Free Republic

Protestors saying “no justice , no peace” stop Brickell traffic between 7th and 8th on Biscayne Blvd.

Stoneman Douglas survivor Emma Gonzalez said on Sunday that she has no choice but to advocate for stricter gun control laws. "I have no choice because there were CNN cameras there, and my speech was broadcast all over the country in like four seconds and I had no ideas they were going to be there, and that's..like I'm not upset about that..I'm never going to be the same person again," Gonzalez told "60 Minutes" on CBS.

Mike Spies recently spent a year investigating Marion Hammer, the legendary NRA board member and Second Amendment proponent in Florida. Michael Spies is no novice. He is a professional writer who was on the editorial board of the New Yorker for over three years. He has a Bachelors in English from the University of Vermont, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Creative Non-Fiction from Columbia University in the City of New York. He spent nearly two years at Vocativ, leaving in June of 2015 to join The Trace, the hard-core anti-Second Amendment blog financed by Michael Bloomberg.Bloomberg's paid...

A Broward County judge on Friday issued the state’s first order temporarily removing guns from a person under Florida’s new gun-control laws. Four firearms and 267 rounds of ammunition were ordered removed...under the state’s new “risk protection” law... The man was also taken to a hospital for involuntary psychiatric treatment under the state’s Baker Act. But the civil ruling removing his access to guns and ammunition was granted under the new legislation — which permits confiscating guns from people who have not been committed but are deemed a potential risk to themselves or others, according to the order signed by...

Miami Beach city officials have revoked the business license for a nightclub after a woman brought a horse onto a crowded dance floor, Wednesday. Video posted on social media by Miami Beach Police Friday morning shows a scantily clad woman riding a white horse inside the Mokai Lounge, located at 235 23rd St. People were standing around before the horse became startled. The horse bucked, causing the woman to fall off. This was supposed to be the night’s entertainment, but speaking with reporters on Friday, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber had a less flattering take on the spectacle. “Insane stupidity,”...

“GOV. RICK SCOTT CAVES: SIGNS $400 MILLION GUN CONTROL BILL: by Dr. Michael J. Hurd Exactly why do we have Republican governors again? Of course, he felt compelled to “do something”. To not “do something” would seem like a failure to honor the victims of the Florida government school slaughter last month. At least if you think the government has the power to stop such shootings by disarming the innocent and doing nothing whatsoever to protect them, such as arming teachers or privatizing schools. “Doing something” is often worse than doing nothing. The Republican Governor’s bill includes provisions to prevent...

It seems the mass murderer in Florida did not use magazines of a capacity over 10 rounds. This presents a minor difficulty for those who want to ban magazines over 10 rounds.From miamiherald.com: The “weapon and bullets were not high quality and were breaking apart,” one of the legislators, state Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, told the Herald.Cruz went in with only 10-round magazines because larger clips would not fit in his duffel bag, Book said. Given the general ignorance of reporters on firearms technology, and of  Democrats in general, I would not rely on this information until we have...

The Florida Legislature made national headlines this week when it passed SB 7026, also known as the "Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act." The law is headed to Gov. Rick Scott, who is likely to sign it today. Much has been made of the political implications of the Republican-dominated legislature defying — even in small ways — the wishes of the National Rifle Association.

Office of Governor Rick Scott The Capitol 400 S. Monroe St. Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001 (850) 717-9337 Email Governor Scott For more immediate service, please include email address with your letter or phone call. If you do not want your e-mail address released in response to a public records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by phone or in writing.

Since February 26, 2018; I’ve been on the ground here in Tallahassee fighting the forces of civilian disarmament. It’s been an uphill battle thanks to the Florida Republican Party. On Feb. 21, SB 7026 was introduced to the Florida Senate. It’s a wicked piece of legislation. It makes anyone that possess a bump stock or similar accessory a felon. It completely violates the due process of gun owners through Gun Violence Protection Acts, it strips the Second Amendment from all Floridians under the age of 21, makes a three-day waiting period mandatory for all gun purchases, and it pushes the...

TALLAHASSEE — On a day filled with emotion, the Florida Senate Saturday debated measures in response to the Parkland tragedy to spend millions of dollars on school safety and mental health that lawmakers have long neglected and limits on access to guns for the first time in decades. In an unexpected move by a staunchly pro-gun Legislature, senators briefly approved and then rejected a two-year moratorium on sale of AR-15 assault rifles, the type used in the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The surprise action came on an unrecorded voice vote, in which senators...

