Over the last several years I've come to believe that, of all the narratives (aka "lies") projected to us by the media and mostly the Democratic party revolve around ideas that more liberal (in the traditional sense of the word) self-defense laws are just "get out of jail free cards" if you shoot a black guy, or that they're all, "Shoot first. Ask questions later." laws, are some of the more horrifyingly wrong.
People really believe this.
If you're attacked by another person in any state, you've got everything going against you.
During the original encounter, you've got a good chance of losing the fight even if you're armed and trained. Your attacker is always going to have he advantage of planning. Your attacker is always gonna get the first punch in or draw his weapon first. Your attacker will always have the advantage of wanting the fight. Your attacker will always have the advantage of not thinking or caring about the law or going to prison.
Still, if you win the fight -- especially if you get to your gun and your attacker ends up dead -- the cops will be (and should be) investigating you.
Again, five elements of self-defense: innocence, imminence, reasonableness, proportionality, and avoidance. You have to check all of those boxes, otherwise you're going to prison. The only element that's ever in question in any state is avoidance -- whether or not you have a duty to retreat. It's not that you have to check one of those boxes. You have to check all of them.
Even if you check all of those boxes, you're likely to be detained or arrested.
Even if you check all of those boxes, investigators might not be entirely convinced.
Even if you check all of those boxes, you might have a DA like Alvin Bragg or Pamela Price who just don't like guns and seem to generally be opposed to self-defense even if it's lawful. What could be even worse is if you're unfortunate enough to have an attacker who was black under one of these DAs.
Even if you check all of the boxes, and the DA isn't a evil moron, there are hoards of people who have bought the media narrative regarding self-defense laws, and have never thought the ethics of self-defense through, who will march and riot to pressure the DA to file charges.
You end up in front of a grand jury. A grand jury only hears the prosecution's case. You get indicted. You're on trial for murder. Most defense lawyers take a $50k retainer. Legal fees in murder cases are often more than a quarter million dollars before even going to trial.
What's more, if you're claiming self-defense, that means that you have to put it on the record, "I pointed my gun at that guy. I knew that the gun was loaded. I pulled the trigger with the intent to hit him with a bullet."
Then, before you go to trial, you have to make your self-defense case to a judge. The judge has to decide that you have a plausible case for self-defense before he permits the jury to hear that argument. So, if the judge decides that he or she doesn't think that you have a self-defense argument, the jury just hears that you said, "Yeah, I shot that guy, and I intended to. " while not being allowed to hear the, "... because he was going to kill me." part.
Granted, judges are supposed to make the decision on the basis that you have any plausible case for self-defense. It should be that, if your case shows a better than zero chance that it was self-defense, the judge is supposed to allow you to argue it. Still, judges are human beings, and not all of them are good people.
Then you go to trial. Even if you did everything right and checked all the boxes, you might get the wrong jury.
In every state, this is what you're facing if you happen to win a fight that you never asked for or wanted.
Do some people get away with murder because of liberal self-defense laws? Fuck no. Murder is illegal. Murders only get off due to human error.
What does happen with restrictionive self-defense laws is that innocent people end up in innocent people end up in prison. People who just wanted to go about their day, managed to survive an unprovoked attack, and win a fight that they didn't want to have, end up in prison.
It shouldn't be hard to figure out who is on the right side of this issue.