Florida's notoriety as the "shoot first" state grows by the day. As its citizens pull guns on one another at gas stations and on basketball courts, at birthday parties and in movie theaters, the perception grows that the state's 2005 "stand your ground" law made it a safe haven for killers. • But like many caricatures of the Sunshine State, this one is too simple. The truth is that Florida did not pioneer the controversial rules of justifiable homicide it adopted nine years ago — though the rules' effects here might serve as a warning for other states. • The debate over "stand your ground" laws has never been more urgent than in the last eight months, a period in which Florida juries have twice delivered verdicts in heavily publicized murder trials that ignited the scorn of gun control and civil rights activists.
The July 2013 acquittal of George Zimmerman and the conviction on lesser charges last month of Michael Dunn — each had fatally shot a black teenager — renewed criticism of the laws, which erased the duty to retreat from violent confrontations.
Critics as prominent as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder argue that such statutes, enacted by legislatures in Florida and 21 other states under pressure from the National Rifle Association, have emboldened gunmen and made it harder to bring them to justice once they are caught.
Some critics of Florida's law have also focused on its requirement that citizens must have a "reasonable belief" in a threat before using deadly force, not that the threat actually exist. But in this regard, Florida is even less of an outlier.
The idea that "reasonable belief" in a threat justifies homicide prevails throughout the country, according to legal experts. It is not, as some observers have claimed, carte blanche for killers to act on ungrounded fears, but a test of what an ordinary, rational person would do in the same circumstances.
