In some areas, such as Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, California, New Jersey, New York, there are are massive gun restrictions. Heavily burdensome. Yet, interestingly, there are a lot of crimes that occur which involve the use of a gun. But, hey, CNN
The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which killed 17 people, has put the focus on Florida’s gun laws. For instance, the state doesn’t require a permit or a license for someone to own a gun.
Here are some facts about the gun laws in the Sunshine State, from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action:
The right to bear arms is found in the first article of Florida’s constitution: “The right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and of the lawful authority of the state shall not be infringed…” (OMG, right to use firearms to protect oneself!!!!!)
- You don’t need a permit or license to buy a gun, nor do you have to register a firearm. (come back to this)
- You don’t need a permit to conceal carry a rifle or shotgun, although you do need it to conceal carry a handgun. (how do you conceal a rifle or shotgun? Open carry is not allowed, except for hunting)
- The state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services must issue a concealed weapons license to an applicant as long as the person meets a certain set of requirements, including being a US citizen, being the age of 21 or older, not having a felony conviction and demonstrates competence with a firearm.
- You can buy as many guns as you want at one time, because Florida doesn’t regulate that either. (and you have to pass a background check)
- Gun sellers don’t have to get a state license to sell firearms. (They need a federal firearms permit, and must meet state requirements)
- The state does require a three-day waiting period before you can buy a gun.
- And Florida does not regulate assault weapons, .50-caliber rifles and large capacity ammunition magazines. (like most states. You can buy a .50 in most states, they’re just really expensive, and the ammo is really, really expensive. Has anyone used one for a crime spree?)
The permit/license thing is a canard. It doesn’t matter if you have one, as you’ve gone through a federal background check to be able to purchase the firearm. My handgun is not registered with the state of North Carolina nor with Wake County. Only one county in NC requires registration, being the heavily Democratic run Durham County (which has lots of “gun crime” in the main city of Durham). This is all fear-mongering and misrepresentation.
The Giffords Law Center, a gun-control advocacy group that tracks firearms legislation, gave Florida an “F” grade for its gun laws in 2016. The law center says Florida has 12 gun deaths per 100,000, the 25th-highest rate in the nation.
Florida also has the “stand your ground” law, which the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action describes as a person having no “duty to retreat” if they’re attacked in a place where they have a legal right to be.
ZOMG, you can actually protect yourself? How rude!
The ramblings from the FL killer’s online presence was typical White Nationalist rantings, even including a MAGA cap. Anti-Black, homophobic, anti-Semantic, anti-Muslim threats…
Not all MAGA cap wearing, White Nationalist hate spewing, gun worshiping male is a potential mass shooter. But this guy was.
It’s interesting that within an hour of the killings that the White-wing noise machine had identified, and rapidly spread the meme, that the mass murderer was a registered Democrat, ISIS affiliated, Antifa member, illegal immigrant… even commenters here were caught spreading the misinformation, possibly started by Russian agents.
Actually, he wasn’t, but when does Jeffery worry about facts? This nut was just a nut who wanted to kill people, no better than Jeffery’s “Muslims”.
And, if Jeffery (can’t even spell his name properly) really wants to stop these murders, he might want to get behind removing all the 60s psychobabble from our laws that makes it impossible to lock these nuts away until they murder a couple dozen people.
You know, I hadn’t even noticed that Jeffrey spelled his name ‘alternatively’ until now!
Is he actually ‘Jef-fer-ee?’
Like Arthur of Brittany, son of Prince Geoffrey, Count of Brittany, he’ll be passed over for the succession to the throne, beaten out by Prince (Donald) John, Count of Mar-a-lago.
And we’ve heard your tale of how your dad wanted a daughter…
As it happens, he had two!
Oh, wait, you’re trying to claim that he wanted a daughter first, hence my name. Well, truth is that my mother picked my name, not my father, and Dana was a much more common male name in 1953. I think the actor Dana Andrews was her inspiration, but who knows?
When we first moved to Kentucky, in March of my third grade year, they brought me up front to be introduced to the class. I was the tallest, skinniest kid there, the first one wearing glasses, had a much different accent, and I had a name more common to girls than boys. I was the Yankee in a classroom full of Rebels. Yeah, I had to develop a thick skin about a lot of things, so ragging me about my name bothers me not in the slightest.
In fact, when I have to repeat my name, when people don’t think they’ve heard me right, I often say, “Dana, you know, the girl’s name.” Doesn’t bother me at all.
