Giffords Criticizes Ohio Criminal Justice Committee for Pushing Dangerous Stand Your Ground Legislation

June 9, 2020 — Giffords, the gun violence prevention organization founded by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, released the following statement on the Criminal Justice Committee holding a hearing for HB 381, legislation that seeks to expand a stand-your-ground law in Ohio.

Statement from Molly Voigt, state legislative manager at Giffords:

“Proponents of ‘stand your ground’ laws claim they prevent crime. They don’t. Instead they have been used time and again to use deadly force against unarmed Black and Brown Americans. At a time when millions of Americans are protesting the harm our judicial system perpetuates on people of color, the Republican majority in Ohio wants to enable more violence by passing a law that allows people to shoot first on the mere perception of a threat. This action will put Ohioans at risk and turn dangerous situations into tragedies. We strongly condemn the Criminal Justice Committee for continuing to consider this extreme, lethal bill, and we will continue to fight to make sure it never becomes law.”

HB 381, supported by the gun lobby and its allies, allows a person to use deadly force in self-defense in public, even if that force can be safely avoided by retreating. 

Stand your ground laws have again become an area of focus following the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. White assailants have long used stand your ground laws—which generally allow a person to use force even if they could safely retreat from a conflict—to justify attacks against black victims. An analysis of Florida stand your ground cases found that a defendant is twice as likely to be convicted in a case that involves white victims compared to those involving non-white victims. Moreover, Stand Your Ground laws increase homicides rather than prevent them.

• The implementation of Florida’s stand your ground law was associated with a 32% increase in firearm homicide rates and a 24% increase in overall homicide rates.
• Importantly, researchers found that Florida’s stand your ground law increased both justifiable and unlawful homicide rates.
• The state’s stand your ground law had the largest negative impact on neighborhoods that initially had the lowest homicide rates before the law was enacted.
• In 79% of Florida Stand Your Ground cases, the assailant could have retreated to avoid the confrontation, and in 68% of cases, the person killed was unarmed.