Florida Shooters Network

With Florida’s new 60 Day Legislative Session starting on January 14th. The questions being asked of course what the mood in the Capitol in regards to the 2nd Amendment. Of course Democratic Lawmakers are pushing for and filing Anti-Gun Bills like magazine bans, assault weapon bans, the end of State Preemption laws, the repeal of self defense laws, etc. But the real question is what are Florida’s Republicans supporting and backing? After all, the Republican Party of Florida has a supermajority in the House and Senate.

So what’s the word? It is quite simple actually. Nothing.

While Rep. Anthony Sabatini has introduced an Open Carry Bill and a College/University Campus Carry Bill. There is little support outside the House for it. Why? Because Senate President Bill Galvano is still pushing for Universal Background Checks.

“There are myriad things in play, but the background checks are very much being looked at,” Galvano, R-Bradenton, told The News Service of Florida in a recent interview.

Galvano pointed to what is known as the “gun-show loophole,” which allows people who buy firearms to avoid the three-day waiting period and background check required when guns are purchased from federally licensed dealers.

“I think we need to really take a look at that,” he said. – WJCT News

This isn’t anything new. Back in September 2019, Sen. Galvano tasked Sen. Tom Lee, chairperson of the Senate’s Infrastructure and Security Committee to look into “investigating the causes of mass shootings and ways to avert future attacks”. – Herald Tribune News.

What came out of that committee meeting was Sen. Lee saying he personally could support more background checks.

“Of all the things I’ve reviewed, and all the ideas that have come forward, that’s the one that seems to me to make the most common sense, not just to me, but to the average Floridian.” – Tampa Bay Times, September 2019

Sen. Galvano also is in favor of expanding Florida’s Red Flag Law by allowing family members, school administrators or health care professionals to directly petition courts to remove guns from people who are claimed to pose a threat. Thereby skipping reporting the supposed issue to law enforcement. This of course is a threat to the 2nd Amendment because the burden of proof will be lowered since no actual cursory investigation will happen by Law Enforcement. Since currently Police would have to look at the facts before they presented their cases to the courts for a Red Flag Order to be issued.

Luckily, it appears that the House might hold the line and prevent Sen. Galvano’s goals from being achieved.

“They (House members) are very pro-Second Amendment and they’re going to be very hostile towards gun control or gun restrictions because they know that gun control and gun restrictions aren’t the answer,” state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, told the News Service in a telephone interview.

“There’s no rational relationship” between gun violence and gun-control laws, Sabatini said, expressing an opinion shared by many of his House Republican colleagues.

“It’s what I call a red herring,” Sabatini, a lawyer, said.

Rep. Cord Byrd, a Neptune Beach Republican and attorney who specializes in Second Amendment law, said Florida, like other states, has plenty of statutes governing firearms.

“Most of the time when we pass new gun legislation, because there’s a ton of law already on the books, it ends up infringing on the rights of law-abiding citizens,” Byrd told the News Service. “The criminals by definition are going to break the law anyway.”

Byrd, whose clients includes people fighting risk protection orders, said Florida’s red-flag law has “got problems.”

“It needs to be fixed. It does not need to be expanded,” he said. “It’s ruined people’s lives. People have lost jobs. I’m not saying we don’t need a mechanism in place, but the mechanism we have now needs to be improved.

Byrd also said expanding background checks for gun sales -- which he said results in litigation that comprises the bulk of his work -- isn’t the solution, either.

The background checks “are only as good as the data” in the state and national databases used to conduct the screenings, Byrd said.

“There are a lot of people that have to hire an attorney to get mistakes that are in the background system fixed,” he said. “It sounds good, but time after time after time in these shootings these are people that have passed the background check.”

Additionally, Ban Assault Weapons NOW! And their petition goal of getting an Assault Weapons Ban on the 2020 Ballot is pretty much dead in the water. According to the Florida Division of Elections, BAWN has 130,802 signed petitions and they need a statewide total 766,200 by February 1st.

BAWN is burning money like crazy, they’ve spent more than $17,700 on printing petitions that come pre-filled with a voter’s name, address and voter registration number, and can be sent back to them via prepaid postage. But even that is a hard pill to swallow for BAWN. It is January 9th as I write this, they still haven’t mailed out the petitions yet.

To put it bluntly, they only have 17% of the petitions they need signed. So it appears that 2020’s ballot will be gun control free come November. Now, that doesn’t mean the fight is over.

Patti Brigham, president of the Florida League of Women Voters and committee member of Ban Assault Weapons Now, said the mailers are just an example of how important it is to “make the public aware that this initiative is critical to the safety of all Floridians.”

She said while they are trying to remain optimistic, they plan on continuing the campaign into the next election cycle if they don’t make it to the 2020 ballot.

“We’re just doing anything we can to get petitions signed,” she said. – Tampa Bay Times

BAWN of course has stated they will keep trying and if they can't make it for the 2020 ballot, they will try for the 2022 ballot.

Additionally, a number of Florida’s Cities have filed a lawsuit against the State’s Preemption Law and claim that the personal fiscal penalty levied against City and County officials is unconstitutional if they violate State Law by passing local laws and ordinances that institute gun control.

Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson sided with local governments against the gun law in July of 2019. He addressed a concern for protecting governmental officials in their decision-making processes with a “legislative immunity”.

“Because local governments must have what amount to small legislatures, and because courts cannot interfere in legislative processes, neither this court, nor any other court in Florida, can enforce the civil penalty provisions (of the law) against local legislators,” Dodson said. – The Capitolist

Currently, the Governor and Attorney General are fighting the County Court’s ruling and appealing it to the District Court of Appeals.

