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Evers: ‘There Is A Need’ – Three Gun Measures On The Move In Senate
October 21, 2015
People with concealed-weapons licenses would be able to openly display handguns in Florida and would be able to carry firearms on state college and university campuses, under measures approved by separate Senate committees Tuesday.
One of the committees also supported a measure that might make it easier for people to claim they have stood their ground in self-defense when shooting others.
The three proposals, which still have additional committees to clear in both the House and Senate, are advancing because “there is a need,” said Sen. Greg Evers, a Baker Republican whose campus-carry proposal (SB 68) was backed 5-3 along party lines by the Senate Higher Education Committee.
“The reason you’ve got those three or four guns bills is because of issues that’s happened over the past several years,” Evers said after the meetings. “There’s a glitch for each one of those bills that really needs to be passed in order to give folks the ability to exercise their 2nd Amendment (right) and not be prosecuted for being a licensed-carry holder.”
Evers also chairs the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which voted Tuesday to support allowing Floridians with concealed-weapons licenses to openly carry firearms (SB 300) and to shift the burden of proof to the state in cases involving Florida’s “stand your ground” law (SB 344).
The “stand your ground” law says people can use deadly force and do not have a duty to retreat if they think it is necessary to prevent death or great bodily harm.
Each of the bills drew emotional testimony from people on both sides of the issues.
Florida State University student Shayna Lopez-Rivas told the Higher Education Committee of being sexually assaulted on campus two years ago and pointedly noted that “if I had a gun I wouldn’t have been raped.”
Lucia McBath, whose 17-year-old son Jordan Davis was shot to death while listening to music in a car at a Jacksonville gas station last year, implored the Criminal Justice Committee to reject what she called a “dangerous” expansion of the “stand your ground” measure that “would make it even harder to protect communities from gun violence.”
“Stand your ground laws create a culture of shoot first and ask questions later,” McBath said. “These laws embolden individuals to settle their conflicts by reaching for their firearms instead of using their words. And that is not what Florida needs. It needs common-sense gun laws.”
While the Florida Sheriffs Association hasn’t taken a position, Bradford County Sheriff Gordon Smith gave his support to the measure that would allow people to openly carry guns. That measure is sponsored by Sen. Don Gaetz, R-Niceville.
“I believe in the right of a person to protect themselves and their family the way they best feel comfortable,” Smith said. “Some people don’t like guns. I’m OK with that. Get a can of wasp spray if it works for you.”
Others in law enforcement offered a differing view.
“Unfortunately, some people want to be police officers like George Zimmerman did,” said Javier Ortiz president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police. “We don’t need George Zimmermans walking around with firearms exposed. There are a lot of law-abiding citizens out there, but unfortunately, there are some people that shouldn’t have firearms. You are tying the hands of law enforcement, and you are putting our communities at stake.”
Zimmerman was a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford when he shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012. Zimmerman, later acquitted in Martin’s death, said he shot the teen in self-defense but did not ask for the “stand your ground” legal immunity.
Approval of the three bills came a day after the release of a University of South Florida-Nielsen Sunshine State Survey that indicated 48 percent of Floridians believe the state’s gun laws aren’t restrictive enough, with another 42 percent considering the existing rules “about right.”
Of the remaining people surveyed, 7 percent consider Florida “too restrictive” and the other 3 percent provided no opinion during the survey, which was conducted from July 30 to Aug. 16.
Numbers released earlier from the survey showed almost three-quarters of Floridians — 73 percent — oppose allowing students with concealed-weapons licenses to carry guns on campus.
Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, said she wasn’t sure why lawmakers weren’t giving more credence to such polling.
“I don’t see the folks who come up or send me thousands of emails that are supportive of the gun legislation, they never address how we can reduce gun violence or how any of these bills reduce gun violence,” Jackson said. “None of them do.”
The measure that may shift the burden of proof to the state in cases involving the “stand your ground” law was filed after the Florida Supreme Court ruled that people who use the controversial defense have the burden of showing they should be shielded from prosecution. In such cases, pre-trial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants are immune from prosecution under the law. The measure instead would place the burden of proof on prosecutors in the evidentiary hearings and would apply retroactively to pending cases.
Bill sponsor Rob Bradley, R-Fleming Island, said he doesn’t see the proposal as expanding “stand your ground.”
“It’s simply incorrect to suggest that the bill would result in otherwise guilty individuals going free,” Bradley said. “If the state has sufficient evidence to successfully prosecute a defendant at a jury trial, the state will prevail in the immunity hearing before the judge and the judge will permit the case to go to trial.”
by Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida
Comments
14 Responses to “Evers: ‘There Is A Need’ – Three Gun Measures On The Move In Senate”
Sheriff Gorda Smith. Please don’t advise people to use wasp spray. With out stupid like real court, the rapist blinded by the spray will win a large lawsuit while in jail. The victim victimized again.
