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By Kaanita Iyer | CNN<\/strong><\/p>\n Amid a nationwide rise in homicides, a new study has found that \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws \u2014 which allow people to respond to threats with potentially lethal force without fear of criminal prosecution \u2014 are linked to increased homicide rates, amounting to hundreds of additional deaths per year.<\/p>\n States saw an average increase of 8-10% in monthly homicides between 1999 and 2017 after the enactment of such laws, according to the study published Monday in JAMA Network Open, a peer-reviewed journal.<\/p>\n \u201cStand your ground\u201d laws garnered national attention in the wake of Trayvon Martin\u2019s death in 2012. George Zimmerman shot Martin but was acquitted on second-degree murder charges in part because he claimed self-defense under Florida\u2019s law. Saturday marks 10 years since Martin\u2019s death.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is consistent evidence that the laws are potentially hazardous,\u201d said David Humphreys, an associate professor at University of Oxford who co-authored the study. \u201cPart of the justification of these laws is that they can be useful in helping people protect themselves and improving public safety more generally, and we just don\u2019t see any evidence of that.\u201d<\/p>\n The trend was particularly stark in southern states, with Alabama and Florida seeing a jump in firearm homicides by 33% and 30%, respectively, and others also seeing double-digit increases.<\/p>\n While researchers did not find a significant decrease in deaths related to \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws in any states, Arizona, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia did not have a significant increase either.<\/p>\n The study examined homicide data between 1999 and 2017 from 24 states that implemented \u201cstand your ground\u201d laws until 2016. \u201cNo states had significant reductions in violent deaths, as advocates often argue when justifying these laws,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n Some self-defense laws say that a person under threat of physical injury has a \u201cduty to retreat\u201d before using deadly force, if it\u2019s safe to do so. In a \u201cstand your ground\u201d state, someone facing an imminent threat can use lethal force right away if they are threatened with death or serious injury \u2014 without first trying to escape.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to encourage people to walk away before using lethal force, and when you remove that as a requirement \u2026 there\u2019s going to be a greater likelihood that people will resort to lethal force,\u201d said Thaddeus Hoffmeister, a criminal law professor at University of Dayton School of Law.<\/p>\n Florida was the first state to enact a \u201cstand your ground\u201d law in 2005, and at least 27 other states have since implemented similar laws, according to the National Conference of States Legislatures. Eight additional states allow use of deadly force in self-defense through judicial decisions and a federal bill was introduced in December by Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Florida, to establish the \u201cNational Stand Your Ground Act.\u201d<\/p>\n Proponents, including the National Rifle Association, say such laws allow people to protect themselves. Critics say they encourage violence and justify racial profiling.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople like to say that they\u2019re colorblind, but I have yet to really meet that individual,\u201d Hoffmeister said. \u201cIf you associate someone\u2019s race with more violence, or more or you associate them with a criminal activity, you\u2019re more likely to use violence in a in a situation that you think things could get physical.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoffmeister and other critics are also concerned that these laws promote \u201cvigilante justice.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat these laws are saying now though is, don\u2019t walk away, don\u2019t get police involved, solve it yourself,\u201d Hoffmeister said. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t know if you want a society that encourages people to resort to lethal force when they don\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n