Show of hands… how many people think Illinois has Stand Your Ground when it comes to self-defense?
Do you think Illinois is Stand Your Ground?
USCCA doesn’t seem to think so.
How about the Rockefeller Institute of Government?
Spoiler alert: They don’t think so either.
Oh, but it gets better.
Bloomberg’s “Everytown” proudly proclaims that Illinois has rejected “Stand Your Ground” which they call “shoot first” laws.
Regular readers of GunNews will know this question. Ditto for regulars on the GSL website.
All of the above, including USCCA, are wrong. Bloomberg is especially wrong.
Sure, we don’t have Stand Your Ground as a statute, but we have it by Illinois Supreme Court precedent.
Let me repeat that for those stunned in disbelief.
Yes, Illinois has Stand Your Ground. By Illinois Supreme Court precedent.
In fact, Illinois has had STAND YOUR GROUND SINCE 1902. October 25, 1902 to be exact. And they didn’t need 102 pages of decision to come to that conclusion. And it’s still good law and binding to the courts.
Betcha didn’t know that Illinois has had SYG since 1902. Hopefully if you’re a criminal law attorney you knew. Ditto if you’re an instructor. Or a judge.
Here’s the case and I’ll share the relevant section. Feast your eyes on those three magical words folks.
The ancient doctrine of the common law that the right of self-defense did not arise until every effort to escape, even to retreating until an impassable wall or something of that nature had beeu reached, has been supplanted in America by the doctrine that a man, if unlawfully assaulted in a place where he has a right to be, and put in danger, real or reasonably apparent, of losing his life or receiving great bodily harm, is not required to endeavor to escape from his assailant, but may stand his ground and repel force with force, even to the taking of the life of his assailant, if necessary or in good reason apparently necessary for the preservation of his own life or to protect himself from receiving great bodily harm. (2 Wharton on Crim. Law, sec. 1019; Baird v. United States, 158 U. S. 550.) The word “escape,” as a verb, according to Mr. Webster, may mean “to flee from;” “to get out of the way of;” “to hasten away,” etc.; and as a noun, “the act of fleeing from danger,” etc. It is not necessary to the right of self-defense that the party having otherwise the right to exercise it cannot “escape” the danger by fleeing from an assailant.
Okay, it’s “stand his ground” in the decision, but still.
Many thanks to Attorney David McDermott for sharing this decision with Guns Save Life.
Way to return to your roots! Please keep providing us content like this, JB! This is awesome! Keep up the good work.