Arthenia Joyner, one of the Democratic legislators who opposed Braxley’s bill in 2005, paints the picture differently, claiming that controversy was already in full effect when the bill was being signed. She describes it as “a big debate in 2005” that still gives her the same “fears that I had back in 2005.” The upheaval in Black communities over the shootings of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis in 2012 represented a reaction to these same fears instilled in minorities ever since the law originally went into effect in 2005 under Governor Jeb Bush. Joyner goes on to sum up these concerns in a way that Blacks also expressed when she says, “It hurts the chances for minorities to receive justice.”
Stand Your Ground permits residents to use deadly force if they “reasonably believe” they are being threatened or attacked; the subjectivity of which sparks a great deal of controversy because opposition argues this can be used to excuse the killing of nearly anyone under vague circumstances. The purpose of the law, though, is to ensure that citizens are not obligated to retreat in the event that a legitimate threat presents itself.
