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John—
In July 2018 at a convenience store near Clearwater, Florida, a 28-year-old man named Markeis McGlockton was shot and killed in front of his longtime girlfriend and their three young children following a minor confrontation with another customer in the parking lot.
Security camera footage showed that McGlockton was at least 10 feet away from his killer, Michael Drejka, and beginning to turn away when the lethal shot was fired. McGlockton, a Black man, was unarmed. Drejka, who is white, was initially not even arrested.
The reason? In a press conference the day after the incident, the county sheriff said he believed the killing was “within the bookends of ‘stand your ground.’” (Drejka was ultimately convicted of manslaughter.)
Stand Your Ground laws—which remove the expectation that lethal force in self-defense is only justified in situations when it does not seem safe to withdraw—deepen disparities in the legal system and disproportionately justify the use of violence by people who are white and male against people who are not. Moreover, research shows these laws lead to significantly more killing and have no deterrent effect on other crimes.
Yet 27 states have enacted Stand Your Ground laws, and eight more have had de facto Stand Your Ground standards established by court decisions. We urge state lawmakers to repeal these laws and overturn these court decisions.
Stand Your Ground laws encourage a trigger-happy culture of vigilantism that cheapens the value of human life. They deepen vast and harmful disparities in our legal system, and make us less safe. We urge you to read our report, share it widely, and join us in our fight to repeal these laws state by state.
Together, we can create a society that rejects the shoot-first principles of Stand Your Ground laws and the powerful gun lobbies that have enabled them.
In solidarity,
Robyn and Margaret
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Robyn Thomas
Executive Director
Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Margaret Huang
President and CEO
SPLC Action Fund
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