As Mother’s Day approaches, Sybrina Fulton urged the nation to help amend the law that her son’s killer is using as his defense. She took the opportunity to speak out against the Stand Your Ground law, which allows for the use of a firearm if a person has a “reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another.”
The heartwrenching video, made on the behalf of the Second Chance on Shoot First Campaign, urges viewers to press the governors of their states to re-examine this controversial gun law.
“I’m Sybrina Fulton. This will be my first Mother’s Day without my son, Trayvon.” These words open up the video, revealing Trayvon’s mother wiping away tears as she anticipates a rather gloomy Mother’s Day. She lost her son after he was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Travyon was only 17 when Zimmerman decided the young man “looked suspicious.”
Although there have been several messages addressing the need for gun laws to change, Fulton’s Mother’s Day video shows the firsthand effect of lax gun laws: mothers spending Mother’s Day without their children. “Just like me, 30,000 mothers lost their children this year to senseless gun violence,” Fulton revealed in the video.
Even as she fights for reform, she reminds viewers that “Nobody can bring our children back…” She urges the community to join her in her efforts to do away with the Stand Your Ground law before it steals the lives of any other children. Fulton expresses, “… It would bring us comfort if we can help spare other mothers the pain we will feel on Mother’s Day and every day for the rest of our lives.”
She makes it very clear what the public can do to make a difference. “I’m asking you to join Florida by calling upon the governor of your state to re-examine similar Stand Your Ground laws throughout the nation to keep our families safe,” Fulton pleads towards the end of the video.
Even as she prepares for a very difficult Mother’s Day, Fulton concludes the video by wishing everyone else a “Happy Mother’s Day.” Although the Trayvon Martin case is slowly sliding out of the media glare, the Mother’s Day video reminded viewers that the effects of the tragic murder are still present. Six weeks after the incident, Zimmerman was finally arrested and charged with second-degree murder, but this doesn’t represent justice for all the families who will never have Mother’s Day with their children again.