Standing Our Ground

July 16, 2018
McBath, a spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety, narrates the gut-wrenching story of her son’s 2012 murder and its aftermath. Jordan Davis, 17, was in the back seat of a friend’s car at a Jacksonville, Fla., convenience store when Michael Dunn, incensed by the boys’ loud music and their refusal to turn it down, fired 10 shots into the car, killing Jordan. Dunn, who is white, tried unsuccessfully to argue in court that he shot African-American Davis because he was “standing his ground,” a Florida law that gives “individuals who felt endangered the right to shoot and kill and ask questions later.” In 2014, Dunn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. McBath channeled her grief into activism: she served as the community outreach leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America and spoke at the 2016 Democratic National Convention. She often writes of her faith, and how it emboldened her to forgive her son’s murderer (the Lord has asked me... to forgive his murderer”). McBath tells a powerful story, and her grace, humility, and determined spirit will serve as inspiration to many.