The governor of Florida should veto the gun bill passed by the Florida’s House and Senate this week. Here’s why:
- It goes too far in restricting gun ownership by young adults. Rifles of ANY type (including assault rifles) constitute a very small component of firearm-related deaths (although they usually are very visible); you are more likely to be bludgeoned to death with a hammer than shot with a rifle (any rifle – including all so-called “assault rifles”). Still, I would sleep better knowing that high school students and teenagers could not purchase a semi-automatic rifle. However, banning these young people from ALL rifles is too extreme. Single-shot, bolt-action or pump-action rifles and shotguns should be allowed for the 18-21 age group, just not semi-automatic firearms.
- The three-day waiting period penalizes law-abiding citizens when they might actually need a firearm for protection; this will leave some at the mercy of any thug who has already purchased (or stolen) their firearm.
- It creates a new and unnecessary bureaucratic money pit, the “Office of Safe Schools”. Yeah, like that won’t cost a bundle and do nothing useful…
- It allows officers to seize firearms without due process (really; read about it here). This is very disconcerting, since it allows police almost unfettered discretion in making the decision that someone is a danger to themselves or others. It would be more correct to provide a mechanism for their arrest and evaluation, which will have the same effect as taking their guns (since they will be separated), but will give those arrested the right to contest the seizure in court with the results of the evaluation in-hand prior to the seizure. There is just too much potential for abuse of this provision (and the state of civilian oversight of police is currently less than adequate).
- There are many more provisions that are not being describe for the public. The bill should be trimmed down to remove unnecessary restrictions and form a simple, direct bill.
I recommend the following (Only!; we can always add more, but un-doing bad law can be problematic):
a) Those 18 to 21 years of age cannot buy semi-automatic rifles, but can buy single-shot, bolt-action and pump-action rifles and shotguns.
b) Place police officers at each school. The number of police officers should be consistent with the officer to population ratio of the local police force. For instance, if the local police force has 1 officer per 1000 people, than the number of police at a school of 2000 students should be 2. HOWEVER, allow administrators the discretion (rather than the police officers) as to how the students are disciplined. Misdemeanors or petty crimes that can be best handled through school or parental action should be left to the discretion of the school administration; only violent felonies should result in arrest (schoolyard fights are NOT a violent felony! They are children, and they should not be imprisoned for acting as such). These police officers should also have special training so that they become part of the fabric of the school, rather than desk-jockeys there only to handle arrests; their workload should reflect additional duties. They need to have functions in addition to simply wielding police powers.
c) Teachers can be armed (with proper training), and when trained can displace 1/2 of a police officer each for up to 1/2 of the total police presence required under section b) above.
NO OTHER PROVISION ARE NECESSARY AT THIS POINT! Let’s see how this works before restricting the (constitutional) rights of our brethren.