Castle Doctrine Essay

The Stand Your Ground Laws are becoming a hot topic in today’s news. Headlines are flooded with stories about cases around the country. These laws surround everyone from your everyday citizens to prominent sports figures and entertainers. The Stand Your Ground laws provide individuals with certain rights to protect themselves in events where they may feel threatened. It is also known as the Castle Rule, most of the United States have adopted some form of this law to protect its’ residents who may feel the need to use self-defense in situations where they may feel threatened. These laws spread quickly around the country since Florida passed the first laws in 2005. The law in most states would suggest that a person attempt to retreat

Though each state that has enacted this law has its own interpretations and specifications, the Stand Your Ground Law generally permits the use of deadly force when a person feels a threat of death, serious bodily harm, rape, kidnapping, and robbery in most states, even if there is an option of retreat. The current Stand Your Ground Law, passed by legislation in 2005, applies to public settings; the Castle Doctrine is basically a Stand Your Ground Law that applies to the defense of oneself in a private abode or home. States currently enacting this law include Florida, Alabama, Michigan, Indiana, Nevada, Utah, and 17 others. Stand your ground law provides legal protection for protecting oneself and property at all costs and prevents civil lawsuits.

The article “Shootings Test Limits of New Self-Defense Law” by Ralph Blumenthal tells the story of Joe Horn, a man in Texas, who shot two men in what he claimed was self-defense under the recently instated “castle doctrine.”

Firstly, what exactly is The Stand You Ground Law? The Stand Your Ground law is a law that expands the Castle Doctrine. For you who are not quite sure what the Castle Doctrine is I will explain. The Castle Doctrine which can also be identified as the make my day or castle law is a doctrine which allows individuals permission to use force, even deadly force to protect themselves against an invader within their home. Previously, as I stated, the Stand Your Ground Law is a law which expands off of the Castle Doctrine. For example, the Stand Your Ground Law provides a person the opportunity to protect themselves if they feel their life is in danger, however unlike the Castle Doctrine, a person can even protect themselves outside of their homes. The Stand Your

Other than a bodyguard or a law enforcement officer at one's side twenty-four hours a day, the most effective deterrent to criminal attack is the criminal's fear that the prospective victim is armed and prepared to defend themselves (Nisbet 14). Courts have ruled that there is no constitutional fight to be protected by the state against being murdered by criminals or madmen, which means that police have no duty to protect the individual citizen (Long 55).

This is the main reason why the government should not take away our guns, we have the right to have guns to prevent us from getting hurt by people with weapons. The government made this a law back in 1791, so almost 230 years ago this law was here in our great country of the United States of America. This is our right and it should be here to stay.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” –U.S. Constitutional Amendments

Most people would think that having a assault weapon will help protect their family. It will but it will cause even more problems because the person that killed the person breaking into you home that person will get in trouble because if he did not do anything first then it would not be self defense so that person will go to jail for murder.

unarmed residence. Having a firearm might not only scare a rapist or a home invader

(Lott 12) in the United States there are 80,000 to 82,000 defensive uses of guns during assaults, robberies and household burglaries. Out of the 1,000,000 times guns are used for defensive reasons in the world 400,000 of theses cases have saved lives or prevented lives from being taken. (Lott 2) The use of guns by law-abiding citizens may create a positive externality for others. Therefore, when a person is going to commit a unlawful act on someone they might be reluctant because they have no way of telling if they are carrying a weapon or not. Our country is very restrictive when granting the public to own or carry guns. Therefore, our government came up with the "Shall Issue" law, which prevents anyone to own, or posses guns that have a record of criminal injustices or a record of mental illness.

McMahan states that if gun ownership had the robust deterrent effects that supporters claim, we should expect the United States to have less crime than other developed societies, but he cites that the per capita homicide rates in the United States are higher than homicide rates in other Western countries. McMahan proposes that guns and their regulation will not be comparable to the attempted regulation of alcohol and drugs in the United States. He positions the use or desire to use alcohol and drugs does not depend on others, it is an internal desire. Contrarily, the desire to own a gun was positioned as being dependent on the actions of others. Despite all of this McMahan himself admits that a law prohibiting gun ownership could not be enforced with complete effectiveness, leaving the unarmed at the mercy of criminals who will always be armed. This results in the argument of self-defense and according to McMahan, the right of self-defense is derived from a more fundamental right, which he fails to elaborate on by instead stating that he believes the gun prohibition he proposes would eliminate only one effective means of self-defense.

To begin, what is the “Stand Your Ground Law”? Well many states such as: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia have stand your ground laws which state that individuals do not have to retreat before using force in a self- defense situation or many states have laws that are remarkably similar to stand your ground laws. Stand Your Ground laws started in 2005 when Florida was the first state that passed the stand your ground law which basically allowed individuals to stand their ground instead of fleeing or retreating if they believed

Some people think if they have a gun in their house, they will have a way of protecting themselves in case of an emergency, but while others who are against it believe it is a danger. For example, the gun could end up in the wrong hands, such as a young child. The Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States that governs the nation giving America the rights and freedom. In a different context, Professor Amar’s discussion of whether the right to keep and bear arms should be considered a “privilege or immunity” focuses on the Blackstonian notion of the rights of the individual. Liberties held at common law that fell within this concept of individual right constituted privileges or immunities. According to Blackstone, “personal security, personal liberty, and personal property” were the individual rights. Blackstone considered the right of self-preservation to be essential to individual liberty and, as such, the ultimate right. The individual right to “have arms” was essential to protect these rights (Blackman and Shapiro 79). The constitution gave people the right to own a gun, but others believe that we should not have that right. The American constitution quotes, “The Glucksberg test recognizes the right to keep arms for defense of person and property as a privilege or immunity

against the fear of crime. When protected by a gun, people often feel safer because if

At the same time, weapons can protect from crime. Police are equipped with guns. The military uses rifles and explosives to “secure the blessings of liberty.” And yes, weapons can be used to defend one’s self in their own home. The castle doctrine, more commonly known as the “Make My Day” law, states that if someone is attacked on their property, they may use deadly force to defend themselves. There was a road rage case in Florida where castle doctrine was used. A couple was driving and got into a minor car accident. The passengers of the other vehicle started to beat the woman’s boyfriend, and she stabbed them both in self-defense. Some witnesses declared that if the woman had not acted, her boyfriend would have been killed.