Florida's Stand your Ground law

There is your problem, you cant read the data. This poll indicates that Americans are evenly split on our support of stand your ground laws, and this is AFTER the Martin/Zimmerman case has been hotly debated for weeks.

in any case, does anyone know what similar surveys showed a year ago?

Up to 54.5% of poll voters support "stand your ground" laws, while 38.8% area against the legalized use of lethal force in self-defense.

Finally, 35.4% of poll respondents believe that George Zimmerman, the shooter in the Trayvon Martin case, should be charged with murder; 28.9% believe manslaughter charges should be brought against him, while a sizeable 35.7% believe he should not be charged at all.

This poll was conducted online among 1,572 adults nationwide. After the poll was completed, the data was processed through a weighting program to insure that the sample reflects the overall population in terms of age, race, gender, political party, and other factors. The processing step is standard among polling agencies and is necessary because different segments of the population may answer more than others

Two thirds of Americans (68%) support the law passed by the Florida Legislature in 2005

If you think that Americans support efforts to repeal stand you ground laws then now would be the time to show some evidence.

Without SYG laws what will happen to someone who has a clear cut case of self defense?
Will they have to be arrested and treated like a criminal?

I hang up on pollsters. They do not report my thinking at all.

They will claim self defense, just as they did before these laws were on the books.
People have always had the ability to defend themselves,
they just had to try to get away first unless they were in their home.

With SYG, they are no longer required to avoid anything.

Do you ever wonder why there was a need to change the law?

Were there a great many cases of people who
were arrested and tried for defending themselves in public?

I have. And from what I can find in Florida, there were not.

What happened to them in the United States in the years before SYG?

Who came up with the idea that SYG was necessary
(a really interesting question that Free Duck has provided some information about)?

Plenty of Florida Democrats are saying, "We told you so" and calling for repeal of the "stand your ground" law in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford,but not Florida Democratic Chairman Rod Smith. Smith, a former prosecutor, actually co-sponsored the bill as a state Senator in 2005. He can't see how it could used to in defense of the Sanford shooter, volunteer neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman.

"I've tried and defended stand your ground cases, and I've prosecuted murder cases," Smith said. "This individual (Zimmerman), as I understand the facts, moved the ground toward the confrontation. That's not a stand your ground defense. Unless there are facts that I'm not aware of, I think you'll see an arrest made...It's hard to believe that someone was not arrested that night."

Stand your ground passed the Florida senate unanimously in 2005, though Democrats in the Florida House warned that it could lead to severe unintended consequences.

Smith said he still supports the law: "I did not believe then, and I still have a real concern why we should put a duty to retreat on a victim. If you were genuinely defending yourself, why did you have to retreat when you were not the perpetrator?"

One-on-one shooting cases without witnesses can always pose challenges for prosecutors, Smith said, but the objective evidence appears compelling in this case: "We're talking about a young man shot point blank at close range after you've been told not to pursue him - and no evidence that this young man was doing anything inappropriate...Is it reasonable to believe the smaller person attacked the larger? The younger versus the older? The unarmed versus the armed?"

Smith said he'd be the first to support revamping the law if it turns out to be helping people get away with crimes, but that state leaders should hold off on reviewing it until the Zimmerman case is is concluded and the facts are out.

youll never convince me that most of the gun deaths in the 1800's were "self defense". Gun fights were part of public debate ad duels were occurences that were'nt infrequent.
In my home city of Allentown Pa, the gunfights reported in newspapers morgues were common and ALlentown was Not especially a crime ridden city.