For the past decade, 鈥淪tand Your Ground鈥 laws have been invoked time and time again by gun owners who claim self-defense after carrying out shootings. Critics have denounced them as 鈥渟hoot first鈥 laws that have created a climate of vigilantism in which gun owners operate with impunity in killing largely Black people.
The concept resurfaced again last week following the killing of in Florida, but the dynamics were different.
This time, the victim was a young Black servicemember who carried his legally owned handgun to the door of his apartment after hearing banging noises that ended up being a sheriff鈥檚 deputy. The officer 鈥 and not Fortson 鈥 opened fire within seconds. His supervisors say he acted in self-defense.
Fortson鈥檚 legal team was quick to remind the world of his Second Amendment rights in a state that 鈥淪tand Your Ground鈥 laws after the more than a decade ago.
鈥淭hey teach us in law school about the sanctity of the home, in the United States of America, and how that is your safe haven. That is your castle,鈥 said at a press conference with Fortson's relatives last week.
鈥淓very one of us, if someone we don鈥檛 know comes into our house, are going to defend ourselves,鈥 Brian Barr, Crump鈥檚 co-counsel, added. 鈥淲e have things like Stand Your Ground, the castle doctrine and very strong believers in the Second Amendment in the state of Florida. 鈥 He has the right to protect his home.鈥
Fortson's killing sparked a complicated debate about race, gun laws and self-defense 鈥 namely, who is typically afforded deference when it comes to the use of guns in self-defense and who is not.
Lauren Krasnoff, president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers鈥 Miami chapter, said Fortson's race cannot be disentangled from discussion of the case when invoking the castle doctrine and Stand Your Ground.
鈥淚 think the point is that the law is being used as both a sword and a shield by law enforcement against Black and brown people,鈥 Krasnoff said.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know that I鈥檇 have to say that the airman was standing his ground,鈥 she added. 鈥淚 think he was just acting lawfully. And if a person is acting lawfully and not committing a forcible felony, then you don鈥檛 have a right to stand your ground.鈥
Florida's Stand Your Ground law protects individuals from prosecution for homicide if they can prove that they perceived an imminent threat of harm or death to themselves or another person, regardless of whether or not they were in their home. The law does not require someone to retreat if they believe that force will be used against them.
The castle doctrine, a common law principle often associated with such laws, allows a person to use force equal to the force being used against them after attempting to retreat in an attack on their home, said David Weinstein, a criminal defense attorney at Jones Walker LLP in Miami.
鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 matter who鈥檚 on the other side,鈥 Weinstein said.
A sheriff鈥檚 deputy on May 3 after responding to a call about a domestic disturbance at an apartment complex in Fort Walton Beach. Sheriff鈥檚 officials say the deputy, whose name and race haven鈥檛 been released, acted in self-defense.
Body cam footage shows the deputy banged on Fortson鈥檚 door, paused, then knocked again, yelling that he鈥檚 from the sheriff鈥檚 office. Fortson eventually answered the door while holding what appeared to be a gun by his side, pointed at the ground. Within a few seconds, the deputy shoots Fortson six times, only then yelling for him to drop his weapon.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating.
Fortson鈥檚 death quickly drew comparisons to those of by police in their homes, in circumstances involving officers arriving at the wrong address or responding to service calls with wanton uses of deadly force.
MaCharie Dunbar, an Air Force retiree who serves on the board of the Black Veterans Project, feels Fortson鈥檚 death surfaces an uncomfortable reality faced by Black Americans who serve their country.
鈥淢any of us are just saddened and angered by the continued unnecessary loss of Black lives at the hands of police,鈥 Dunbar said. 鈥淎nd we want to know how many times do police officers have to get it wrong before they do something collectively to get it right?鈥
The Fortson case also highlighted the dissonance between a Black person鈥檚 constitutional right to bear arms and law enforcement officers鈥 right to defend themselves against a perceived threat.
鈥淭he second amendment afforded Roger the right to own a gun and wield it as protection when he was unsure who was on the other side of his door,鈥 Crump said last week.
For Danielle Campbell, the southeast regional director of the 好色tv African American Gun Association, what happened to Fortson is the worst-case scenario for Black and brown law-abiding gun owners.
Campbell said she felt Fortson was essentially 鈥渕urdered in his own home without so much as being given a command鈥 and his death reiterated that for all Black gun owners, 鈥渨e鈥檙e just at a high risk, period.鈥
Still, she said striking laws like Stand Your Ground, as Crump has advocated, isn鈥檛 the answer because they can support gun owners who rightfully discharged their weapons.
鈥淭here have been cases where Black and brown people have successfully been able to utilize Stand Your Ground or the castle doctrine to get off,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 more so that when people of color have interactions with police and they鈥檙e armed, we鈥檙e automatically seen as a threat and treated as such.鈥
Some Black Lives Matter activists echoed those sentiments.
Fortson鈥檚 death is more about how people 鈥渟ee Black and then shoot鈥 than Stand Your Ground laws, said Chelsea Fuller, a communications leader for the Movement for Black Lives, a national coalition of racial justice organizations.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know how many more research reports have to come out to show there is an innate fear of Blackness in this country,鈥 she said.
Fortson, 23, was originally from Georgia and enlisted in the Air Force after graduating from high school. His remains have since been transferred where he will be eulogized on Friday.
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AP writer Terry Tang in Phoenix contributed. She and Aaron Morrison are members of AP's Race and Ethnicity team.
