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So before the Stand Your Ground law,
the rule was that if you wanted to defend yourself using
deadly force, and you were not in your own home,
you had a duty to retreat, or attempt to retreat,
before using that deadly force.
So what that meant was, if somebody attacked you,
before you could shoot them, or use some sort of deadly force
to defend yourself, you needed to attempt to get away first.
Now, of course, if you couldn't get away
without putting yourself in more danger,
you weren't required to do that.
But you had a duty to retreat in public.
In your home, you always had the right to stand your ground.
So if somebody attacked you in your home,
you did not have to retreat.
You could simply defend yourself using deadly force.
When the Stand Your Ground law was written,
it changed all that.
And what it did was, it expanded--
or was supposed to expand--
the rights of Florida citizens and people
in the state of Florida to defend themselves
when they were in public, in much the same manner they would
if they were in their home, as long
as they were acting lawfully, and they were in a place
where they were allowed to be.
So what this meant practically was
that if you were in public in the state of Florida,
after Stand Your Ground was created,
you had a right to defend yourself
when you were being threatened.
When you had a reasonable belief that you
were about to be harmed, you could defend yourself.
And you did not need to retreat first,
as long as you were acting lawfully at the time
that you used that force.
I'm Scott Berry, with Scott Berry Law.
And I'm defending your freedom, one client at a time.