"Stand your ground" self-defense laws have been back in the news recently, although it is not clear why. That mystery highlights longstanding journalistic confusion on this subject, which misrepresents such laws as a license to kill anyone who looks at you cross-eyed.
"A string of recent shootings have put renewed attention on the self- defense laws often known as 'stand your ground' laws," NPR's Adrian Florido reports. "In the span of a week, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot twice after ringing the doorbell of the wrong house in the state of Missouri as he was trying to pick up his siblings. In upstate New York, Kaylin Gillis was shot and killed after her boyfriend pulled into the wrong driveway as they searched for a friend's home. And in Texas, two cheerleaders were shot after one accidentally got into a car that she thought was her own."