Sascha Wil­son

Crim­i­nal Bar As­so­ci­a­tion pres­i­dent Is­rael Khan, SC, has backed De­fence Min­is­ter Wayne Sturge’s call for cit­i­zens to “shoot first and ex­plain lat­er” dur­ing home in­va­sions, but crim­i­nol­o­gist Dar­ius Figueira has warned that the pro­posed Stand Your Ground (SYG) leg­is­la­tion could open the door to abuse and le­galised killings.

Sturge, speak­ing Tues­day at a pub­lic con­sul­ta­tion at the San­gre Grande Civic Cen­tre, said the pro­posed SYG law—mod­elled af­ter Flori­da’s ver­sion—would al­low home­own­ers to use lethal force with­out hes­i­ta­tion if they be­lieve they are un­der im­mi­nent threat.