2005 Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signs the Stand Your Ground bill into law. It is the ”first step of a multi-state strategy,” says a top official with the National Rifle Association. Former NRA president Marion Hammer—who crafted language used in the bill—later presents Florida's law to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a national corporate-sponsored consortium of lawmakers. ALEC adopts Stand Your Ground as model legislation.

2006 With help from ALEC, Stand Your Ground laws similar to Florida's pass in 13 other states, from Mississippi to Arizona. Meanwhile, in Miami, a man shoots 14 bullets at a car full of gang members and later avoids prosecution by citing the law.

2007 Justifiable homicides by civilians in Florida more than triple from the prior year (and will rise further by 2011). Four more states adopt Stand Your Ground laws: Missouri, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.

2008 A 15-year-old Tallahassee boy dies while caught in a shoot-out between rival gangs; two of the gang members successfully take refuge behind the Stand Your Ground law. Ohio and West Virginia join the list of SYG states.

2009 Four months after Montana's Stand Your Ground law goes into effect, a Walmart employee in Billings is released from custody after claiming he shot a co-worker in the face with a .25-caliber Beretta handgun out of self-defense. (He would not be charged.)

2010 No new states pass Stand Your Ground laws, but the NRA continues to push SYG and other gun legislation: According to the Center for Media and Democracy, the NRA spends $729,863 on Florida politics alone during the 2010 election cycle.

2011 New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin join the list. Nationwide, between 2005 and 2010, justifiable homicides by civilians using firearms doubled in states with the laws, while falling or remaining about the same in states lacking them.