Lawyers for Attorney General Ashley Moody and Gov. Ron DeSantis took the case to the Tallahassee-based 1st District Court of Appeals, and in a brief last month, cited a “hierarchical relationship” between state and local governments and pointed out the Florida Constitution “subjugates local governments’ authority to that of the Florida Legislature.”

So it appears that the Status Quo of gun ownership will be currently preserved in the legislative side of things and I don’t see the State Preemption Law being repealed via the judiciary since if the Direct Court of Appeals sides with the County Court, it will go before the State Supreme Court and currently, Gov. DeSantis has a open seats that he will make appointments to and that will tip the court favorably in his corner.

With Florida swinging more blue than purple every election, I really don't have a lot of hope for the future but I trust your analysis and judgement because it is usually well written and informed.

I hope you keep your eye on this and keep us informed here of developments. Thank you for this.

Yes, keep us posted

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

Thank you for posting this info.

Instead of asking someone else to keep THEIR EYE ON IT,
The rest of us who value their 2A rights need to get off their lazy asses and get involved by researching on the net or finding out in other ways what's going on instead of expecting others to do it for them.

Its going to take take every one of us to keep interested and report on what these clowns are doing that WE elected.

If not.............

You'll wake up one day and say " When the hell did that happen" and by then it will be too late !

Gunnyhiway wrote: ↑Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:41 pm Instead of asking someone else to keep THEIR EYE ON IT,
The rest of us who value their 2A rights need to get off their lazy asses and get involved by researching on the net or finding out in other ways what's going on instead of expecting others to do it for them.

Its going to take take every one of us to keep interested and report on what these clowns are doing that WE elected.

If not.............

You'll wake up one day and say " When the hell did that happen" and by then it will be too late !

THIS

Sen. Tom Lee of the Senate's Committee on Infrastructure and Security brought up SPB 7028 yesterday. The committee is made up of eight members, five Republicans, three Democrats. All voted unanimously for SPB 7028 and passed the proposal, making it an official bill.

Click here for the video of the Committee Meeting.

This bill is Senate President Galvano's pride and joy. Remember when I said early last year Sen. Galvano tasked Sen. Lee to look at ways to "stop mass shootings". Well, this is the result.

It started as a proposed committee bill. This means it wasn't introduced by a single Senator and instead was the creation of the Senate itself. The glossary of the FL State Senate states a PCB is a "proposal that may represent a mandated review, repeal scheduled by law, or, with the Senate President's prior approval, an additional subject of broad committee significance as determined by the committee chair. When the idea is expanded, is drafted in bill form, receives a favorable vote by the committee, and is filed, it becomes a bill."

SPB 7028 is Universal Background Checks and the expansion of Red Laws. The summary of the bill states the following.

PROPOSED BILL by Infrastructure and Security

Public Safety; Requiring emergency medical technicians and paramedics to disclose certain confidential communications to law enforcement agencies to communicate a threat under certain circumstances; requiring specified licensees, rather than psychiatrists, to disclose certain confidential communications to law enforcement agencies to communicate a threat under certain circumstances; authorizing a person who is not a licensed importer, a licensed manufacturer, or a licensed dealer and who chooses to not use a licensed importer, a licensed manufacturer, or a licensed dealer to facilitate a private sale of his or her firearm to sell the firearm if he or she complies with specified requirements, etc.

I was unable to attend due to pressing family issues. But the NRA was there being represented by Marion Hammer and Moms Demand Action was there too.

Florida officially has a Republican backed Universal Background Bill in play. Let's see if the House will stand fast.

SPB 7028 passed over the strong objections of Marion Hammer (NRA), who called it;

“nothing less than gun control on steroids."

The Committee Chair, Sen. Tom Lee said;

“I empathize that any time somebody breaks the law, we come in and pass something, and law-abiding citizens are imposed upon. I get it, this committee bill is our best effort to try to improve public safety on the margins here, it is not a perfect system. I know that you don’t see NRA members in the headlines of these mass shootings. But we have a job to do. We can’t just sit by idly while our children are killing children and pretend this isn’t happening.”

When the bill came to a vote, Sen. Aaron Bean (R) walked out. The rest of the committee voted unanimously for the bill.

This bill lacks a companion measure in the House. Sen. Lee said House leaders are "well aware we're working on this." since this is a Senate measure and is Senate President Galvano's top priority.

Sen. Lee stated;

"Frankly, a lot of this is going to happen president-to-speaker and work down from there. But they’re very well aware that this is a priority for the president."

This bill does the following.

Requires that during a private sale, the seller would be required to check the person’s ID to make sure they’re legally allowed to own the weapon and fill out a form recording the transaction.

The form would include a list of questions for the buyer, such as whether they’re a felon, a fugitive from justice, or have anything else in their history that would prevent them from owning a gun. The seller would then confirm that they have “no knowledge or reason to believe that the purchaser is of unsound mind.” The form would have to be witnessed and signed by a notary public, but the bill doesn’t require the seller to do anything with the form.

Sen. Lee said it would be in the seller’s “best interests” to hold on to the form indefinitely, “should this weapon ultimately get used in the commission of a crime.”

Not filling out the forms would be a second-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to 60 days in jail.

Requires that loaded firearms be securely stored to prevent anyone under the age of 18 from accessing them. The current age in the law is 16. The penalty is still a second-degree misdemeanor, carrying up to 60 days in jail.

Requires that loaded firearms also be kept securely stored to prevent anyone of “unsound mind” from accessing them. The penalty is also second-degree misdemeanor.

Requires paramedics and other emergency medical workers to report to police people who are a danger to themselves or the public. The provision currently exists for mental health workers.

Assigns the Florida Department of Law Enforcement with creating a statewide “threat assessment” system to prevent active shooters and assigns the department 37 full-time positions and nearly $6 million.

Florida rapidly is becoming New Jersey.