According to the NRA, Florida’s Landmark Gun Bill the Result of “Bullying and Coercion”

The Florida legislature, pushed by Parkland students and their parents, passed a gun bill which was signed into law on March 9^th by Governor Rick Scott.  Marion Hammer, the NRA’s Florida lobbyist, said it passed in “a display of bullying and coercion.”

Please meet one of the bullies that makes the NRA tremble.  Her name is Naomi Wadler. She is 11 years old. On March 7^th, 800 people packed into T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, VA, to attend a rally organized by Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) and attended by Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), who represents the Parkland area, along with Fred Guttenberg, parent of a Parkland victim. Naomi reported that she and her friends encountered resistance when they organized a walkout after the Parkland shooting. “They said it wouldn’t be safe for us on the lawn. I asked them to explain how we will be safe in a classroom. I hope when I’m older in middle school and high school, I won’t have to be afraid of being shot in my own classroom.” ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/i-dont-want-to-be-shot-and-killed-at-my-school-students-voices-dominate-at-gun-control-forum/2018/03/0851efeb2a-2265-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c-story.html )

Although laughingly modest compared to what other nations have done, but remarkable for an NRA-owned state, state legislators, after visiting the bloodstained hallways at the high school and hearing the impassioned testimonies of parents and youth, ended their three week debate by passing a bi-partisan bill 67-50 that would:

• Impose a waiting period of three days for purchase of a long gun;
• Raise the minimum age for purchasing these weapons to 21;
• Ban the sale of bump stocks that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more rapidly;
• Empower state law enforcement to temporarily remove weapons from people deemed to be at risk to themselves or others (necessitates judicial review). These measures are often labeled GVROs (Gun Violence Restraining Orders) or ERPO (Extreme Risk Protective Orders);
• Provide funds to sheriff’s offices to train and arm employees who do not exclusively teach in the classrooms; and
• Fund additional school security and mental health treatment services.

The bill addresses neither the banning of military weapons, the kind the shooter used at Stoneman Douglas High School, nor closing the gun show loophole.

Here in DC we witness a different story where Congress is poised to ease, not tighten gun laws. A bill to legalize gun silencers, controlled since the 1930s and absurdly called the “Hearing Protection Act,” is legislatively alive, as is the “Concealed-carry Reciprocity” bill that allows the carrying of concealed guns from states that permit them to all states, “regardless of local prohibitions.” As the New York Times pointed out on March 7, “…a stalker, domestic abuser or suspected terrorist from a low-regulation state can tote concealed weapons at will around the country.”

It seems that the further legislators get from real local pain and closer to the omnipresent voices of lobbyists here in DC, the further we get from sensible gun legislation.

Well, federal legislators better start trembling, because the bullies are coming.  And some of them are 11 years old.