Then please educate us SYG ignoranuses, professor.
Sure, why not.I've posted it here before but I'll do your homework for you.
When you claim self defense, you are admitting to the underlying act, whether murder or assault or whatever. You are asserting that it was justifiable. Jurisdictions differ; some put the burden on you to prove it was justifiable, some on the state to disprove that it was justifiable. No matter which, there are common elements that must be met for it to be justifiable.
The 5 elements of self-defense are imminence, innocence, proportionality, avoidance, and reasonableness. Stand Your Ground only eliminates the avoidance element. The other 4 still must be true and it is far more complicated than just telling someone that you are afraid. In many jurisdictions, you can't just claim SYG, you have to have a SYG hearing to determine if it applies. It's certainly not the get out of jail free card that you are implying it is. Nor is it a "Make my Day" law. Read on for knowledge.
Imminence - This is saying the attack must be happening. If someone tells you they're going to beat the hell out of you next week, that is not imminent and you cannot claim self-defense if you kill them today. You have to be at imminent threat of grave bodily harm or death.
Innocence - This generally means that if you start a fight then you cannot claim self-defense. You can regain innocence if you start a verbal altercation and then someone tries to shoot you, but generally don't go looking for fights.
Proportionality - If a small woman slaps you across the face and you shoot her dead, you most likely are going to lose a self-defense claim. If someone sucker punches you and then gets on top of you and bangs your head into the sidewalk repeatedly, then you are probably going to pass the proportionality element when using a gun to defend yourself.
Avoidance - In some jurisdictions (very few now), you have a general duty to retreat if you are faced with an imminent threat of grave bodily harm or death, if there is a "safe" avenue of retreat. Stand Your Ground relieves you of the duty to retreat. This is important because "safe" avenues of retreat are subjective. Prosecutors around the country were abusing the ambiguity and convincing juries that people should retreat when doing so would've put them in more harm. Even if this one element is relieved, the rest must be true.
Reasonableness - You have to have a reasonable fear of grave bodily harm or death. Not reasonable to you, reasonable to an objective observer, such as a jury of your peers. So, it's not enough to simply say that you are afraid, your fear must be such that others would also be afraid. This protects against both the lying zealot/bigot/racist that you are worried about and also the paranoid person who's unreasonable fear drives them to murder.
This is just a very brief overview but one that most media (well people really) don't bother to learn. But knowing what is self-defense and what isn't can very much keep you out of jail for decades.