On Wednesday night, a survivor from last week’s shooting in Parkland, FL had harsh criticisms for NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch for her appearance at CNN’s town hall. Alfonso Calderon, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, spoke with Don Lemon about the televised event, and was asked specifically about what Loesch had to say. “Sincerely, I feel like she is — she isn’t living in reality. How dare she.” Calderon said. “The mother the Scott Biegel, one of my teachers at the school, was talking about when the amendment was ratified, and she went off on a tangent about...

Last week the nation watched in horror as the body count of Broward school children and staff doubled by the minute. The very next day the FBI admitted they had failed to act on a vital lead that explicitly detailed the mass murderer's intentions to kill people at his school. Immediately, Florida Gov. Rick Scott called for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign in the wake of the Parkland school shooting. While the FBI apologized and issued a standard vague statement, Gov. Scott said Wray must resign, saying acknowledging a mistake “isn’t going to cut it..” "An apology will never...

Law enforcement officers will impound firearms when no crime has been committed. This is driven by a fear of “not doing enough” combined with the demonization of firearms. Law enforcement hesitation and fear of litigation have combined to legalize the theft of firearms.In Florida and many other states, it is a common problem that harms numerous innocent victims.  Often, the victims have no choice. The guns are taken by force. Other victims are asked for permission, but not warned of the consequences of agreeing to the request by law enforcement. Here is an example out of Florida: From wfsu.org:...

Today, Governor Rick Scott, the Florida Senate and the Florida House announced their respective plans to stop future mass shooters in our schools. There are components of the plan that we should all support. Hardening our schools, putting law enforcement in all schools when students are present, training volunteer teachers to use guns and protect children, keeping guns out of the hands of the dangerously mentally ill, and allowing law enforcement and administrators to deal with people who are a danger to themselves or others, are all things that need to be done. Unfortunately, there are gun control measures being...

Another mass killing has taken place in the defenseless victim zone of a Florida high school in the Miami metropolitan area of Broward County. The major media in this country has blood on its hands. They know that mass murderers are incentivized by media coverage that gives a form of immortality to the deranged killers. The pattern is clear.  Many of the killers are open about their desire for infamy. The Port Arther murderer asked his lawyer, again and again: “Did I break the record?”.The media does not care how many innocents die because of their push for ratings...

BSO Admits Stoneman Douglas Guard "Never Went In" Building During Massacre Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had an armed and trained police guard at the school the day Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and teachers. People have since questioned why the guard wasn't able to stop Cruz from committing the massacre. Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel solved that mystery minutes ago: BSO School-Resource Officer Scot Peterson "never went in" to confront Cruz as the shooting occurred. Israel said he suspended Peterson without pay after reviewing video footage, witness statements, and Peterson's own statement. Peterson instead retired today to avoid further...

After appearing as the No. 1 trending video for hours, YouTube finally removed a video that suggested one of the high school students who survived the Parkland, Fl. shooting last week was an actor. In a statement to Fox News, a YouTube spokesperson said: "This video should never have appeared in Trending. Because the video contained footage from an authoritative news source, our system misclassified it. As soon as we became aware of the video, we removed it from Trending and from YouTube for violating our policies. We are working to improve our systems moving forward.” The title of the...

The campaign ads are already blaring, attacking Florida Republicans for supporting pro-gun laws. Now students — survivors of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School — have traveled by busloads hundreds of miles to protest at the State Capitol. Seven days after the killing of 17 people at the Broward County school, Republicans, who dominate government in the state, are facing pressure unlike any they have experienced before to pass legislation addressing gun violence. The State Legislature is in session for roughly two more weeks, and Republicans have concluded that it would be catastrophic to wrap up without...

Grief and rage over one of the deadliest school shootings in modern American history have forced some lawmakers to begin to rethink their positions on gun control, and a powerful chorus of teenage voices is pushing those in Florida to limit access to semiautomatic rifles. Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed last week, are traveling on Tuesday to Tallahassee, the state capital, to call for a ban on assault rifles. The direct appeal to the Legislature follows protests outside schools, social media appeals and national television appearances.