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The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin has cast a renewed spotlight on Florida's "stand your ground" law. While Zimmerman's attorneys did not mount a "stand your ground" defense in his case, the law has become the subject of national attention, and was discussed during the trial.

So, what is the law, when did it pass, and where else can you find similar laws on the books? Here's a rundown of everything you need to know.

What is Florida's stand your ground law?

It's a law that allows people to, well, stand their ground -- pretty much anywhere -- instead of retreating if they reasonably believe doing so is necessary to "prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony."In short, after the law was passed, people could defend themselves even outside of their homes -- with deadly force if necessary -- if they believed someone was trying to kill them or seriously harm them.

Here's an NPR report with more detail on the law.

When was the law passed?

It was passed in 200539-0 in the state Senate and 94-20 in the state House, and then-Gov. Jeb Bush (R) signed it.

Who was advocating for it? And who opposed it?

The National Rifle Association lobbied hard for the measure, while law enforcement officials like Miami's police chief opposed it. Defenders of the law often cited the 2004 case of James Workman, a retiree asleep in his RV who shot an intruder and had to wait months before prosecutors decided he engaged is self-defense. Opponents worried the law would encourage the use of deadly force.

After Saturday's verdict in the Martin case, Florida's state Senate Democratic leader called for a second look at all self-defense laws. But given the GOP-tilt of the Florida legislature, it's unlikely the stand your ground law will undergo major changes.

What has the impact been?

In the five years after the law was passed, the rate of justifiable homicides in Florida tripled. Defenders of the law cite a drop in the state's violent crime rate.

Which other states have similar laws on the books?

Since Florida became the first state to pass an explicit stand your ground law, more than 30 others have passed some version of it, with the help of agroup called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a organization that promotes conservative bills. Here's a 2012 map of stand your ground laws nationwide

What's next?

In the wake of the Florida case, we can expect an increase in calls to repeal or at least revisit the laws across the country."I think that's up tothestate. I thinkthey should revisit that," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)said Sundayon NBC's "Meet The Press."

An effort to repeal a stand your ground law in New Hampshire recentlyfell short,and repealing or changing legislation is generally difficult, so opponents of the laws will face uphill climbs in seeking the changes they want to see happen. Expect to hear a lot from opponents of the stand your ground law about a Texas A&M University study that found states with such laws have more homicides than states without them.

Updated at 10:48 a.m.

Sean Sullivan has covered national politics for The Washington Post since 2012.

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Everything you need to know about stand your ground laws ...

When a Florida jury deadlocked on the first degree murder charge against software developer Michael Dunn, the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground Law" was once again hoisted into the media spotlight.

Dunn was convicted on four other charges in the case, in which he fired 10 times at an SUV after an argument with the teens inside about how loud their music was, and will likely be sentenced to a minimum of 60 years behind bars.

Michael Dunn Trial: Mistrial Declared on Murder Charge in Loud Music Killing Case

As in the case of George Zimmerman, acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the public outrage was often directed or misdirected, at the Florida law.

Many, including legal commentators who should know better, repeatedly citing the statute as a crucial issue in both cases.

And yet neither defendant invoked the controversial aspects of Florida's law. In fact, both defendants argued basic self defense law that would have been similar in just about every state in the nation.

The relevant portion of the law of self defense in Florida reads: "A person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if: He or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself"

The controversial section of that law relates to the fact that there is no "duty to retreat," meaning that in non-stand your ground states one must, in most cases, first attempt to get away if he or she can.

In Florida, however, there is no such requirement and the shooter may "stand his or her ground" when firing in self defense.

But the duty to retreat was not an issue in either Dunn or Zimmerman. In both cases the defendants argued that deadly force was used because they "reasonably" believed that it was necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily injury. That, is at its core, no different than the law in almost every other state.

Why George Zimmerman Might Have Been Found Guilty in Ohio

Zimmerman claimed Trayvon Martin was pummeling him and Dunn that he had a shotgun pointed at him by a young man saying "I'm going to kill you." If Dunn's account were true -- and it was contradicted by other witnesses -- then retreat hardly seems like an option.

Regardless of what one thinks of the defenses (and because of Zimmerman's injuries and the testimony of eyewitnesses, his defense was far stronger legally than Dunn's claim, which was only supported by his own testimony) the controversial aspect of the law was hardly the issue.

