Gun Control & RKBA

It may be argued that the increase in homicides might largely be driven by killings that are justified by the SYG laws, i.e., deaths that occur while law-abiding citizens are protecting themselves from intruders or attackers, and that this should not be viewed as a negative outcome. It is indeed possible that additional homicides associated with the SYG law may partly be driven by the killings of assailants. However, note that the net rise in homicides cannot be accounted by a one-to-one substitution between the killings of assailants and the killings of victims unless multiple assailants are killed in some instances (Cheng and Hoekstra, 2012). If at least some of the additional homicides are due to individuals resorting to the use of deadly force against each other in situations where the threat of death or serious bodily injury is not imminent to either party, this could indicate that these laws impose serious costs not only on criminals both also private citizens as well.

In our opinion, it is the provision of “no duty to retreat at any place a person has a legal right to be” that is the controversial aspect of these laws and also the one that has received much of the attention recently. In fact, the other provisions like no duty to retreat at home, also known as the Castle Doctrine, have been part of the common law for decades almost everywhere and individuals have rarely been prosecuted for using deadly force in self-defense in their homes.

There have also been examples cited in support of the desirable impact of these laws. For example, a woman with a known history of prostitution killed a client with his own gun when he had threatened to kill her. The murder charge against the woman, who could have been prosecuted under the old law, was dropped because of Florida’s newly enacted SYG law (Lake, 2006).

The average monthly homicide counts are 16.8 in non-SYG states and 24.2 in SYG states. The homicide rate is also higher among SYG states with 0.375 deaths per month per 100,000 residents deaths compared to non-SYG states, which have an average homicide rate of 0.292 per month per 100,000 residents. Of the 6,732 state-month-year observations, 729 (10.8 percent) are zeros due to no homicides committed during those months. The largest homicide count is observed in California, a non-SYG state, with 198 deaths in September 2002. The largest number of homicides among our SYG states was observed in Texas in May 2009 with 106 homicides. If we consider homicide rates per population rather than homicide counts, then the largest homicide rate was observed in District of Columbia, again a non-SYG state, in July 2002 with 2.27 homicides per 100,000 residents. Among the SYG states, the largest homicide rate was in Louisiana in July 2009 with 0.66 homicides per 100,000 residents. Table 2 also shows that SYG and non-SYG states differ in several observable characteristics. In particular, SYG states have a higher percentage of black population, more likely to have a Republican governor, a higher incarceration rate and a larger number of law enforcement agents. These states also tend to be more urban, and have a higher poverty rate.