I first want to thank Senator Evers for being a man who understands that WE no
longer live in an America that we grew up in.
Churches were Sacred even to the most hardened criminals, but today that respect has left this great Country !!!
We had the Lords Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in Public
School, but some how We lost that reverence to our GOD.
Now, some how, and WE know who has taken Respect away from our Law Enforcement Officers, and they are there to protect US, don’t forget they are our
Friends. GOD BLESS AMERICA- IN GOD WE TRUST.
Thank you Kate for your liberal progressive view.
Now…back to the merlot!
nod, If I have a chose of them or me it’s going to be them, and yes that means I done it. But I’m still alive.
Please remember that criminals don’t care about gun laws or any other law. It is so easy for them to buy a gun on the streets from one of the gangs, or steal one from someone’s car. The police can’t be everywhere at once to protect people. Sometimes you have to protect yourself.
Dear concerned America,
you are not innocent until proven guilty you are given the presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law.
if you kill someone And are found not guilty that doesn’t mean you didn’t do it
Being the NRA nut that I am, I have had a CCP for years. I don’t back the open carry bill per say, but it would be nice to have to prevent a run in with law enforcement because some “there’s a man with a gun” nut happens to notice my weapon. The Second Amendment GUARANTEES the RIGHT to bear arms. It was put into place to protect us from a government, along with the other 9 Bill of Rights. The second protects the other 9 from being taken away. The ones with the CCP are the least of safety concerns to the general public. It’s the ones who are barred by law from owning a firearm that are a major safety concern. Those and others who do not follow the laws are the ones who love the “gun free zones”. A person holding a CCP will not violate the zone to protect the CCP from being taken away. Burden of proof falls to the state……innocent til proven guilty. TAYLOR vs KENTUCKY, 436 U.S. 478, 98 S. Ct. 1930, 56 L. Ed. 2d 468 [1978]
Open carry is not needed “to bolster [one's] manhood.” Most people who rob concealed carry people end up wishing they hadn’t. If the would-be robber knew beforehand that the person (s)he was about to rob had a firearm, then most likely (s)he would not attempt to rob the citizen. More people with open carry firearms, I am CONFIDENT, will result in lower crime rates in the end. Don’t follow your “heart” or the indoctrination the left pushes on us. Research it for yourself and use COMMON SENSE!
Kate if they are comming to Florida to cause trouble i hope it keeps them away.
“they are only protecting themselves from other who carry. Not the general public and not the many visitors to Fla”
@Kate,
No, I would be carrying to protect myself against the CRIMINALS who would do me harm and have NO RESPECT whatsoever for gun laws. I am one of those who carries with a C&C permit. Most people wouldn’t have a clue that I had a pistol in my purse or pocket. If open carry were passed, I would place it on my hip UNDER my shirt for easy access if needed. I don’t intend to monitor law abiding citizens or visitors to our state for harmful intentions, unless they demonstrate to me that action is needed. Most who C&C are very common sense people. Folks like you make out like we are all rabid animals who must run around waving our guns to feel like something special. You could not be more wrong.
I’ll never understand what makes a carry person more dangerous as to where they walk or go. The person is either trustworthy or not!!!!! Guns and people carrying them are around children and families all over the place and carry in all kinds of places. Yet they not too be trusted the minute they walk into a school???? Please explain!!!!! I can’t find any one that can explain this to me without some emotional response like the gun is going to jump out of the holster and hurt someone!!!
All a gun free zone is a feel good measure for those that want to live in a utopia that does not exist. Guns are here to stay folks! It’s our right. Feel good measures from those that oppose having guns in public do nothing but restrict the people that you want to be around in the first place! Criminals and those intent on doing harm will not obey your gun free zone law!
It is funny that little old ladies aren’t complaining about the ability to carry openly a gun for all to see. BUT Evers and the rest of the NRA nuts think they have to carry and openly to protect themselves, they are only protecting themselves from other who carry. Not the general public and not the many visitors to Fla. Soon Evers won’t have any State monies to spend on the NRA, because people will get a perception of Fla. that will keep them away.
The “burden of proof” thing definitely needs to be placed on the prosecutors side.
How the Florida Supreme Court interpreted the law placing the burden on the shooter escapes me.
Open carry……….I guess some need it to bolster their manhood.
I support the open carry bill. I’ve had a conceal carry permit for years. Would like to use a outside the waist band holster instead of inside the waist band. Just an easier and more comfortable way to carry.