0 taking up the legislation. before today's vote that's happening right now, senators called on the house to act. >> let the house vote on it. i am convinced if the house votes on this, it will pass the house and go to the president for his signature. >> speaker boehner, please, please do what is right for the american people. >> nearly every time the senate passes a bill, it's like we're banishing the issue to a faraway jail and speaker boehner's the prison warden. >> nbc's luke russert is on capitol hill. so luke, what kind of pressure are senate republicans able, if any, to put on house republicans and ultimately get speaker boehner to do something here? >> reporter: not much, tamron. because this bill enda, it falls in that same area as the comprehensive bipartisan immigration bill did. remember marco rubio got behind that. a lot of people thought it would have a future in the house of representatives because out of electoral necessity for republicans, and it ended up after a series of protests and sit-ins at the state's capitol building following the acquittal of george zimmerman. many demanded that republican governor rick scott call a special session to repeal the law, something he has refused to do. the democrat-backed measure to repeal the eight-year law faces little chance of actually passing florida's house and supporters are facing an increasingly uphill battle. as the miami herald puts it, the gop lawmaker chairing today's hearing famously said, and these are his words, not mine, quote, i did not support changing one damn comma in the 2005 law. he also told reporters this week, i've got to believe that putting criminals on notice that floridians won't be hapless victims anymore has certainly helped had improve safety in our state. even democrats are not optimistic. one leading democrat told reporters, we don't know what republicans are going to do. they're probably going to do not one damn thing. nbc's sarah daloff is in florida. we're clear where both sides stand. this is even after a task force looked at this issue. so what do we really expect to come out of this hearing, sarah? >> reporter: well, tamron, you're right. the lines are clearly drawn in the sand. neither side expecting this bill to pass today. so why even have it in the first place? well, one lawmaker tells us that it will allow people to be heard and this heated debate to reach a public forum and to know that lawmakers are, in fact, listening to people's concerns. now, among the people expected to speak today are the parents of jordan davis. he was the teenager that was shot to death last year in jacksonville by a man who claimed he felt threatened by the young man and his friends when he approached them in their car and asked them to turn their music down. obviously, that will be very emotional testimony. critics point to this case among others as prime examples of the flaws in stand your ground. they say it targets minorities and gives people very little inventive to strive to solve conflicts peacefully. proponents of this law, well, they credit it with helping halt a rising murder rate in florida. back when it was passed in 2005. now, this law has since become a model for similar laws in other states. we're seeing some pushback there as well. a lot of heated debate about this topic. people very clearly on one side or another. we expect to hear in about an hour when they start this historic five-hour hearing on repealing stand your ground. >> thank you so much for those details. now i want to bring in our legal analyst kendall coffee, former federal prosecutor. also, the political director of dream defenders. that's the group that staged those protests at the capital and met with governor scott. kendall, we have you alone here. i'm sorry. let's start off with you on this op-ed, for example, in "the new york times." it says in part -- the headline was "second thoughts on neighborhood watches." it says, it was about sanford and the shooting. it says florida's la day fair gun culture epitomized by the state's stand your ground law, it, unlike traditional doctrine requiring a citizen to retreat from danger. we know this hearing is about the discussion today. do you believe the stand your ground law gives that dangerous leeway we've discussed so much since the trayvon martin shooting? >> of course it has. in all too many cases, it's become a license to kill and an invitation to stand and shoot. do we think they'll repeal the law? no, but there can be changes made. to say not changing one darn comma is a slogan. it isn't a response to a serious problem, an experience that's told us this law has gone far beyond what was originally intended in 2005. >> and i can't stress enough, you're a former federal prosecutor. what do you believe you see the flaws in this law that others particularly those with the power to do something here with legislation are not seeing? >> well, let's use some examples of what's happened with the law, people who have been shot in the back have nevertheless been pronounced in effect stand your ground cases. drug dealers in a fatal shootout, they've been able to invoke stand your ground. what this law needs to get back to is self-defense, where it's reasonably necessary and where somebody has a burden of avoiding killing somebody if they possibly can. the other thing that i hope happens -- there's a bill in the state senate which is a little bit of a compromise. maybe there's hope for a compromise. it says in effect if you're the one that precipitated, that created the confrontation that turned out to be fatal, sounds a little bit like george zimmerman who went hunting for trayvon martin, we believe, then you can't claim stand your ground. even though that's a compromise, it would be a big step forward. >> okay. i think we have with us sierra taylor. she's standing by. are you there? >> yes, i'm here. >> i see you have a number of people with you. you were a part of the group that did these sit-ins at the capitol. when you hear the leading republican in florida's house saying that he does not plan to change one thing about this law, how are you and your group still optimistic when there seems to be little light at the end of the tunnel, at least in this battle right now? >> i think we're feeling a little optimistic, saying that we're able to get this hearing in the first place. usually when we go to these sort of hearings, we thank the champl for holding the hearing in the first place. i think that for this case, we really are just saying thank you or rather you're welcome, you know, for actually listening to the people in florida and actually listening to the constituents in florida who want to vote -- voice their opinions on the law and how it disproportionately affects minorities. >> speaking of opinions and people having an opportunity to voice them, it was right after trayvon martin was killed that the governor put together this 19-member task force and they spent several months as you well know traveling the state, talking to people and hearing public testimony. when they came back, the group only recommended a few minor tweaks to the law, including changes that could actually make it easier for someone to claim self-defense after killing another individual. so after the open forum, after months, that's what that task force came back with. what are your thoughts on at least that reaction from the public or those who are able to voice, as you pointed out? >> i think the problem with the task force on stand your ground that rick scott convened, the and keeping their own positions but actually worried about the lives that matter, worried about the actual voters in those communities. >> all right. and kendall, one other bill that's up for consideration is the ability to grant immunity to a person who fires a warning shot to protect themselves and others. this is specific to marissa alexander. she's the woman, the jacksonville woman, who received 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot to scare her husband during a domestic violence incident. she ended up, obviously, behind bars. george zimmerman not behind bars. but now this bill is being considered. >> right -- so hb-89 -- >> warning shots are a lot better than license to kill somebody. i'm still concerned with anything that encourages private citizens to use guns and have guns in terms of a situation where they can't control outcomes. >> sierra, quickly, i heard you want to get in on this. go ahead. >> yes, so the problem with hb-89 is that it started out with good intentions. it started out with the intention to protect people in situations of domestic violence like marissa alexander and grant them immunity from the mandatory minimum sentencing here in florida. the problem with hb-89 after the amendment that matt gates made to it is that there isn't actually immunity being granted anymore. they aren't immuning the people who are claiming what hb-89 seeks to claim. there isn't that reduction in the mandatory minimums, nor is there the ability to have judicial review, which is something we feel is very important for anyone who's claiming self-defense, including marissa alexander. >> your dedication and passion quite clear and that of those behind you. kendall coffee, thank you as well. >> thanks. when we come back, twitter shares hit the market this morning and the price is climbing. should you, if you've got the cash, get in on it? zachary carabell is standing by to talk about the twitter effect. plus -- >> it's important to remember every race is particular to this state that it's run in. there are factors in new jersey that i think are individual to that race. >> dishing the dirt. chris christie's gop rivals have plenty to say since his big victory. nbc's senior political editor mark murray will join us with our political postscript from the week that was and what the first read team sees comiing no. and thousands of people in the philippines are being evacuated as a super typhoon with winds approaching 200 miles an hour bears down. it's one of the stories in our news around the nation. and of course you can join our conversation any time you want. find me @tamronhall and my team @newsnation. when we made our commitment to the gulf, bp had two big goals: