It's A Good Thing!
Posted on 09/01/2011 6:38:43 AM PDT by Iron Munro
The state of Florida is going after a gang of gun outlaws by threatening them with $5,000 fines, firings and lawsuits.
So who's in the gang?
St. Petersburg, Brooksville, Tampa, Hillsborough County —and other scattered scofflaws.
As a result, city councils and county commissions are now scrambling to rewrite local laws, because they're staring down the barrel at those fines, firings and lawsuits.
St. Petersburg is getting ready to repeal its ordinance against discharging firearms in the city limits. Tarpon Springs made a similar decision in August. Brooksville killed a ban on guns in parks and also deleted a law that could have suspended the sale of ammunition and firearms during emergencies. There are many more.
All those ordinances have been illegal for years because state law prevents cities and counties from regulating guns. But a new law, set to take effect Oct. 1, takes it a step further. It allows judgments of up to $100,000 against local governments that enforce such laws. And, in an unusual move, the law also says local officials could be fired and fined $5,000, with no representation from the city or county attorney.
"It is from Pensacola to Key West and all points in between," said Kraig Conn, legislative counsel for the Florida League of Cities.
Conn said city officials at first reacted with "a level of disbelief" as they realized their governments could be penalized and "you're going to be held personally liable as well."
St. Petersburg police Chief Chuck Harmon said, "I think they went overboard. I understand if they want to regulate state gun laws as the Legislature has the authority to do. But what happens to an officer who may misapply an ordinance? That seems like an awful lot of penalties for something that may be unintentional."
State Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fort Walton Beach, who sponsored the law, said "There's been plenty of hand-wringing and bed-wetting from local government."
But he said something needed to be done to prevent them from "willfully" violating state law. He pointed to the city of South Miami, which passed an ordinance requiring trigger locks.
The National Rifle Association fought the law, which was overturned because of the state law preventing it. Even so, Gaetz said, "There was no way for the NRA to ever be made whole through the recovery of attorneys fees and everything else."
Now there is.
The story begins in 1987, when the Florida Legislature passed a law saying it controls "the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition."
Just in case that wasn't clear, the law spelled out that this power was "to the exclusion of all existing and future county, city, town, or municipal ordinances." It made exceptions for the Florida Constitution and "general law."
But apparently, it wasn't clear. Cities and counties continued regulating some aspects of guns and ammo, at the very least by keeping gun laws on the books.
Such as St. Petersburg, which has an ordinance preventing people from firing guns in the city limits. Or Brooksville, which banned guns in parks.
Occasionally, a city or county would bring some of its laws into line, as Pasco County did in 2003, by repealing most firearms regulations. The matter came to the county's attention because a local resident with a concealed gun permit liked riding his bike several times a week at the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park and thought he should bring his gun with him for his own protection.
"In wooded areas like that, you're all by yourself," the man said at the time. "You're three, four miles out on the bike path, and anything could happen."
But other local laws have remained.
Pasco, for example, still has an ordinance that allows the county administrator to suspend the sale of alcohol, explosives or guns during a state of emergency. County Attorney Jeff Steinsnyder said the county would no longer enforce that ordinance, or any other gun control ordinances, once the state law takes effect. He said the ordinance likely would be stricken during a cleanup of the county's land development code.
The law does not mean that it's suddenly acceptable to fire guns at will. There is a state law against discharging a firearm in public.
Asked if it wouldn't be helpful to let officials keep guns out of city parks, Gaetz, the legislator, said it's never the law-abiding people with proper concealed weapons permits who cause trouble. It's always the people who are holding guns illegally.
Even with the new law, he doesn't expect a lot of fines and firings. He expects that cities and counties will continue taking their old gun laws off the books.
It's A Good Thing!
About damn time!!
Joe, for your list.
‘The state of Florida is going after a gang of gun outlaws by threatening them with $5,000 fines, firings and lawsuits.
So who’s in the gang?
St. Petersburg, Brooksville, Tampa, Hillsborough County —and other scattered scofflaws.
As a result, city councils and county commissions are now scrambling to rewrite local laws, because they’re staring down the barrel at those fines, firings and lawsuits.’
The article makes this sound like a bad thing. Why? Is holding our govt to the law the wrong thing to do? It seems that the commies & statists at the Times need a refresher in American govt. or perhaps emigrate to a country more in keeping w/ their political ideology. Usually all the news from Floriduh is bad but this is certainly very good news indeed. Would like to see how it goes for those govt officials/agents who thumb their noses at the law. My guess is they’ll get off scott free as usual. Nonetheless the sentiment in the law is heart warming.
Cry me a river, Chief. When this happens to a "civillian" your guys arest, you spout, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse." Same same here.
It’s about time these liberals face the music for denying us our second amendment rights!!!
Decades of flagrant anti-gun legislation is being rolled back at a rapid pace under Governor Rick Scott's leadership.
Horror of horrors! Blood in the Streets! Etc., etc...
Now if we just had some free woods to go shooting... Thirty years ago that wasn't a problem. Now, unless you know someone who owns a lot of property (or do yourself), it's the local range or nothing. A shame...
“As to the species of exercise, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise, and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun, therefore, be the constant companion to your walks.”– Thomas Jefferson
Is this saying that the state now controls all gun laws, not the cities? This is not good. We the People ....
Finally, someone in the government who not only gets it, but also admits that he gets it. It's a start.
Uh...jail time?
From the article:"The story begins in 1987, when the Florida Legislature passed a law saying it controls "the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition."
Just in case that wasn't clear, the law spelled out that this power was "to the exclusion of all existing and future county, city, town, or municipal ordinances." It made exceptions for the Florida Constitution and "general law."
Uhhh, the (restrictive) local ordinances were enacted by local councils and politicians not We the People. The conservative state Representatives outlawed such local decrees as being violations of state firearms laws. That’s the We the People representation.
FL firearms law is the purview of the state not localities. The state Reps realize criminals will obtain firearms outside localities where they are restricted. They also understand the rationale that someone willing to break the law and harm others is also willing to break the law and use a firearm to do so. Restricting firearms only affects the intended victims of violent crime, the law-abiding citizens.
I use to live in St. Pete. The St. Pete Times is owned and run by a cabal of flaming communists.
They have never met a tax that didn't need to be levied or increased, an intrusive, unconstitutional law that should not be passed, a corrupt democrat that did not deserve re-election, a conservative or libertarian that did not need to be villified, a government program that did not need to be expanded.....
The St. Pete Times is the epicenter of political evil in Pinellas county.
As for cities, I quote Thomas Jefferson regarding those:
"The mobs of the great cities add just so much to the support of pure government as sores do to the strength of the human body. It is the manners and spirit of a people which preserve a republic in vigor. A degeneracy in these is a canker which soon eats to the heart of its laws and constitution."
The State of Florida is a organic, sovereign entity crated by the People of Florida and the US Congress . The cities and counties of Florida are not.
They are creations of the State and owe their existence to laws passed by the Legislature of Florida under authority granted to it by the Constitution of Florida.
Except as restricted by the Constitution of Florida, Legislature has the authority to create or abolish local governments and to set the limits of their authority. It is well with in the purview of the Legislature to restrict firearms laws to the state and prohibit the cities from creating firearms ordinances.
I see that Florida avoided the mistake that New Hampshire made. The law demands certain behavior with respect to guns from our cities and towns, but some of them simply ignore the law because there is no statutory penalty, only a civil cause of action on the part of the victim who has to pay their own way in order to enforce the law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
