In Tallahassee, a man was involved in a shootout in which one person was shot and killed. Though the man had a history of violence, including six accusations of battery, prosecutors declined to pursue a murder conviction after he invoked the Shoot First law. Instead, they negotiated a guilty plea to carrying a gun unlawfully, resulting in an eight-year prison sentence.
Shoot First laws often protect people with violent backgrounds and encourage the escalation of violence in situations that could otherwise have been defused.
In Florida and across the country, Stand Your Ground laws embolden people to shoot first and ask questions later. In 57 percent of Florida Shoot First cases, there was clear evidence that the person who invoked the Shoot First law could have safely retreated to avoid the confrontation. In only 15 percent of the cases, the evidence clearly suggested that it might not have been safe to retreat to avoid the conflict. The victims of these disputes were unarmed in 63 percent of cases. And roughly three out of every five people in Florida claiming Shoot First had prior arrests before killing someone and invoking the law, with about a third of these defendants having previously been arrested for serious crimes like assault and robbery. Shoot First laws, also known as Stand Your Ground laws, as noted by the president of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, “provide safe harbors for criminals and prevent prosecutors from bringing cases against those who claim self-defense after unnecessarily killing or injuring others.”
