To the Editor:
Florida’s new gun-control legislation may already be saving lives.
On March 21, the arrest was reported of the brother of Parkland AR-15 murderer, Nikolas Cruz. Sheriff’s deputies arrested Zachary Cruz for trespassing when he entered school grounds after making threatening statements. According to news account:
“The sheriff’s office also filed for a risk protection order against Zachary Cruz in circuit court Tuesday under a new “red flag law” that was just signed by the governor last week. If a judge approves the request, Cruz would be involuntarily hospitalized for a mental health evaluation and barred from possessing firearms.”
Kudos to Gov. Scott for throwing his A+ NRA rating out the window and pushing through commonsense and constitutional gun-control legislature. The legislation:
1. Creates a waiting period to buy firearms (with exceptions for cops, licensed hunters, soldiers, and concealed-carry-permit holders)
2. Bans bump stocks
3. Funds school security
4. Enacts a “red flag” law to enable to police to get a court order to remove firearms from persons shown to be dangerous and have the person involuntarily committed for a mental examination
5. Enables (but, fortunately, does not require) superintendents to arm school personnel.
What it fails to do (thanks to opposition by the NRA’s flunkies in the Florida legislature) is:
1. Ban assault-style weapons like the AR-15
2. Strengthen gun-ownership standards (e.g., right now terrorists on the no-fly list can buy guns) and background checks.
Only by voting out the NRA’s politicians (like President Trump, Senator Rubio, Congressman Webster, and state Sen. Baxley) or convincing them to change their ways can we get state and federal legislation to:
1. Ban civilian ownership of assault-style weapons
2. Tighten up firearms-ownership standards and background checks
3. Implement “red flag” laws.
None of these three proposals, or the legislation recently enacted in Florida, takes ordinary hunting or defensive firearms away from law-abiding, sane, non-terrorists (as pro-NRA President Trump, in one of his maniacal rants, recently said that the police should be able to do without due process). Likewise, none of these proposals involve the horrific idea of trying to turn educators into gunfighters or counting on our unarmed President to charge into a school to take out a shooter, as he has offered to do.
I would welcome Trump, Rubio, Webster, and/or Baxley’s attending one of the March 24 March for Our Lives Rallies, being held this Saturday in The Villages and across the nation, and announcing that they will no longer kowtow to the extreme views of the NRA or accept more of the NRA’s money and will support common-sense and constitutional gun-control legislation.
Scott Fenstermaker
Village of Winifred
