Defenders of Stand Your Ground laws and other efforts to expand gun rights have for years invoked female victims to justify them. The scenario of a woman shooting a rapist as a rationale for broader gun rights is a recurring one, particularly since the killings of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis in Florida have cast Stand Your Ground laws in particular in a harsh light.
“Calls to repeal ‘Stand Your Ground’ are anti-woman. Imposing a duty-to-flee places the safety of the rapist above a woman’s own life,” wrote a pair of Florida lawmakers in 2012. Or as NRA President Wayne LaPierre has explained it, “The one thing a violent rapist deserves to face is a good woman with a gun.”
But as Marissa Alexander faces a possible 60-year sentence in Florida for what she called a warning shot fired against her abusive husband – and on Friday filed a request for a new Stand Your Ground immunity hearing – it’s clear the definition of “a good woman with a gun” doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone. And according to a new analysis of FBI homicide data, race plays a disproportionate role.
The analysis was prepared by the Urban Institute at msnbc’s request. It used national data on homicide cases that were found “justifiable” – generally, those in which no charges were brought, on the grounds that deadly force was appropriate.
Among cases nationwide where a woman killed an adult man, white women who killed black men were most likely to be found justified, at 13.5 percent of the cases, the data found. By contrast, just 2.6 percent of white women who killed white men, and 5.7 percent of black women who killed black men were found to be justified. (Most killings happen between people of the same race.)
“In any situation where a black male is perceived as being the aggressor, you are much more likely to have the homicide considered justifiable,” said John Roman, senior fellow at the Urban Institute, who analyzed the data for msnbc. “If they’re involved in a homicide, the finding is likely going to go against them.”
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