Posted on 02/03/2020 6:57:41 PM PST by Impala64ssa
Florida voters won’t get a chance to vote this fall on a proposed constitutional amendment to ban assault weapons after the initiative failed to get enough signatures.
Instead, the organizers behind Ban Assault Weapons Now say they’ll focus on getting the amendment on the ballot in 2022.
Chairwoman Gail Schwartz said in a statement that they’ll continue gathering signatures “despite the best efforts of the NRA and politicians in Tallahassee.”
“Hundreds of thousands of Floridians from all across the state are behind this critical movement and it’s up to us to make sure we succeed where our so-called ‘leaders’ have repeatedly failed,” Schwartz said.
Schwartz’s nephew, Alex Schachter, was killed by a former classmate wielding an assault rifle in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School In Parkland.
To make it on the November ballot, organizers had to gather 766,200 verified signatures by today. The organizers fell well short with just 147,304, according to the Secretary of State.
The amendment would ban the sale of “semiautomatic rifles and shotguns capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition at once, either in fixed or detachable magazine, or any other ammunition-feeding device.”
Current owners of assault rifles would have to register them with the state within a year and would not be allowed to sell them.
But it was met with stiff resistance by the National Rifle Association and Attorney General Ashley Moody, who said the amendment was “deceitful and misleading.”
She said last year that the amendment was too broad and would have made illegal many weapons that some people would not consider an “assault weapon.”
“It is so far-reaching and misleading, it would also include guns like the gun my grandfather gave my father and his brother when they were 9 and 10, 60 years ago,” she said in August.
The language in the amendment was crafted with the help of a lifelong NRA member, who told the Times/Herald last year that Moody’s interpretation was “complete nonsense.”
Although it won’t be on the ballot this fall, lawyers for the amendment still plan on arguing the case before the Florida Supreme Court on Tuesday. The justices have to approve amendments before they go on the ballot. Moody’s office is expected to argue the amendment is too broad and vague to go before voters.
Voters this fall also won’t get to vote on an amendment that would allow recreational use of marijuana, which also failed to get enough signatures.
The two proposed amendments that have been approved would raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and change the wording of the constitution regarding the citizenship of voters.
The rag sounds so sad.
Oh no! Florida-man got semi-automatics. That’ll get the shi— started. Wait don’t they have them already?
They should be happy.
That saves their state the cost of a losing Constitutional fight in the courts.
maybe by design? have it be n ballot in off year election - many people won’t think to vote so maybe easier to get it passed?
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This is good, you can bet the farm this was an initiative to bring out the rat base. The DNC has perfected getting high rat turn out ballot amendments on November ballots. That and vote harvesting were there big weapons in 18.
This, I suspect. The gun-grabbers didn't want to go head-to- head with President Trump.
They will have a better chance when the President is not inspiring turnout.
Aw shucks......
I have a BIL and SIL who love voting for idiot amendments to the Florida constitution.
I have failed in trying to explain to over educated liberals of the evils of legislating through constitutional amendments.
They voted for such amendments as:
banning turtle nets
banning pig farms
banning smoking in bars
Pissing into the wind talking to those people. She voted for Gillam, he didn’t, said Gillam was too far out there.Yet he now tells me his favorite Dem is Mayor Pete. Keeping in mind that he said Palin as governor of Alaska was not qualified to be VP. But a failed mayor of a small to medium midwestern city is qualified to be president.
Nuts
Natural, inherent and inalienable rights can’t be voted away.
Mayor Rump Ranger vs Palin would be a great match. I got $20 on Sarah in 8 seconds flat.
But they can be abdicated and given away.
When too few care about their rights, you can count on them being removed.
Gee, Chairwoman Gail Schwartz... here’s a little pee on your party:
You can try to ban anything you want.
We still have them.
We will always be able to get them.
We can MAKE them.
And YOU have to come and take them.
And there’s an ARMY of us.
Puts a smile on your face, Gail old girl, don’t it?
These gun ban idiots crack me up.
Like we’re just going to roll over and comply.
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