“President Barack Obama has questioned the wisdom of ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, which in many states provide that a person using justified force in self-defense against an attacker has no duty to retreat before using that force. However, in 2004, then-State Senator Obama co-sponsored a bill that strengthened an Illinois law providing for the use of lethal force in self-defense, making the use of such force more likely. Though Obama had made gun control a signature issue early in his career in the state capitol representing the urban, liberal district of Hyde Park, the need to appeal to voters statewide may have prompted Obama’s co-sponsorship of the self-defense legislation.”
