Gun Control Back on Broward’s Legislative Agenda
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Gun control is back.
State Rep. Jim Waldman, D-Coconut Creek, is sponsoring a local bill to allow governments to ban firearms in some city, county and School Board facilities.
Jim Waldman, with finger on face, on the floor of the House.
The Legislature last year voted to allow guns in such buildings.
Although Waldman’s bill would only apply to Broward County, it is unlikely to pass. Gun lovers control Tallahassee and they want weapons legal anywhere…except the Capitol.
You have to go through one weapon detector to get on a plane, but two to get into the Senate or House gallery!
“You are prohibited from walking into the Capitol with a gun, but you can go after the County Commission or the School Board. It is the height of hypocrisy,” Waldman said.
Waldman is right. By filing this bill, he will again show the Republican leadership for they really are: A bunch of hypocrites.
My prediction: This bill won’t even get a committee hearing in Tallahassee. It will be deep sixed.
You can read the bill below which is more than most legislators will get to do. I predict that the bill won’t even get a committee hearing.
A bill to be entitled
An act relating to Broward County, Florida; providing that it is unlawful to carry a hand gun or concealed weapon or firearm within certain governmental buildings within Broward County; providing a penalty.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
Section 1. It is unlawful for any person to openly carry a hand gun or carry a concealed weapon or firearm into:
- The Broward County Governmental Center or the Broward County Governmental Center West;
- K.C. Wright Building, chief administrative offices of the School Board.
- One building within each municipality within Broward County designated by the governing body of the municipality by resolution, containing administrative offices of the municipality.
(1) Each building referenced in subsections 1, 2, and 3 shall have a sign prominently displayed at each public entrance announcing that it shall be unlawful to openly carry a hand gun or to carry a concealed weapon or firearm onto the premises.
(2) Any person violating this act commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in sections 775.082 or 775.083, Florida Statutes.
Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming law.
October 24th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
Go get ’em, Jim. You are one of the few legislators who have the guts to take on the conservative Republicans. Show them we have different opinions in South Florida and we vote!
October 24th, 2011 at 1:41 pm
gun laws just spook the righties into voting…best to let them kill each other for a while longer
October 24th, 2011 at 2:10 pm
This is all a big joke. Jim Waldman knows that the VAST majority of concealed weapon permit holders in Broward are Democrats just like myself.
Jim, cut it out. Save that for speaches in Kingspoint and the other condos that you need votes from.
Focus on jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs.
Get the picture Jim?
October 24th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
I mean it stands to reason why do you need to bring a gun into a govermental facility. I beat this to death at a Comm.meeting to no avail a few weeks ago. Carry your gun all over town fine, but I see no reason why you have to bring in your weapon to say inquire about your water bill. See what I mean. I see all this push back from Broward County Comm, and others as shown here. So i would have liked to seen some push-back from my home town comm(Ft.Lau). Was this asking to much? i think not.
October 24th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
Jimbo is wrong. It’s legal to bring your gun into the capitol. It’s illegal to bring it into the chamber, hence the 2nd metal detectors before you enter…
October 24th, 2011 at 4:01 pm
Mr Walsh you are a fool. You can complain to the city and county until you are blue in the face. The laws had to be relaxed due to STATE statute.
Failure to relax the gun rules in the city would have caused a fine of $5,000 each commissioner and a possible jail time.
Get your fact str8
October 24th, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Maybe Jim should file a bill to allow guns into the Capitol, instead.
Let’s see how the gun nuts go for that.
October 24th, 2011 at 5:02 pm
If we all have guns then probably we do not need local Police Department and BSO?? A huge savings to the tax payers
October 24th, 2011 at 5:25 pm
The NRA and its followers have totally misconstrued the nation’s history on guns. The first gun laws were in the West and were much stricter than anything we have today.
As the Los Angeles Times said.
“You could wear your gun into town, but you had to check it at the sheriff’s office or the Grand Hotel, and you couldn’t pick it up again until you were leaving town,” said Bob Boze Bell, executive editor of True West Magazine, which celebrates the Old West. “It was an effort to control the violence.”
Waldman’s bill is a move back to sensibility, which I don’t expect the NRA ass-kissing Republicans will accept.
October 24th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
In response to Robert Walsh, he is correct, you should not need a gun to pay your water bill. That is not the purpose of carrying concealed. Can Mr. Walsh guarantee you won’t be mugged or attacked on your way to pay your water bill?
October 25th, 2011 at 8:00 am
Florida gun laws have become irrational. There is no need ever for anyone to carry a gun into a government building. The notion that we have to protect ourselves at all times even in a government building by being armed is inconsistent with reality and with accepted notions of civilized society.
To exclude the State House and Senate Buildings from this law, but permit gun carrying in City Halls, County Halls, School Boards is reckless, pointless, duplicitous and morally reprehensible. It is ethically bankrupt. It is intellectually void of reason. It is a transparent double standard, let the Legislature live with the very same rules that the people live with. No special rights. No special laws. If they believe in this so much, let them bring their guns to the Legislature too.
