I hate having to expend energy to keep from going backwards.
There are so many examples of backlash that make this true. Just a few recent ones: book-bannings and burnings, increasingly overt attempts to privatize schools, and the now openly acknowledged connection between limiting abortion rights and contraception rights.
When Stand Your Ground laws began to be passed (first in Florida), it was so obvious they would not increase safety, as claimed by proponents, that it seemed ridiculous to have to prove it. But first one law passed, and then another.
Now here we are a decade and more later and someone has analyzed results from states that passed SYG laws. And guess what?
No state that passed one has experienced a decreased gun homicide rate, and many of the states that passed one experienced a substantial increase in gun homicides.
This was predictable to (and predicted by) anyone except those who won’t believe it, despite proof.
On average, SYG laws were associated with an 11% increase in monthly firearms homicides, with the highest rates in the earliest-adopting states, which were also Southern states.
I'm glad this research exists, but I'm tired of having to allow public policy to go into effect to prove an obviously bad policy shouldn't be made a law.
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