Florida debates 'Stand Your Ground' law

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By Kerry Sanders , NBC News correspondent

LONGWOOD, Fla. – Should Florida amend or eliminate its controversial "Stand Your Ground" law?

Nineteen members of a state commission are meeting Tuesday to discuss the issue – just a short distance from where 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by 28-year-old George Zimmerman.
It's believed Zimmerman’s defense attorney will rely of Florida’s controversial law to prove he did no wrong that February evening in Sanford.
Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sabrina Fulton, is among those arguing Florida’s law should be changed. But she's also made it a point to try to calm proponents of the Second Amendment, which protects the right of people to keep and bear arms, who feel any change to the law is an attack on their rights.


"I grew up with a weapon in my house. My dad was a police officer. I have nothing against guns,” Fulton said on Tuesday.
She was among a group who presented the state commission with more than 300,000 signatures demanding the law be repealed.
"I have nothing against the law,” she said.  “It's how it's applied."
The Florida law was passed in 2005 and was signed into law by then-Gov. Jeb Bush. The law came into being in the wake of Hurricane Ivan – partly because of the case of James Workman.
Workman, a 77-year-old retiree at the time, and his wife, Kathryn, had survived Hurricane Ivan, but their house in Pensacola was badly damaged, so they were staying in a trailer nearby. In the middle of the night, a FEMA worker from North Carolina, Rodney Cox, mysteriously appeared in their RV. Workman shot and killed the intruder.
After months in legal limbo, no charges were filed against Workman. Lawmakers seized on his case as they pressed for the country’s first Stand Your Ground law.


Workman, now 84, recently spoke to NBC News from his home in Pensacola and defended the controversial law.
"The law may not be perfect; I’m not saying it’s perfect.  But it’s a whole lot better than not having a law,” said Workman. "You got to have some way of protecting yourself.  I mean, I just – I don’t see anything wrong with that, at all."


The commission will not affect a change to the law, but it plans to offer the results of its six statewide meetings to Florida Gov. Rick Scott and the state Legislature.
If the law were to be amended or revoked, it would not be until 2013, when the Legislature returns for its lawmaking session.