She Stood Her Ground

If you read nothing further, at least play this video. It speaks volumes on the everyday crisis of lives lost to guns and the burden of fear it engenders.

That burden, however, is not evenly distributed; nor is the application of “stand your ground” laws that allow people to shoot perceived attackers in self defense. In 2012, the Urban Institute found that a death is over 10 times more likely to be determined “justifiable homicide” in cases where the victim is black and the shooter is white, as compared to the reverse. More recently, a 2015 analysis of shooting deaths in Florida showed that defendants in “stand your ground” cases were twice as likely to be convicted when the victim was white.