Stand Your Ground Doesn't Give You Anything
In this training scenario, everyone is legally in a place they are entitled to be. At first.
The man on the right quickly turned this into a textbook example of self-defense in public,
subject to stand your ground concepts. Image: Gunsite.com
Not too long ago, I was watching the new-ish Cape Fear production. I’m referring to the series, not the original movie.
First and foremost, allow me to do you a favor. If it’s on your “to watch” list, save yourself. I found it comically over-the-top melodramatic. Your mileage may vary. But I’d recommend reading a book or conditioning your corneas with a belt sander instead. Both will be more productive and less painful.
There was one nugget of value in the series. Let’s just say one of the main soap opera characters catches a couple in his backyard pool, just making themselves at home. After some verbal tough-guy back-and-forth, our hero, homeowner and apparently ignorant super-lawyer Tom has this exchange with the pool invader.
• Tom: “I’m Tom.”
• Intruder Tom: “There must be two Toms then, and you aren’t even using the pool.”
• Tom: “This is a stand-your-ground state.”
• Intruder Tom: “I guess we’ll have to see about that.”
Sigh… Yeah, I know, it’s Hollywood, and nothing makes those idiots more giddy than misrepresenting self-defense rights and suggesting stand-your-ground laws provide a free license to go around shooting people. However, if you spend a few minutes perusing crime and self-defense topics on social media, you’ll find more than your fill of tough talk just like this.
A Simple and Misunderstood Concept
Here’s what makes the tough talk so ridiculous. Stand your ground adds nothing to your legal rights. It only subtracts a potential obligation.
We can describe the principle as the “to go” version of the Castle Doctrine.
As a quick refresher, the Castle Doctrine dates back to English Common Law. “A man’s home is his castle.” Extend that to practical daily life, and home is the place where you can expect to be safest. Keep going with the logic, and you arrive at the principle that you have no legal obligation to retreat from danger in your own home. It’s your safe place, and you’re allowed to defend yourself in it. Sounds like common sense, right? Imagine that.
In this coffee shop training scenario, a quick, defensive exit was the right move
but a self-defense response could have applied as well, not yet knowing what it outside the door.
Image: Gunsite.com
Stand your ground simply takes that concept on the road. If you’re somewhere you’re legally allowed to be, and someone attacks you, escape is not your primary legal obligation. Getting away may still be the smartest tactical move, and often is. But the law doesn’t require it of the victim before they’re permitted to fight back.
That’s it. The whole thing. It removes some of the second-guessing by Monday morning quarterbacks who get infinite time and perfect hindsight to imagine all the clever ways you might have escaped, while you had a split-second to determine your response.
What It Doesn't Change
Now for the part Hollywood (and many others) skips.
Self-defense law asks you to clear several hurdles before force is justified. Period. No exceptions. States word them differently, but they shake out about the same everywhere:
• Innocence. You didn’t start the incident. You did not pick the fight, escalate the argument or go looking for trouble. You cannot be the aggressor.
• Imminence. The threat is happening right now. Threats made “the other day” do not count. If you’re not at risk right then, “self-defense” is a tough claim to prove in court.
• Proportionality. The force you use matches the threat you face. Deadly force requires a potential deadly threat.
• Avoidance. Could you have safely gotten out of there instead? This one varies a lot, so be aware of your specifics.
• Reasonableness. Would a reasonable person in your shoes, knowing what you knew at that moment, have seen things the same way?
Stand your ground erases exactly one line on that list. Avoidance. That’s the entire scope of it.
Innocence, imminence, proportionality and reasonableness don’t move an inch. Every one of them still has to be satisfied, and a prosecutor may explore each one in front of a jury. Stand your ground does not lower any bar. It doesn’t grant permission to shoot strangers in public. It doesn’t let you pick a fight and then claim protection under self-defense law. And it does nothing whatsoever for a guy running his mouth at two trespassers in a swimming pool, because nobody in that scene faces an imminent threat of death or great bodily harm, at least not at that moment. Cape Fear Tom’s problem is that he’s not in a self-defense situation at all, so stand your ground means nothing.
Dark parking lot defensive encounter? As long as the "defensive" requirements are satisfied,
protection under stand your ground principles allows you to make the best decision for the circumstance.
Image: HK-USA.com and WOFT.com
Read the Actual Words
The statutes are plain on the subject. Here’s Florida, the state that gets blamed for inventing stand your ground:
A person is justified in using or threatening to use deadly force if he or she reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony. A person who uses or threatens to use deadly force in accordance with this subsection does not have a duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be.
Right up front, the wording lays out the entire justification test. Only then does the second sentence remove the retreat requirement, and only for someone acting “in accordance with” that test. If the first sentence doesn’t pass muster, the second one never applies.
Georgia is even more direct about it:
A person who uses threats or force in accordance with Code Section 16-3-21 … has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and use force as provided in said Code sections, including deadly force.
The whole statute is a cross-reference. It does nothing on its own. It simply points back to Georgia’s ordinary self-defense law and removes one requirement for people already operating inside it.
Even in a legal-to-carry privately owned space, like this training scenario convenience store,
stand your ground can apply if all the other boxes are checked. Image: Gunsite.com
Texas builds the conditions right into the sentence:
A person who has a right to be present at the location where the deadly force is used, who has not provoked the person against whom the deadly force is used, and who is not engaged in criminal activity at the time the deadly force is used is not required to retreat before using deadly force as described by this section.
Three qualifiers before a duty to retreat is mentioned. Lawfully present, didn’t provoke it, not committing a crime.
I picked three at random, but notice what’s missing from all of them: a clause authorizing anything. There is no expansion of when you may use force, no relaxed standard for what counts as a threat and no immunity for being the guy who escalated. Every one of them assumes you’ve already met normal self-defense law requirements, then says the law won’t punish you for holding your position.
The man by the door is legally entitled to stand his ground if necessary, but he may also
have a quick exit if the situation at the counter escalates. Image: HK-USA.com and WOFT.com
The Bottom Line
The stand-your-ground concept says you have as much right as your attacker to stand around and mind your own business. If someone threatens you with imminent bodily harm, the law doesn’t obligate you to run first. Instead of a duty to retreat, you get a choice. Retreat if that’s the best option or fight if that’s the best option. You do you and solve the problem according to the circumstances you’re facing.
As always, research and understand the specific laws in your state with the utmost care and attention to detail. And if you ever find yourself announcing your legal doctrine out loud to a stranger, you’ve probably already lost your upcoming legal battle.
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