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Escambia’s Morgan, State Sheriff’s Association Backing Evacuation Gun Bill
March 5, 2015
A National Rifle Association-supported measure that failed to win legislative approval a year ago appears to have a clear shot of advancing now that it has the backing of the Florida Sheriffs Association.
House and Senate committees Wednesday approved similar bills (SB 290 and HB 493) that would allow legal gun owners to carry their guns without concealed-weapons licenses during the first 48 hours after emergency evacuation orders are given. A version of the proposal, which didn’t include the evacuation time frame or other new language, died in the Senate last year amid a contentious debate.
Escambia’s Morgan, State Sheriff’s Association Backing Evacuation Gun Bill
The proposal has the support of Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan.
“If it’s a legal weapon, you should be able to carry it when evacuating to protect you and your family,” Morgan said. “After Hurricane Katrina, they were disarming law abiding citizens…and that violates the second amendment. In addition, Morgan said, if evacuees take their weapons with them, they won’t be left behind to be stolen in any possible looting.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, representing the Florida Sheriffs Association, said Wednesday his organization has altered its stance due to the new provisions. Along with the 48-hour time frame, the new version allows people to carry concealed weapons without licenses as long as they are “in the act of evacuating,” regardless of their locations.
Last year “it didn’t provide enough parameters, enough definitive information as to what somebody could be doing and not doing in a time frame,” Gualtieri said.
In addition to the 48-hour window for people to carry weapons while they get away from evacuation zones once an order is given, the bill would allow the governor to extend such an order by an additional 48 hours.
Sen. Jeff Brandes, a St. Petersburg Republican who sponsored the proposal last year and this year, said efforts to alter the proposal in 2014 only created more questions, such as the possibility of limiting the carrying of concealed weapons to county borders.
“The problem is that the county line in Pinellas is the middle of a bridge sometimes,” Brandes said after the meeting. “It actually made it worse for individuals because there was complete ambiguity with the law.”
The House backed the measure 80-36 a year ago and the NRA made clear last May it would seek to bring back the issue during the 2015 legislative session, describing the sheriffs association at the time as declaring “war on the Second Amendment.”
On Wednesday, the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee voted 9-2 to back this year’s proposal, sponsored by Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers. The votes in opposition were from Democrats Clovis Watson of Alachua and Randolph Bracy of Orlando.
The Senate Community Affairs Committee backed its version of the measure 5-1. Sen. Joseph Abruzzo, a Boynton Beach Democrat who supported the proposal, expressed concern like Morgan that people being forced to evacuate because of a hurricane must “leave their guns in their home for looters or anybody else can come in and take them.”
But in voting against the measure, Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, said after the meeting she has concerns that more weapons will be on the road during a declared disaster.
“I just envision people leaving in an emergency and people having guns when law enforcement is not at its best in terms of being able to enforce what goes on,” Thompson said.
The Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted 4-1 on Feb. 16 to back the proposal, and the next stop before reaching the Senate floor is the Rules Committee.
The House measure must still go through the Economic Development & Tourism Subcommittee and the Judiciary Committee.
Comments
12 Responses to “Escambia’s Morgan, State Sheriff’s Association Backing Evacuation Gun Bill”
CCP is an infringement on my right to own and bear arms.
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
Infringe: The action of limiting or undermining something, or : to wrongly limit or restrict (something, such as another person’s rights)
Mike Amerson, I dare you to cite Florida State Statute to prove your mystical law. Please, prove us all wrong. Statute number from Florida state statue book only.
Might not hear back from you because IT DOESNT EXIST!
We do not need this bill, as we have the 2nd amendment to the US Constitution.
If you infringe upon my civil rights, I will remember the oath that I swore to many years ago, “TO PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION FROM ALL ENEMIES, foreign and domestic.
Mike Amerson, please stop posting false information, the state of Florida does not require you to have a “two step rule” to retrieve your gun, that is a myth I wish people would stop telling. You do not need to have a concealed weapons permit to carry inside your car, a thou it is required to be in a holster with retention strap, OR nor readily available ex. trunk glove box.(it can be loaded as long as it is in a holster out of sight OR nor readily available) and out of sight. Also this bill isn’t for caring in your car concealed, it is for carrying on your person concealed during an evacuation, so to answer your question “what about on the way back” you have to keep your firearm in your vehicle and not on your person, of you do not have a CCP.
Don, you need to make sure you check the Laws from State to State on having the weapon in your vehicle. Where the Law states in Florida that you have to have the two step rule to retrieve the weapon in the vehicle and it can’t be readily accessible to the driver, other State Laws are completely different. Some States want the weapon unloaded, some want it in the trunk etc..
Don,
Florida is a non-registration state.
Second, yes, you will be able to carry your weapon without the need of a permit for 48 hours IF YOU ARE IN THE ACT OF EVACUATION.
Personally, I’ll be staying home and protecting what’s mine will ALL of my weapons.
It’ll really suck to be a looter…
the law breakers are going to have there guns all the time no matter what the law says so you mean to tell me that this democrat Geraldine Thompson is suggesting that when the law abiding citizens cant get help by police because there so busy we should not be able to defend ourselves against the criminals who have guns no matter what the law says that is just like something Obama would be for I am ashamed that my state of Florida would vote in one person that would be Obama like
What about after 48 hours on your way back?
Is this in reference to Hunting weapons needed to be carried to other family home or so, NO wanting to leave them where Looter might get?
I wish to thank our Father in Heaven for the “GOOD COMMON SENSE ” of
the Florida Law makers.
We need them in Washington D C.
Of course Sen. Geraldine Thompson (D) would believe that people will not know what to do without the government telling them what to do. Without the democrats telling us what to do after an emergency society would devolve armed chaos (sarcasm.)
I don’t get the big deal? any registered weapon can be carried lawfully in your vehicle out of site without a ccp,it can also be transported in a carrying case without a ccp,so are they saying you may carry the weapon on your person in public for 48 hours without a ccp?