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League Of Women Voters Targets Evers’ Campus Gun Bill
August 12, 2015
The League of Women Voters of Florida will start building a coalition Thursday to fight newly filed bills, including that would allow people to carry concealed weapons on college and university campuses.
But Rep. Greg Steube, a Sarasota Republican who is sponsoring the House version of the bill, remains undeterred. The proposal, which would apply to people who have concealed-weapons licenses, failed to pass the Legislature during the 2015 session.
“A lot of controversial things in this process take several years to accomplish,” Steube said Monday while in Tallahassee for a special session on redistricting. “I’ve made it through every committee in the House (with the proposal), and I’m going to continue to fight for something that I personally believe in and that I think is the best policy for this state.”
Steube and Senate Criminal Justice Chairman Greg Evers, R-Baker, have filed the campus-carry bills (SB 68 and HB 4001) for lawmakers to consider during the 2016 legislative session, which starts in January.
Evers and Steube also sponsored the 2015 proposal, which sparked heavy debate and drew opposition from the state university system’s Board of Governors, university police chiefs and the 12 public universities. The National Rifle Association-backed proposal ultimately stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Supporters of the proposal argue, at least in part, that it would allow people to defend themselves if attacked on campuses, including in cases of sexual assault. But opponents contend that guns combined with such things as academic pressures, alcohol and drug use put students at risk.
The League of Women Voters on Thursday will help host a one-day “Gun Safety Summit” at the First Unitarian Church of Orlando to put together the new coalition and to address the campus-carry proposal.
The goal is to make the opposition stronger than during the 2015 session, by uniting with students, professors, administrators and the national organization Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus, said Patti Brigham, chair of the league’s Gun Safety Committee.
“College campuses are safe places,” Brigham said. “Guns have no place there unless carried by police.”
Steube said he’d like to hear personally from some of the opponents, something he felt was missing from the 2015 debate on the issue.
“With all the things that unfortunately are happening in our world — shootings in Chattanooga at a recruiting station, shootings at movie theaters — I think law-abiding citizens should have the right to defend themselves, and that Second Amendment right shouldn’t be stripped simply because they walk on to a college campus,” Steube said.
Steube had a brief discussion about the campus-carry proposal with Rep. Alan Williams, D-Tallahassee, on the House floor after Monday’s session.
“I don’t think bringing additional guns on campus is the right way to go about doing it,” Williams said.
Williams said he’s working to bring to Tallahassee for the 2016 session gun-control advocates from groups such as Americans for Responsible Solutions, which was founded by former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz.; the Washington, D.C.-based Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence; and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.
“We started ’stand your ground,’ ” Williams said, referring to legislative approval of a controversial self-defense law. “We want to make sure we don’t start anything else that’s going to be detrimental to not only our state and our citizens but other states and their citizens.”
Another controversial gun-related measure (SB 72) proposed for the 2016 session would allow designated employees or volunteers to carry concealed weapons at public schools and other educational facilities. The bill, filed by Evers, is virtually identical to a proposal that failed to pass during the 2015 session.
Under the bill, school superintendents could designate trained people to carry weapons on school grounds. Those people could be honorably discharged military veterans, active-duty members of the military, National Guard or reserves or active-duty or former law-enforcement officers. The measure would not require school superintendents to make such appointments.
by The News Service of Florida
Comments
18 Responses to “League Of Women Voters Targets Evers’ Campus Gun Bill”
Solomon – Talk about a post that’s full of bunk…
Have you got any idea what it actually takes to get a CCW Permit? It requires a thorough background investigation, including being fingerprinted. You are also required to demonstrate proof of firearms training. Hardly as simple as buying a gun at a gun show (which requires an NICS Background check AND a three-day Waiting Period), attending some training and off you go….
You also claim that women (“purported victims”) would do more harm carrying than good – How do you reconcile the fact that there are between 650,000 and 2 MILLION Defensive Gun Uses per year, compared to about 10,000 homicides? Did you know that CCW Holder, as a group, are far less likely that the general public to commit a felony or serious crime, and are, in fact, more law-abiding than the police?
Your next paragraph is equally ridiculous – nobody is suggesting arming “immature kids on campus”. Why can’t you understand, this law would only allow CCW Holders, who MUST BE 21 (and therefore an adult, and not an immature kid) to carry on campus. The State of Florida has determined that these people are qualified and entitled to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense, what gives a University the right to prevent me from doing so simply because I enter the campus?
And as for your last sentence, “more guns = more people shot” – another catchphrase from the antigunners. If that were the case, how do you account for the FACT that, while lawful concealed carry and private gun ownership are at all-time highs, the violent crime rate and homicide rate have dropped to about 50-year lows. (It’s easy to confirm this by googling “FBI violent crime rate falls again”.
If you want to participate in a meaningful discussion about gun control, you should at least have some basic information or facts to support your case. I haven’t seen anything but rhetoric from any of your posts.
Never claimed that the rhetorical scenario has occurred, and I never said anything about underage students. I merely posited that Jim’s post was full of bunk based on a falsehood.
And that the purported victims he claimed could be safer by carrying would only cause more harm.
Yes, our concealed permit program is really effective–buy a gun at a gun show, sit for a few hours of “gun safety” and you’re good to go.
Hardly sufficient to allow immature kids to have a weapon on campus.
Here’s the math: More guns=more people shot.
