Sorry ladies and gentlemen, but for all our hard work, we weren’t able to overcome a last minute gutting by Senator Ellyn Bogdanoff (R-Fort Lauderdale) on Senate Bill 234. Since some groups were pushing this as nothing more than a safety measure to prevent CCW holders from being harassed for accidental exposure (*cough* thanksahellofalot NRA *cough*), Senator Bogdanoff was able to completely change the intent of the bill. I’m not even sure why there were committees to begin with if a) you can change the intent of the bill the night before and b) the very changes you made were previously rejected.
It would be like having a bill written to allow to people of differing skin colors to show affection to one another in public, but at the last minute change the language to say “Permit accidental contact between two members of different races”. It’s not the same in any shape, form, or fashion and is a slap in the face that we should remind Senator Bogdanoff of from time to time, especially when it’s time for her to run for reelection (as a side note – nasty-grams do not work and harm your cause. If you have a beef with a misrepresentative, TYPING IN ALL CAPS AND USING FOUL $#^*&ING LANGUAGE DOESN’T HELP). I personally plan on faxing the receipt of the money I donate to her opposition.
The house still has to vote on their version of the bill and I’m not sure there’s anything we can do to fix it. I’ve not had my nose deep enough in the mix this week to know what’s going on. I just know that Senator Bogdanoff has continued to assume that gun owners are in the same category as criminals and shouldn’t be trusted to openly carry their firearms like they can in 43 other states.
Florida Carry is committed to furthering the rights of Florida’s gun owners. While the open carry portion of the bill was killed, overall this bill is still a benefit to us all. We also have the strengthening of preemption heading to the Governor’s desk as well as the Patient Privacy bill. It took 7 years to get ‘Shall Issue’ passed, so 4 out of 5 in one session for a group that has only been incorporated since January is a pretty good record. We will continue to push for open carry in one form or another (*cough* Constitutional Carry Please *cough*) as well as any laws that help protect us.
I will try to keep you all up to date with any changes that might arise, although at this point I’m not sure there’s much we can do.
Editor's note - There are 43 states with some form of Open Carry on the books, not 47