Anti-'Stand Your Ground' PSA Reenacts Trayvon Martin Shooting

A group calling for the end of so-called "stand your ground" laws has released a dramatic new ad reenacting the Trayvon Martin shooting.

The minute-and-a-half ad from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence uses actual 911 audio from the night the teenager was fatally shot and actors in the roles of George Zimmerman, Martin and neighbors hearing screaming outside. The ad shows Zimmerman following Martin, and later Martin crouching on the ground with his hands up in the beam of a flashlight. The camera pans to the body of Martin and other people wearing hooded sweatshirts as the names of states with "stand your ground" laws flash.

Image source: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence/YouTube

Ladd Everitt, communications director for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, told the Huffington Post that "stand your ground" laws "have essentially legalized murder."

"We hope our 'Stand Your Ground' PSA will mobilize new activism on the issue and bring us to a point where our laws are acting to protect victims, as opposed to creating new ones," the group said in a statement Monday.

Image source: Coalition to Stop Gun Violence/YouTube

A Florida jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder last month after he argued he shot the unarmed teenager in self-defense. "Stand your ground" laws allowing a person to use deadly force if they believe they are in danger have come under particular scrutiny in the wake of the February 2012 shooting, including from Attorney General Eric Holder, who said last month the time has come to examine laws that “senselessly expand the concept of self-defense.”

(H/T: Huffington Post)

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