THE BOOGEYMAN COMETH
If you don't think gun control is coming to your hometown you are very wrong. Take my hometown of Cutler Ridge, Florida for example. On April 6th, 2018, Florida State Representatives Asencio and McGhee presented a one sided, fact selected, emotionally charged townhall on not safety but on liberal gun control.
Rep. McGhee addresses Florida H.B. 219, an "assault weapons ban" Bill of which he is not a co-introducer. Rep. Asencio is one of the co-introducers. The Bill identifies an "assault weapon" as any weapon with a detachable magazine and one or more of a host of cosmetic, "scary," features. The Bill defines high capacity magazines as having more than 7 rounds. The Bill also prohibits semiauto pistols with more than 10 rounds and semiauto shotguns with more than 5 rounds.
H.B. 219 does contain a grandfather clause for current owners. The clause severely restricts where the gun can be possessed (at home, a range, a gunsmith), how it can be transferred (only to a dealer), and how it can be transported (unloaded). The Bill treats the possession, sale and transportation of magazines similarly. Owners would be required to apply for a “certificate of possession”, a process and the requirements thereof which are undefined. If you fail to qualify for the “certificate of possession,” you must surrender your guns. Of course, you can always voluntarily surrender your guns to the authorities. The “certificate of possession” is essentially a firearm registration requirement. If you fail to abide by the requirements of the Bill, you will be a felon.
Nowhere in H.B. 219 does it address any of the root causes of gun violence in our society. The Bill is designed to limit the ability of people like you and I, the law abiding, average citizens who own guns. The criminal predators who roam our streets are not going to turn in their guns, they are not going to register their guns, and they surely are not going to abide by any such laws. They are going to continue to commit armed robberies, home invasions, shootings and assaults as they do now.
This Bill does one thing and one thing only. It limits me, a law abiding, retired police officer, highly trained in the use of firearms, a firearms instructor, a person who has never committed a crime. A person who has used a firearm in a civilian capacity to save life, has never had a firearm stolen, and never used a firearm in an questionable or improper manner. Someone society should recognize as a responsible gun owner. People like us, the majority of gun owners in this nation.
You know, I get it, school shootings are emotional, leave us feeling vulnerable, they scare us, and most importantly threaten our children. Let us enact “common sense” legislation to combat all violence in society, not legislation that makes honest, decent citizens into criminals. These legislators do not know any better, they are not educated on firearms, they are trying to do what they believe is the right thing. But this is simply nothing more than boogeyman legislation.
Also, what I notice in this legislation as well as the “ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN OF 2018” introduced by the Democrats earlier this year in Congress, is the Ruger Mini 14 rifle does not qualify as an “assault weapon.” Unless of course it is equipped with a pistol grip or a “high capacity magazine.” The boogeyman features. The “ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN OF 2018,” introduced in Congress specifically exempts the Mini 14 as well as the Mini 30 in the appendix. The Ruger Mini 14 is a gas operated semiautomatic rifle that shoots the same bullet as the AR 15, has the same barrel length, has a similar rate of fire, is just as lethal, but looks more like a traditional hunting rifle. The Mini 14 was used in so called “mass shootings” in 1999, 1998, 1993, 1991 and most notably in 1986 during the Sunnyland, Florida FBI shootout that left FBI Agents Dove and Grogan dead and five other agents wounded. “Assault Weapons Bans” are nothing more than the banning of cosmetic, boogeyman features that make certain guns look scary.
The full text of Florida H.B. 219 can be read here:
https://flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2018/219/BillText/Filed/PDF