* Low-caliber Florida Legislature: Banning assault weapons won’t happen. Too many craven GOPsters more accountable to intimidating NRA cross hairs than their own conscience and vulnerable constituents. But arming school personnel makes sense? Talk about a “basket of deplorables.”
* If ever there were a Senate roll call vote not to be missed, it would have been the recent one in Tallahassee on an assault weapons ban. The one that symbolically said so much about values, priorities and political guts. The one that fell short by a 20-17 margin. The one missed by Dana Young.
* As we well know, Florida cities are precluded from passing local gun-control legislation. Local officials can be fined and removed from office if they enact gun rules. We are, to be sure, the Gunshine State. Recall that Mayor Bob Buckhorn couldn’t even convince Gov. Rick Scott to help get a public-safety exemption for a gun-free zone during the 2012 Republican Convention when the threats ranged from anarchists to terrorists.
It’s somewhat encouraging–but also embarrassing–that it can take a constitutional amendment–not a common-sense measure by the state legislature–to ban assault weapons for non-law enforcement or non-military use. It speaks volumes that Coral Spring Mayor Skip Campbell is planning to lead a drive to do just that. The stark reality is that this Legislature is something to be worked around–not worked with when it comes to public safety and guns. Disgraceful.