Currently, more than half of U.S. states have passed some form of stand-your-ground law. Those laws are associated with a roughly 8% increase in firearm homicides, according to a 2022 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Those are “deaths that could potentially have been avoided,” concluded the study’s co-authors, including Douglas Wiebe, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Alabama, Missouri, and Florida – all states with these laws – have seen homicide rates rise by about 30% in recent years.
Learn more about research on this policy in South Carolina.
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