You can say that Waldman is grandstanding a bit here for his constituents, he knows this bill won’t pass. But that is irrelevant because his point is well taken. Take a look at that horrible videotape of the events at the Bay County School Board meeting where a man had to be put down because he unloaded his sidearm at a school board meeting.
Florida gun laws are reckless to the extent they do not help protect the common person from a crazy guy with a gun. There’s nothing wrong with owning a gun. Carrying it everwhere you go is not responsible gun ownership. I don’t carry a bow and arrow everywhere I go, or a Bowie knife, or a sword, or a spear, or a granade because it might hurt someone. Same goes with this.
Such laws place ideology ahead of common sense and place lives needlessly at risk. The rights of people to carry arms need to be balanced against the risk to society to get unnecessarily shot. For that reason alone should be repealed.
It is not necessary to carry your gun everywhere you go. I also resent the amount of money government leaders have to pay now to have police officers stationed in their county and city halls to protect officials, instead of having those cops patrolling the streets, because the state gun laws changed and anybody can walk into an official meeting now with a gun. That is troubling.
October 25th, 2011 at 9:23 am
Smart Move brings up some good points. Unfortunately, Smart Move is completely wrong on most of them. For example, police have been stationed in county and city halls for years. I’ve seen them there. They are not there because of a new gun law now.
Statistics also prove that more innocent people are shot because of friendly fire by police than a citizen defending themselves.
Smart Move brings up the videotape of the events at the Bay County School Board meeting. Does Smart Move really believe this person shot up the place because guns were allowed at the meeting? On the contrary, if a responsible armed citizen was present, perhaps they could have stopped this madman before his gun was emptied on innocent people. Police cannot be everywhere all the time.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:08 am
Keep the guns out of government buildings. Period. Are you people morons?
October 25th, 2011 at 11:21 am
Thank you, Smart Move. Yours is a well-reasoned response. Also, what is the purpose of the metal detectors at the county courthouses if guns are permitted???
October 25th, 2011 at 11:38 am
regardless of whether guns should be permitted in govenment buildings is the fact that Waldman is proposing state law that applies to Broward only. This is the type of legislation that is completely without merit, and innappropriate at the state level. and it will never pass.
October 25th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Can private businesses ban carrying weapons by their employees in florida? Does anybody know the answer to that?
October 25th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
Private property rights trump gun rights. A private business can ban firearms. A public building can’t. This moderate democrat packs heat. This moderate democrat learned the reality of restrictive gun laws. This moderate democrat knows that the first thing a perp looks for is a “gun free zone.” If someone tries to break into this moderate democrat’s home or harm this moderate democrat or any member of my family, I am the first responder. I will protect my life, my property, and my family, with no hesitation. I will shoot to kill. Then I will call 911. Car jacking? Jack this!!
October 25th, 2011 at 1:00 pm
Why do I think you need the metal detectors is lets not forget you STILL (i don’t care who you know)CANNOT carry a gun into a County?City meeting regardless. The metal detectors insures the public residents that my elected officals(thank you) make it back to their families in one piece. I am so vocal about this because of this point. Ok bring in your guns to pay your water bill, fine but City Manager (Ft.Lau)give me my mental detectors. That way i can ensure to these families that these officals are safe. Again just leave your guns at home when coming to City/County Hall. That expression “speak softly but carry a big stick” is another way of saying basiclly you can’t fight for dog poop and basiccly your a whoos.
October 26th, 2011 at 8:28 am
Duke explains perfectly what this gun thinking has done to us.
It has reduced society into cave dwellers again. We should now all be armed against one another rather than figure out ways to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and insane people. This way we can kill those that might threaten us and protect our families like when we were cavemen.
All in the name of ideology. The only message we get from gun people is anger and hate, false bravado. They spit our their venom into the already festering wounds of a collapsing society to make us worse, less safe. Who would want to visit a state where you have to wonder if the guy next to you will lose his mind and blow your brains out on the beach?
You people are fucking crazy.
October 27th, 2011 at 11:13 am
Really? How many gun permit holders have committed a crime with their gun? You sound like someone who has to be all the way at the end of the tunnel before you see the light. I hope and pray that you never are put in a situation where you have to defend yourself or your family and have no means to do so. You don’t remember the story about the 71 year old former Marine who walked into a Subway restaurant in Lauderhill last year and was told by 2 robbers to get in the freezer? Then he pulled out his 9mm and shot them both dead before they could murder him. He lived to tell about it.Gun ownership is not just a constitutionally guaranteed right, it’s an awesome responsibility. Get a permit, take a gun safety course and exercise a higher state of awareness. Always know your surroundings and know that when you are in your home, or your car, or out in public, you will have the ability to defend yourself and your family.