“Posted on 02/06/2020 4:04:30 AM PST by marktwain
“
Assault weapon” under proposed Florida ballot initiative. Courtesy Dean Weingarten
The Florida referendum to ban common rifles and shotguns as “assault weapons” has failed to gather enough signatures to appear on the 2020 ballot. From tampabay.com:
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.
147,304 signatures is a bit more than 19% of the required number. Signatures are valid for two years.
The ban proponents started to gather signatures on 28 November 2018. They have until 27 November 2020, before previously gathered signatures start becoming invalid.
While touted in the legacy media and in proponents' advertising as a “ban on assault weapons”, the measure bans possession of virtually all semi-automatic rifles, many semi-automatic shotguns, but no handguns or pistols.
The ignorance of the writers has rendered a referendum that is both draconian and ineffectual for its stated purpose.
Here is the text of the proposed Florida Constitutional Amendment. From ballotpedia.org:
(Excerpt) Read more at ammoland.com ...
The referendum bans almost all semi-auto rifles and shotguns, but ignores all handguns.
Relatively little support from Bloomberg and other billionaires.
Let the stupid twerps waste their time chasing their tails on this. It will keep them occupied.
Why would anyone assume it was ignorance? I'm relatively certain that they meant to ban as many firearms as possible and that the document was written to be as vague and all encompassing as possible. Never attribute to incompetence what can be attributed to malice where anti-gunners are involved.
My experience is their is an unbelievable level of ignorance on the other side.
They are proud of their ignorance.
They look on people who understand guns and gun technology as infected and suspect.
Only 19 percent?
I would call that an epic fail for the gun-grabbers.
They are the Doomburg voters.
You got that right. On the very few conversations I've had with individuals on the other side they were totally closed minded with the attitude "guns are bad don't confuse me with the facts I won't believe you anyway because reality conflicts with my beliefs."
Back around 1997 I knew a woman who noticed that I didn’t care for Bill Clinton. She was confused. How could you not like Bill Clinton? He was pretty much a perfect guy. No one ever said a bad word about ol’ Bill Clinton. Granted, she admitted she wasn’t very political and didn’t watch the news, but it sure seemed odd to her that I didn’t like Bill Clinton.
I started telling her about Clinton. I didn’t get far. She started holding up her hands and waving them at me: “Don’t tell me that! I don’t want to know! I live in a happy place! I don’t want any of that stuff to be true! This is why I don’t pay attention to politics!”
“ Let the stupid twerps waste their time chasing their tails on this. It will keep them occupied.”
****
Could it be that the good citizens of Virginia are suffering buyers remorse?
Well we still have legal marajuana and Medicaid expansion to defeat. Those on the ballot will get all the liberals out to vote.
Back in the 1980s the Brady Center(Handgun Control Inc) targeted Florida as a perfect state to ban handguns. Their efforts failed, so they are going after rifles.
They want to ban something, anything, then build on that ban to make other firearms illegal.
Almost right
They want to ban something, anything, then build on that ban to make other all firearms illegal
The mere idea of a referendum to override the Bill of Rights is offensive.
If it gets on the ballot, which seems unlikely, it will take 60% to pass.
The initiative specifically says the Supreme Court interpretation of the Second Amendment overrides the State Constitutional amendment.
Seems like a waste of time to even make the attempt. Seems like virtue signaling. The state constitution can say anything but they know the Supreme Court interpretation is what matters. What’s the point?
Yes, it seems to be really stupid virtue signaling.
I guess the CIA and FBI need to conduct more covert ops/ false flags in FLA to boost the numbers. Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS wasn’t enough.
Though I never lived in FL, I remember keeping informed on what was going on there during the concealed carry debate.
There were cries of “gunfight at the OK corral” and “blood running in the streets!” Needless to say, this never happened.
One of the first cases of a homicide involving a man with a CCW permit was jumped on by the media, before any of the facts were known, other than it was a case of “road rage” (though I believe it happened before the term was coined.)
It turned out that the “gun nut” was an older gentleman who was involved in a minor traffic accident. The other person was younger and very angry. While the younger man was beating and trying to physically pull the older gentleman out of his car, the older gentleman shot his assailant. It was a case where the man who actually did the shooting was a victim, in genuine fear for his life. So after the initial noise by the anti-gunners, the noise quickly went away.
There were however, 2 problems that passing the CCW law developed. The first, after a number of publicized rapes, the number of women who tried getting signed up for CCW training far exceeded the availability, shocking both the pro and anti gunners.
The second was once word began getting out that FL citizens MIGHT be able to defend themselves, the number of visitors using rental cars victimized by armed robbery exploded, since FL criminals knew that those people would be unarmed, and could be safely victimized. The FL legislature responded by requiring car rental companies to remove any indications that their cars were rentals (like stickers, plate surrounds, etc.)
Josh Sugarman, former honcho at the National Coalition to Ban Handguns, was once quoted as saying that gun bans needed to be incremental, and ignorance of facts would be their greatest weapon (my words.) He stated it would be easy to confuse the dumb-masses as to the difference between sporting rifles and military arms, and that confusion would help them get the camel’s nose into the tent on banning all guns.
Mark
Here is how Nelson “Pete” Shields wanted to ban handguns, later rifles.
Nelson T. ‘Pete’ Shields
Founder of Handgun Control, Inc.
“I’m convinced that we have to have federal legislation to build on. We’re going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily — given the political realities — going to be very modest.
Of course, it’s true that politicians will then go home and say, ‘This is a great law. The problem is solved.’ And it’s also true that such statements will tend to defuse the gun-control issue for a time.
So then we’ll have to strengthen that law, and then again to strengthen that law, and maybe again and again. Right now, though, we’d be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal — total control of handguns in the United States — is going to take time.
My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition — except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors — totally illegal.”
-Pete Shields, Chairman and founder, Handgun Control Inc., “A Reporter At Large: Handguns,” The New Yorker, July 26, 1976, 57-58
“Yes, I’m for an outright ban [on handguns].”
-Pete Shields, Chairman emeritus, Handgun Control, Inc., 60 Minutes interview
HCI, around 1984, made a grab for the semi-auto rifles and shotguns, and missed. Then Josh Sugarmann tuned in. This has been the mantra ever since.
“ Assault weapons’ menacing looks, coupled with the public’s confusion over fully-automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons —anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun— can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons.”
– Josh Sugarmann
I sure hope so...few things have been politically as sad and ominous to me as the tilting left of the home state of George Washington.
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