The other major and controverted change in Florida's law was that one who claims he or she was justified in using deadly force may seek to avoid any liability, criminal or civil, by proving at a pre-trial hearing that the shooting was justified.

So a Florida judge can rule that someone who has shot and killed doesn't even have to go to trial and that he or she should be immune from civil lawsuits as well. Yet neither Dunn nor Zimmerman sought that sort of immunity.

Others have focused on the fact that Dunn need only "reasonably" believe that there was an imminent threat, even if there was no actual threat at all. For example The New York Times reported Sunday:

"The trial, which lasted six days before deliberations began on Wednesday, was the latest courtroom test for Florida's expansive self-defense statutes, including the so-called Stand Your Ground provision. Under the law, Mr. Dunn needed only to have been convinced that he saw a shotgun, whether or not one was present.

Yet that is no way unique to Florida or stand your ground laws. The most common example is when someone is confronted with what turns out to be a toy gun, he or she still has the right to use deadly force in any state if he or she "reasonably" believed the weapon was real, even if turns out there was no actual threat.

Others mistakenly claim these are "stand your ground" cases because the entire self defense statute is read to Florida jurors with the stand your ground language included. But, of course, reading jury instructions with some language that is inapplicable to the case at hand is common in all types of cases and says nothing about whether the controversial aspects of the law are at issue.

Yet others note that certain jurors in the Zimmerman case, for example, cited the stand your ground law to explain their verdict. The inexact language of jurors doesn't change the reality that the law would have been the same in any other state and that none of the controversial parts of the law were relevant.

The only state with a significantly different law when it comes to classic self defense is Ohio where rather than the prosecution having the burden of proof, a defendant who claims self-defense adopts the burden to prove the case. There is no question that placing the burden on the defendant can make a conviction far easier.

Is it possible that gun owners in Florida feel more emboldened to use their weapons because of the expansive protections embedded in the law? Sure, but that does not change the legal analysis.

Is it possible that Dunn not having a duty to retreat made his defense slightly stronger? It's theoretically possible, but based on the facts presented it becomes just that, theoretical.

I am no fan of stand your ground laws but I am a fan of accuracy when it comes to sensitive and potentially explosive trials and verdicts.

Dan Abrams is ABC News' Chief Legal Correspondent and Anchor of "Nightline."

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Florida's Stand Your Ground Law Did Not Determine Either ...

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The Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted on Tuesday for a proposal shifting the burden of proof in stand your ground cases to the prosecution.

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Bill Cotterell, Democrat correspondent 6:36 a.m. EDT October 21, 2015

Lucia McBath, the mother of slain teen-ager Jordan Davis, talks with state Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, about gun legislation Tuesday after the Senate Criminal Justice Committee approved a bill allowing concealed weapon permitholders to carry guns openly. The panel also approved an expansion of Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, shifting the burden of proof to the prosecution to show a shooting was not justified under the 2005 Florida law.(Photo: Bill Cotterell/Democrat)

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted on Tuesday for a proposal shifting the burden of proof in stand your ground cases to the prosecution.

Under a recent Florida Supreme Court ruling, defendants have to prove they had a reasonable fear of injury, or were properly defending others, when seeking to avoid trial under the 2005 Florida law that removed the duty to retreat in a dangerous confrontation.

Lucia McBath, the mother of slain teenager Jordan Davis, pleaded with the committee not to enhance the stand your ground defense. Michael Dunn, the man who fired into a car blasting loud music at a filling station, claimed he saw a weapon before shooting. It took two trials to convict Dunn, who is serving lifein prison.

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The stand your ground law encourages Floridians to shoot first and ask questions later, McBath told the committee. This is a dangerous bill that would make it even harder to protect communities from gun violence.

Sen. Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said prosecutors should always bear the burden of proof in criminal cases. He said the states highest court made a classic overreach in ruling that a defendant had to prove justification for using a weapon rather than deciding the state attorney had to prove illegal intent.

Bradleys bill (SB 344) also would allow successful defendants to be reimbursed for legal costs if they get a charge dismissed in a pre-trial hearing.

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Excerpt from:
Committee shifts burden of proof for stand your ground

CREDIT: AP Photo/Jaime Henry-White

LOS ANGELES, CA After Michael Dunn shot and killed unarmed 17-year-old Jordan Davis for playing loud music in a Jacksonville convenience store parking lot in 2012, his lawyer cited Floridas controversial Stand Your Ground law in his defense. After an initial mistrial, Dunn was convicted of first degree murder.

Three years after losing Davis, his mother Lucia McBath continues to fight to change the Stand Your Ground law in Florida and across the country, arguing that it empowered Dunn to shoot and kill her teenage son and continues to contribute to the epidemic of gun violence in the U.S. Speaking to ThinkProgress at the politics and entertainment convention Politicon in Los Angeles, McBath said she has a message for the man who signed Floridas Stand Your Ground bill into law: current presidential candidate Jeb Bush.

What I would like to say to him is that the law is not working to protect citizens, she said. Its not doing whatever you thought it was supposed to do. I would hope you would take a look at whats happening across the country, the mass shootings and the individual shootings, and really think about what youve helped to usher in.

Stand Your Ground which also played a part in acquitting George Zimmerman of the killing of unarmed Florida teenager Trayvon Martin allows state residents to use lethal force when they feel threatened, without first attempting to flee or deescalate the situation. For example, in the trial for Davis killing, Dunns lawyer Cory Strolla told the court: Michael Dunn was in a public place where he had a legal right to be, he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force, including deadly force.

In the five years after then-Governor Jeb Bush signed the law in 2005, so-called justifiable homicides tripled, while the gun homicide rate in the state has remained higher than the national average ever since. Twenty-three other states have since enacted their own Stand Your Ground policies.

Because of the nature of what happened with my son, Stand Your Ground is a very big issue for me, said McBath, now a spokesperson for the advocacy group Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. There may not be a repeal of the law, but were trying to amend the law, doing things such as placing back in the duty to retreat. When youve taken the duty to retreat out of the law, that just increases the kinds of gun violence that weve seen in this country, and people walking away with immunity. We also need background check legislation, which is the number one way to stem gun violence in this country, and we need to close the dangerous loopholes in our gun laws.

She added that Bush and all other candidates running for president need to be pressed on their policy plans to deal with the ongoing threat of gun violence a debate recently revived by the recent mass shooting at a community college in Oregon.

Yet in the wake of that massacre, Bush has shown little interest in backing legal reforms, famously telling a South Carolina audience that stuff happens and nothing can prevent future acts of gun violence.

McBath called this response disturbing, and suggested it could hurt Bush in next years presidential election, which would have been the first in which her son Jordan could have cast a ballot.

The candidates running for presidential office need to be accountable to us, she said. The American people need to demand from those candidates their platform on gun violence prevention, and I think thats going to be a deciding factor on who we elect.

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Mother Of Slain Teen Says Stand Your Ground Laws 'Empowered ...

Jurors at a murder trial highlighting Nevada's stand your ground law must decide whether an elderly Sparks man is a premeditated killer or justifiably acted in self-defense when he fatally shot one unarmed trespasser and seriously wounded another, lawyers on both sides said Tuesday.

Wayne Burgarello, 74, admits he killed Cody Devine and shot Janai Wilson when he confronted them last year in a rundown, abandoned duplex he owns.

But prosecutors and a defense lawyer offered widely contrasting theories as to his motivation during their opening statements in the Washoe District Court trial, which is expected to last two weeks.

"The state will fail to prove that this is a cold, calculated, premeditated, lying-in-wait murder, simply because ladies and gentlemen it's not," Burgarello's lawyer, Theresa Ristenpart, told the jury.

Burgarello thought Devine was pointing a gun at him in the darkened back bedroom, she said. Although no weapon was found at the crime scene, the retired school teacher may have mistaken a black flashlight that police found beneath Devine's body for a gun, she said.

"Under our laws, Wayne acted in justified self-defense," Ristenpart said. "In a split-second decision ... he shot because he believes his life was threatened in a bedroom where no one should have been."

The case is the latest among several similar in the dozens of states across the nation with stand your ground laws that allow property owners to use deadly force when they fear their life is in danger. Like some others, Nevada's law carries a caveat that the killer must not have been the original aggressor.

Assistant District Attorney Bruce Hahn argued that Burgarello was in fact the initial aggressor.

Armed with a 9-mm pistol in one hand and a .357-caliber handgun in the other, Hahn said Burgarello broke through the chain-locked door of the duplex that had been abandoned for 9 years before advancing to the back bedroom, where Devine and Wilson had been injecting methamphetamine in the early hours of Feb. 13, 2014.

"Calling out, he opens the door and sees two forms on the floor under a blanket, a white comforter, and opens fire," Hahn said.

Read more:
Nevada Stand Your Ground Law at Issue in Trespasser ...