COLUMBUS, Ohio -
A group of black state lawmakers is joining community and faith leaders in Ohio to deliver petitions asking Gov. John Kasich and Republican legislative leaders not to enact a stand-your-ground gun law.
The Ohio Black Legislative Caucus and its partners delivered 10,000 signatures and eight city resolutions Wednesday.
The Ohio bill introduced in June would allow people to use force to defend themselves without having a duty to retreat first.
Lisa Ho, Asst. Chaplain at Ohio Wesleyan University said she believes the motivation behind stand-your-ground laws is fear.
"They have created a narrative around the idea that we are not safe and that we need to protect ourselves and it's really putting that back in the hands of citizens who I believe just aren't prepared to deal with crisis situations," Ho said. "All of us need to stand up and say this is not OK and that it doesn't really give us what we're looking for in terms of safer communities."
Debate over such measures has increased since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed black teen Trayvon Martin in Florida. MORE from NBC4i
No where in this bill does it say KILL THE FIRST BLACK PERSON THAT SCARES YOU, GET OVER YOURSELVES
As Introduced
|
|
Stand your ground impacts
When compared to the overall national trend, most states’ crime rates have remained steady, with a few rising, relative to the national average.
North and South Dakota both have seen their crime rates increase since passing their version of the stand-your-ground law.
North and South Dakota both have seen their crime rates increase since passing their version of the stand-your-ground law.
And the crime rates in Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma and West Virginia also did not decrease as rapidly as the nationalaverage, since passing their version of the law.
Cheng and Hoekstra argue that the introduction of these laws has led to a “statistically significant 8 percent net increase in the number of reported murders and non-negligent manslaughters.”
The economists argue that the adjustments made by these laws essentially “reduce the expected cost of using lethal force,” and that “lowering the threshold for the justified use of lethal force results in more of it.”
The economists argue that the adjustments made by these laws essentially “reduce the expected cost of using lethal force,” and that “lowering the threshold for the justified use of lethal force results in more of it.”
Cheng and Hoekstra’s conclusion that the law does not have a desirable impact is backed up by a study by economists from Georgia State University and a 2007 study by the National District Attorneys Association.
State violent crime rates vs national average
But John R. Lott, Jr., president of the Crime Prevention Research Center and author of More Guns, Less Crime, argues that African Americans, women, and the elderly are most likely to benefit from stand-your-ground laws. Lott also says that the 9 states with what he classifies as stand-your-ground laws show a nine percent decrease in in the murder rate, and an 11 percent decrease in overall crime.
While the Stanford Law Review concluded that stand-your-ground states have seen a temporary increase in aggravated assaults, their study stresses that available crime data is not suitable for drawing sweeping conclusions.
Arizona’s crime rate has decreased about 25 percent since former Gov. Janet Napolitano signed Arizona’s stand-your-ground law in 2006. That’s just slightly more than the national average, which came down about 19 percent during the same period.
The crime rate in Arizona’s, mirroring the national trend, has dropped about 50 percent since 1992, at the height of a violent crime rate swell that began in the late 1960s.
Violent crime rates over time
Click here to see large versions of these charts
— Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, “Does Strengthening Self-Defense Law Deter Crime or Escalate Violence? Evidence from Expansions to Castle Doctrine” by Cheng Cheng and Mark Hoekstra, Texas A&M University Department of Economics
— Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, “Does Strengthening Self-Defense Law Deter Crime or Escalate Violence? Evidence from Expansions to Castle Doctrine” by Cheng Cheng and Mark Hoekstra, Texas A&M University Department of Economics
No comments:
Post a Comment