Port Charlotte, Florida. On March 16, Americans woke up to another mass shooting, this time across three massage parlors surrounding Atlanta, Georgia that left eight people dead, many of them women of Asian descent, and raising fears of a deliberate attack on the Asian-American community. An attack against one is an attack on all of…
Editor’s note: The following update on initiatives by “March for our Lives” was submitted by Charlotte County Young Democrats Chair Daniel Schwarz Following the horrific shooting tragedies in El Paso and Dayton, it felt like our lawmakers were finally willing to strengthen our pathetically weak gun laws. Tough talk by President Trump and other elected…
In response to gun violence across the country and in its own stores, Walmart plans to discontinue some of its ammunition sales. Charlotte County Democrats chairman Patrick Hurley thinks this is a “small, but hopefully meaningful symbolic step forward,” he wrote to the Sun Wednesday. (Read more in SUN)
We are Democrats. We are Republicans. We are Floridians. We are Americans. And despite our differences, here is the truth. No one wants this kind of violence darkening their doorstep. No elected official wants this happening in their community, to their constituents. Hardened NRA devotees and fervent anti-gun activists alike — no one wants this…
The Charlotte County Democratic Executive Committee, the official arm of the Democratic Party in Charlotte County voted unanimously Monday evening in favor of two resolutions: 1 — Supporting sensible gun safety laws. 2 — Supporting a comprehensive gun violence prevention plan. Here are the texts of the two resolutions. GUN SAFETY RESOLUTION WHEREAS, the number…
According to data from the watchdog group OpenSecrets. org, contributions to local Congressman Greg Steube and Florida Senator Marco Rubio from the gun rights industry total almost a quarter-million dollars. To be fair, Steube’s gun receipts during his first term (he was elected in 2016) total a mere $5,000 compared to Rubio’s whopping $243,179. And…
On this sickening day when two mass shootings have happened in our country, I find it important to remind myself that mass shootings happen almost nowhere else but in the United States. We cannot become normalized to the regular pace of massive, execution-style killings. These horrific events are exclusive to the United States. So…
On July 29, the Sun Sentinel reported that Attorney General Ashley Moody filed in court to block Ban Assault Weapons Now’s ballot initiative from the 2020 ballot. Terrie Rizzo, chair of the Florida Democratic Party, called Moody’s actions outrageous: “Attorney General Ashley Moody is attempting to stop voters from being able to vote to protect their families. Floridians are…
The outcome of the vote in the Florida State House this week was a foregone conclusion: A proposal to allow teachers to carry firearms in school would easily win approval. But that did not mean the debate would not be long and emotional, as Democrats implored Republicans in the majority to consider the possible risks…
The Florida House of Representatives has passed on a party-line vote SB 7030, a bill that would allow the arming of teachers in schools. The House vote happened one day after news outlets reported that a school resource officer’s gun accidentally went off at Weightman Middle School in Wesley Chapel. The bill is now headed…
This weekend there was another senseless attack, this time at a synagogue in California, with the weapon of terrorist choice, the AR-15. There is NO reason why this weapon is available for any purpose other than mass attacks. But our Florida legislature is controlled by special interests who will do everything in their power to…
The Florida Senate has moved forward with school security legislation (SB 7030) that includes a provision that would allow classroom teachers to carry weapons. For years, the leading champion for arming teachers was U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, a staunch guns right advocate. He sponsored a bill three years in a row when he was a…
Speaker Jose Oliva on Wednesday abruptly delayed a hearing on House Bill 7093 — which would arm teachers — after over a hundred Parkland survivors, students, and gun control advocates stormed the State Capitol to protest the bill. In response to the Speaker’s cowardly decision to hear the bill on another date, Florida Democratic Party Chair…
February 14 marks the one-year anniversary of the school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Florida has a serious gun problem with a total of 51 mass shootings between 2016 and 2018 leaving 118 people dead. Much will be written about the tragic killing of 17 innocent people one year…
Today we take time to remember the 17 victims who were cruelly gunned down at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day last year. We remember how the Parkland students led historic statewide, and nationwide calls for action, and forced Republicans to make changes to our gun laws in Tallahassee for the first time…
The Senate Education Committee filed a proposed bill that would allow arming Florida’s school teachers. SPB 7030, if passed, would repeal the provision of the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program that exempts those individuals who exclusively perform duties as classroom teachers to be armed. This bill is scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, February 12,…
A state commission in Parkland, Fla., investigating the February mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School unanimously approved a report on Wednesday that calls for some teachers to be armed. The 458-page report, produced by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, makes dozens of recommendations, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel,…
Background checks should stop violent felons from buying guns. State Rep. Margaret Good just filed legislation to make all sellers actually use them. “I don’t know if people understand that if you buy off the internet in Florida, if you buy off of Craiglist or you do it person to person, a background check is not required,”…
Marion Hammer, the public face and political enforcer of the National Rifle Association in Florida, is in a snit about Democrat Nikki Fried having been elected commissioner of the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the agency that issues concealed weapon permits. Hammer is lobbying to move weapons permitting to the office of Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis,…
A Miami-based political committee has proposed a constitutional amendment that would ban possession of “assault” weapons in Florida if approved by voters. The proposal, backed by the committee Ban Assault Weapons Now, was posted on the state Division of Elections website this month. (Read more in TampaBay.com)