Stockbridge Mayor Anthony Ford was one of ten Georgia mayors who signed a letter sent last month to state legislatures urging that they take action to repeal the state’s “stand your ground” law.

  City spokesperson Shana Thornton told the Times that Ford acted independently on the issue and did not confer with the City Council or any city officials. She also furnished the following statement from the mayor:

  “I hope that the state legislative body addresses this as soon as possible and seeks to change the law. I look forward to additional elected leaders joining in on the movement to repeal the current Stand Your Ground Law in Georgia. This is something I am very passionate about. We have to promote fair measures that justly protect all of our citizens.”

  According to the FindLaw website, Georgia is one of several states with a “stand your ground” law, whose basic idea is that a person who is being threatened by another person’s use of force does not have a duty to retreat or back down before he or she can legally use force against the attacker. Unlike the laws in some states which only allow this behavior in restricted areas such as your home or your car, Georgia’s law makes no distinction regarding locations. As long as the person reasonably believes that the force used is necessary to defend himself or herself or another person, then the use of force is justified. The website goes on to state, “This subjective standard helps to contribute to the confusion of how these laws are applied in specific situations.”

  The mayors of Atlanta, Savannah, Augusta, Athens-Clarke, Decatur, Norcross, Milledgeville, Waycross and Fairburn also participated in sending the June 25 correspondence that was addressed to the General Assembly, citing the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick in February as a reason that calls to repeal the law have resurfaced.

  “Stand Your Ground laws upend centuries of traditional self-defense doctrine and threaten public safety by encouraging armed vigilantism, allowing a person to kill another person in a public area even when they can clearly and safely walk away from the danger,” the letter stated. “These laws are associated with increases in firearm homicides across different demographics and neighborhoods, while disproportionately impacting communities of color. They encourage the escalation of violence in avoidable situations and do not deter crime.”

  The letter also alleged that such laws have a disproportionate impact on communities of color, saying that when white shooters kill black victims, the resulting homicides are deemed justifiable 11 times more frequently than when the shooter is black and the victim is white.

  “There are no studies that associate broadening self-defense laws with deterring crime,” according to the letter. “Traditional law respects both a person’s right to self-defense and the sanctity of human life. It recognizes that it is always better to avoid taking a life if there is a safe and clear alternative. Lawmakers should put the safety of their constituents first, restore normalcy to our self-defense laws, and repeal our state’s dangerous Stand Your Ground law.”