After a series of highly publicized shootings in the US, Stand Your Ground laws, also called Shoot First laws, are back in the news.

Data from the Giffords Law Center shows that such laws are common in US states.

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As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, they specify People can use deadly force if they feel their life or health is threatened in a public place without the need to try to retreat.

According to Giffords, American law largely agrees that this is also the case for private property, for example, if a homeowner feels threatened by an intruder. In several other states that do not have Stand Your Ground laws, including California, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington, precedents exist that could influence how an assault, manslaughter, or murder case plays out after a trial has begun (while in Stand Your Ground states, the police might decide not to press charges based on these laws).

On April 13, black teenager Ralph Yarl was shot by a homeowner after going to the wrong address in Kansas City and was seriously injured. Andrew D. Lester, an 84-year-old white man, was charged with first-degree assault.

On April 17, Kaylin Gillis, a 20-year-old white woman, was fatally shot in upstate New York after the car she was riding in went into the wrong lane. The shooter, Kevin Monahan, 65, was charged with murder.

In another case where public area Stand Your Ground laws could apply, two cheerleaders were shot and wounded in Texas after one of them accidentally got into the wrong car in a supermarket parking lot after the his practice on April 18. However, the subject -25- year-old Pedro Tello Rodríguez Jr. has been charged with deadly conduct, meaning he used a weapon in a reckless, threatening or dangerous manner.

Although charges have been filed in all three cases, Stand Your Ground laws, as well as private property laws, also known as Castle Doctrine laws or Make My Day laws, could still influence these cases and , theoretically, they could see charges or cases dropped. won by the defendants.

However, in the Kansas City case, the prosecutor has said that the necessary preconditions for threatening behavior and self-defense were not met when Ralph Yarl was shot through the front door of the house. In the New York state case, the county sheriff said there was “no reason for Mr. Monahan to feel threatened, especially since the vehicle appeared to be driving away.” While no such information was available regarding the third case, the subject is said to have followed the two women to their car before shooting, likely exceeding the limits of Stand Your Ground legislation. What remains is the question of how the perceived rights under these types of laws and doctrines influence the apparently erratic behavior of shooters after what might be considered everyday confusion.

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