Dear P5 Guy
Following the tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that took the lives of 19 children and two teachers, I heard from so many in our state about the need to support commonsense legislation that follows the action I took as Governor of Florida after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. I cannot tell you how much I truly appreciate hearing from you.
Since the tragedy in Uvalde, many people have been eager to compare the bill passed by Congress this week to the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act that we passed in Florida. These bills are not the same at all and I think it is important to explain the differences.
Our response in Florida was the product of a collaborative, well-defined and transparent process. The bill passed by Congress this week was the result of secret backroom dealings that did not include input from the majority of Republican members, committee hearings, nor opportunities for amendments, giving members of the Senate barely an hour to read the legislative text before we were asked to vote on it the first time.
In Florida, we used a thorough process that included meetings with mental health, education, and law enforcement experts to get valuable feedback on our bill. At the conclusion of that process, I signed a bill that improved school safety and has kept guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals and those suffering with mental illness, all while ensuring strong due process protections that stop unlawful infringement on the constitutional rights of law-abiding Floridians.
The risk protection order provisions in the law we passed in Florida ensure that law enforcement is involved from the very beginning, requiring police to evaluate a complaint before bringing it before a judge. This is important for two reasons. First, it ensures that law enforcement professionals who are trained to evaluate threats are the ones who make determinations about the risk an individual poses to themselves or others. Second, it ensures that these determinations about whether to limit access to a firearm are made by an entity that can be held accountable for civil rights violations. This is important because it puts protections in place against a law enforcement agency abusing its power and unlawfully infringing on the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Floridians. I will never accept anything less.
The bill passed by Congress this week abandons Florida’s model for risk protection orders and allows even the most radical policies with the weakest due process protections, like California’s red flag law, to be implemented and supported with federal funding. That is simply not acceptable. Ironclad due process protections are essential to protecting the constitutional rights of Americans and we can never compromise on that.
This bill also allows convicted domestic abusers to have the opportunity to automatically get a gun. This has been grossly under-reported and was not included in the “framework” of the bill that was published last week, but it demands our attention.
When I was Governor of Florida, I always weighed past domestic abuse when considering a restoration of gun rights through the clemency process. I will never support soft-on-crime policies like this. Let me be clear, any man that abuses a woman is a coward, and he should not automatically be able to own a firearm after any set amount of time.
While there are elements of the bill passed this week that I support, like its incorporation of the Luke and Alex School Safety Act that I’ve been fighting to pass for years, the lack of specific and ironclad due process protections, and soft-on-crime policies for convicted domestic abusers, cannot be ignored. As Florida’s U.S. Senator, I remain committed to pursuing commonsense measures to protect our communities and our schools from acts of targeted criminal violence and continue to advocate for the passage of the EAGLES Act to provide the tools and resources needed to prevent future tragedies.
Looking forward, I will continue to pursue policies that will keep our families and communities safe while zealously defending the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans. That is the promise I made to the families of our state when you elected me to this office, and I will never waiver from that responsibility.
Sincerely,
Rick Scott
United States Senator
My reply from Senator Scott on firearms restrictions.
Firearms and Senator Scott
So, who do we have "on deck" that can primary his a$$? And Rubio?
The tell was right at the beginning...."commonsense legislation"