Twenty years ago, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the first “stand your ground” law, calling it a “good, commonsense, 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.”
I’m a historian who has studied the roots of stand your ground laws. My ongoing research suggests that, 20 years on, they have not made communities any safer, nor have they helped prevent crime. In fact, there is reliable evidence they have done just the opposite.
And just this September, a Florida appellate court struck down the state’s long-standing ban on the open carry of firearms. This follows on the heels of a 2023 permitless carry law, allowing any adult without a criminal record to carry firearms publicly, without a permit or any training.
Research shows that this combination of stand your ground, open carry and permitless carry is likely to make the Sunshine State far less safe.
Stand your ground laws remove the duty to retreat, allowing people to use lethal force anywhere they have a legal right to be, if they believe it’s necessary to prevent death or serious harm.
On paper, the expansion of the right to self-defense may sound reasonable. But in practice, stand your ground laws have blurred the line between self-defense and aggression by expanding legal immunity for some who claim self-defense. Florida’s law places the burden of proof on prosecutors.
While supporters of these laws claim they mitigate crime and make people safer, evidence shows the opposite. The nonpartisan RAND Corp. discovered that states adopting stand your ground laws experienced significant increases in homicide, typically between 8% and 11% higher than before the laws took effect.
A study of violent crime in Florida revealed a 31.6% increase in firearm homicides following the 2005 passage of the stand your ground law. There is no credible evidence that these laws deter crime.
On the contrary, evidence shows that stand your ground laws lower the legal, moral and psychological costs of pulling the trigger.
A growing number of cases, such as the shootings of unarmed teenagers Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Renisha McBride and Ralph Yarl, illustrate how stand your ground transforms ordinary mistakes or misunderstandings into lethal outcomes, and how armed citizens’ claims of “reasonable fear” often reflect racial stereotypes more than objective threats.
What’s more, open carry increases the visibility — and perceived legitimacy — of guns in everyday life. When people are visibly armed, every encounter can look like a potential threat. And when the law tells you that you don’t have to back down, that perception can turn lethal in seconds.
Stand your ground laws have now spread, in various forms, to 38 states. On top of this, 29 states have enacted laws allowing permitless carry, and 47 technically allow open carry, though restrictions vary across the states.
President Donald Trump has made clear he wants to take this deregulatory approach nationwide. While on the campaign trail in 2024, he promised to sign a “concealed-carry reciprocity” law, which would require all states to respect the most permissive gun laws.
This prospect raises deep questions about states’ rights, safety and justice. Research shows that stand your ground laws increase homicide and exacerbate racial disparities. National reciprocity would export those effects nationwide.
The convergence of stand your ground, open carry and national reciprocity marks the culmination of a 20-year experiment in armed citizenship. The results are clear: more people armed, more shootings and more deaths “justified.”
The question now is whether the rest of the nation will follow Florida’s lead.
Caroline Light is a senior lecturer on studies of women, gender and sexuality at Harvard University. She is author of the 2017 book “Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense.” This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