“So yeah–let’s arm the victims who can try to pull their .38 while drunk or drugged and shoot the dorms up.”
Sorry to you too – nobody is talking about arming underage students. In order to carry on campus you would have to already have a CCW Permit, which requires that you are over 21 years old.
And I challenge you to name ONE case where “a victim pulls their .38 while drunk or drugged and shoots up the dorm” in the 14 States that already allow Campus Carry….we’ll wait….
“One of the primary crimes occurring on campis is forcible rape and sexual assault by armed perpetrators.”
Sorry Jim, that is incorrect. Burglary is the most prevalent crime on Florida’s college campuses, followed by motor vehicle theft. Around 60% of rape/forcible assaults on campuses are classified as “date rape” where the attacker and victim are known to one another and drugs/alcohol are a factor. (US DoE Campus Safety & Security Tool)
So yeah–let’s arm the victims who can try to pull their .38 while drunk or drugged and shoot the dorms up.
Great plan.
The LWV is hurting the very people they are purporting to help – women. One of the primary crimes occurring on campis is forcible rape and sexual assault by armed perpetrators. The League of Women Voters is essentially helping remove an important means of self-defense from our wives and daughters on campus.
That’s OK ladies, I’m the one who opened the door at the store for you, with no acknowledgement from you, just part of my upbringing. As a part of my over 30 years as a LEO, I have already observed what is happening around me, military and police call this “situational awareness.” I am carrying a legal concealed firearm. If something breaks bad I have already thought this scenario over many times. No problem, I’ll open the door for you when we leave. You don’t even know I exist.
The League showing their true colors again. You can’t expect a leopard to change its spots or a leftist anti-constitution organization to face the truth. Please, let’s learn from historical truth; most mass shootings occur in “gun-free zones” such as schools and churches. Let’s pray that our patriotic legislators finally prevail in there attempts to make college/university campuses safer.
RGM
“Feds slow and struggling to keep up with growing list of college sexual assault investigations”
Headlines today from a major news reporting agency.
Bad time to be a part of the League of Naive Women Voters of any state.
“College campuses are safe places,” Brigham said. “Guns have no place there unless carried by police.”
That’s one of the most naïve statements I’ve ever heard in support of anti-gun legislation. I’m curious what makes her think they are so safe? Has she not researched the criminal activities that take place on today’s college campuses?
League of Women Voters of Florida…making Florida campuses safer for rapists and robbers one campus at a time.
Because everyone knows that you aren’t a real American unless you’re a victim.
I hope and PRAY that someone is there with a GUN at the SCHOOLS where MY GRAND CHILDREN and GREAT GRAND CHILDREN are attending , when some
FOOL comes in SHOOTING INNOCENT CHILDREN.
Are you kidding me? How much data needs to be released before folks will realize that law abiding citizens, who are well-armed, cause a drop in crime. The Chattanooga shooting…Columbine…The Movie Theatre massacre…all would have not happened entirely or would have been severely curtailed, had there been a citizen with a weapon close by. I’m so tired of hearing the never-ending moan of the left when it comes to gun rights. Do you really think criminals will obey your “gun free zone”? I’m so over it. Please go live in the People’s Republic of China or in North Korea if you don’t want to deal with the 2nd amendment.
“Those people could be honorably discharged military veterans”
I’ll take that job! I believe when you setup a system with people of character, non-criminal record, a history of non-violence, I think you could have a good system in place for protection. Would it be perfect, no, nothing is, but I believe it would be better than what we have currently, besides it’s people that kill people, not guns…duh!!!
Guns are not the enemy. They are a tool just like a hammer, a car or a knife. If an adult, (21 or over) has a concealed weapons permit, he or she has passed a background check and has been trained in the use of a firearm.
Why not allow them to carry on campus? The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. Very simple and the anti-gunners would think different if their child were hiding behind a desk while some psycho was shooting up the place. Even a .22 round would go through a cheap wooden desk.
Not the best form of defense. I could be wrong, but I aint….
“College campuses are safe places?” Try telling that to the three people who were shot last November on the FSU Campus. More people could have been shot and killed while waiting for the police to arrive. Fortunately they weren’t, but armed students – or non-student library patrons – could have stopped the shooting earlier. And, I believe that if gunmen-to-be were aware that there were ARMED students and/or staff on campuses, there would far less shootings at schools, from elementary schools all the way to colleges. ALL these shooting – including Ft. Hood and the recruiting station in TN – happen in “Gun Free Zones.” How many times have you read about an “active shooter” at a police station? Gun show? . . . Yeah. Me, neither.
Why can’t these people get it through their heads that this Bill will NOT allow students to carry concealed, UNLESS THEY ARE 21 and ALREADY have a Concealed Carry Permit. This type of legislation has been passed in a number of states, and there have been zero cases of what they are predicting (accidental shootings, drunken gun-fights), meanwhile, the number of violent crimes on Campuses and other Gun Free zones continues.
Praise GOD for women. Thank you League of Women voters, leave it to a woman to stand up to the Gun Lobby.
Mr. Williams, tell that bull to James Workman. A 77 year old man at the time, he had to confront a man trying to get into a fema trailer Workman and his wife were staying in due to damage to their home from Hurricane Ivan. The man did get inside apparently rushing towards Workmans wife.
Nothing controversial about that Mr. Williams. You people have just let folks take it too far, trying to use self defense over loud music at a gas station. Use the law for it’s intended purpose and you have no problem.