Even though it was a small school in a small town, there were four other Danas there, though all younger than me. As it happened, the other four Danas used the girls restrooms, and this was at a time where the only way to ‘identify’ as a girl was to be an actual girl.
Once, many years later, I was asked out by a girl named Dana. I don’t know whether my name made any difference in her decision to ask me out, but it was kind of cool.
Are you advocating locking up all white, MAGA wearing males, who talk about “the enemy”, and who own AR-15 styled rifles?
Not even we think that’s an appropriate response, although it would make America a safer and more enjoyable place.
An important part of the answer to stop school mass violence is to allow the schools to defend themselves.
If the teachers and other good people in the school could carry, there would have been far fewer good people dead.
And the common knowledge that people at the school could be armed would stop most assaults before they happened.
“The very atmosphere of firearms anywhere and everywhere restrains evil interference – they deserve a place of honor with all that’s good.†– George Washington
Still true.
Bill,
I’ve heard that argument before, but I don’t think it is supportable by the facts. Not counting Moslems, mass shootings seem to happen in places the shooter is familiar with. We used to call this “going postal” when adults do it. They go looking to shoot their bosses and fellow employees. Pistols would be every bit as effective, as they were at Ft hood and other places.
Shooters at schools are almost always other kids. If you want to stop them, make it illegal to talk about school shootings in the press or on the internet except in confined law enforcement seminars. In ten years, kids won’t remember that this is an option. Another thing that will help is letting public schools expel unruly children. Force their parents to take on the burden of educating them privately. Get the crazy ones out long before they are old enough to hurt others. Collective institutions are designed for groups that are all basically sane.
We already tried making murder illegal. It didn’t work.
We already tried making post offices and schools gun free zones by federal law. It didn’t work.
Lots of states have other types of gun restrictions. They don’t work.
Break out of the same old north vs south dichotomy and try something new.
Oh, and for all those times when it’s not children, just ban Moslems from the USA (except the ones that are already permanent residents or citizens).
We will still have an outlier or two every once in a while. but the school shootings will go away.
The fact is that the USA was founded by people from Europe who were fleeing not just Religious persecution, but fleeing the tyranny of serfdom. Serfs have no right to self defense because their lords don’t want them to have the ability to select a new lord. The same was true in Feudal Japan, all throughout Africa and Asia. It was true in America when white people didn’t want blacks to defend themselves. This is why any attempt to disarm 100 million Americans will be met with suspicion. It’s a human rights issue. Our most basic human right is self preservation. In America (except DC, Chicago, and NY), we have that right. Higher crime rates leads to more people wanting to defend themselves.
Long before Donald Trump was elected to be President, instead of the most corrupt person in America, private ownership of weapons was a human rights issue. It used to be an issue that Democrats supported, but that was before their rabid communist elements took control of their party. And they can depend on the dumbing down of America to help keep them in office. Black people remember the KKK, but don’t remember it was a part of the democratic party. They support gun control, but forget that gun control was a tool to suppress blacks after the civil war.
Do you really think that limiting the magazine size of semi-automatic assault weapons eliminates the ability of American “serfs” to defend themselves?
How about an expensive but effective universal background check system? UnConstitutional?
Maybe the GOP/NRA/Rusher strategy is to deport all Hispanics, shoot all teenagers, and imprison all Black men to shore up the conservative voter advantage. Otherwise, demographics hurts the TRAZI Party’s future.
We already have an instant background check system in place; Nikolas de Jesus Cruz passed his background check because:
The background check was performed when he sought to buy his weapon, and it came back clean because so many local public officials didn’t do their f(ornicating) jobs! What good does “an expensive but effective universal background check system” do if the people who should be reporting in to it don’t do their jobs?
“Maybe the GOP/NRA/Rusher strategy is to deport all Hispanics, shoot all teenagers, and imprison all Black men to shore up the conservative voter advantage. Otherwise, demographics hurts the TRAZI Party’s future.”
Gun control, especially concealed weapons laws were always aimed at disarming blacks. The NRA was formed after the civil war by Republican ex-soldiers to train freed blacks so that they could defend themselves from Dems and the Klan, but I repeat myself. The ’68 Gun Control Act was in response to large scale urban rioting by blacks of the 60’s in an effort to make it harder to get a gun by blacks and to ban them from gun ownership after felony convictions. The Saturday Night Special legislation pursued by the Dems in the late 70’s through the 80’s which was to ban cheap pistols was an effort to disarm blacks.
The GOP and the NRA cares more for blacks’ rights than you.
I’m not interested in anything you have to say on any subject. You are not tall enough for this ride.