As I have been covering the ongoing proposed semiautomatic 'assault weapon' ban, my last report was that the Florida Legislature passed a bill that would be a major roadblock to Ban Assault Weapons NOW! and Americans for Gun Safety Now! goals of getting a constitutional amendment to outlaw semi-automatic rifles on the 2020 ballot. Well, it appears that the roadblock has stalled at the moment.
House Bill 5, which passed the legislature is currently enrolled. What does that mean?
The bill has yet to be presented by the Republican controlled Legislature to Governor Ron DeSantis for his signature. Gov. DeSantis has three options when a bill is presented to him. He can sign it into law, veto it, or do nothing and it becomes law in 15 days.
But the countdown doesn't start until the bill has been officially presented to him. Which at the moment of this article. It has not. Every day that passes, the Civilian Disarmament Industry is getting closer and closer to their end goal.
As of the writing of this article, they have a statewide total of 59,587 valid signatures and need a total of 76,632 signatures for judicial and financial impact review. To make the ballot, they need a total of 766,200 signatures. As for where they're getting their signatures, according to records from the Florida Division of Elections; the following counties have been their stomping grounds.
Palm Beach - 8,310
Broward - 7,360
Hillsborough - 6,148
Pinellas - 4,934
Sarasota - 4,685
Orange - 3,137
Duval - 3,036
Miami-Dade - 2,780
Lee - 2,759
Alachua - 2,457
Polk - 2,217
Manatee - 1,222
Seminole - 1,180
Jackson - 971
Marion - 880
Osceola - 739
Sumter - 574
So far only 17 out of Florida's 67 counties have submitted petitions to get the amendment to the 2020 ballot, but that doesn't mean much since all they need are the signatures equaling at least 8% of the district-wide vote in the last presidential election be collected from at least half (14) of the state's 27 congressional districts.
Palm Beach is their biggest producer and that doesn't surprise me since AGSN's leader, GOP Mega-Donor Al Hoffman lives there and Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL 18) also lives there and half of the county is in his congressional district.
Gun Owners of America is currently running a "all hands on deck" call to action based on my reports I've provided them so their members can contact Gov. DeSantis so he can put pressure on the legislature to officially HB5 to him so he can sign it into law.
The National Rifle Association nor Marrion Hammer have done squat.
Currently, the Civilian Disarmament Industry must collect an additional 706,613 verified signed petitions to get on the ballot by February 1, 2020. With eight months to go and the districts they're pounding the pavement in not producing as many signatures as they need, plus the looming legal change in signature gathering.
I hope that they have a tough mountain to climb and that they suffer set backs and maybe even a few falls.
