For a man running for one of the most powerful positions in the United States government, Rick Scott offers Floridians only the qualities of a sniveling, corporate ass-kissing coward who is incapable of expressing anything other than utter helplessness when confronted by a crisis.
Florida has a lot of gun violence. The images of traumatized survivors and devastated families of those killed by guns are an all too familiar reality for Floridians. Our hearts break over and over again with grief and anguish after every report of yet another act of random, senseless and brutal violence. From Stand Your Ground to the Pulse nightclub and Parkland massacres a hopeless resignation sets in after every single act of gun violence.
BALTIMORE, MD - APRIL 30: A mural of Trayvon Martin is seen on the side of a building in the Sandtown neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested on April 30, 2015 in Baltimore, Maryland. Gray, 25, was arrested for possessing a switch blade knife April 12 outside the Gilmor Houses housing project on Baltimore's west side. According to his attorney, Gray died a week later in the hospital from a severe spinal cord injury he received while in police custody 3The Valentine Day Massacre at Stoneham Marjory Douglas High School added a new emotion to the mix for not only Floridians but all Americans — fury.
Led by the teenage survivors of a madman’s rampage named Nikolas Cruz who was able to walk into a gun store and legally purchase a weapon of war which he then used to slaughter their schoolmates and teachers, created a movement they named Never Again. The movement smashed the stalemate on guns because they knew that it was politicians like Rick Scott, beholden to the NRA and who loosened Florida's gun laws to the point that they don’t even exist - caused the pain that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
"Most people would probably be ashamed to basically kill a gun control bill with teenage survivors in the room with them" Luke Darby of GQParkland students traveled the 500 miles from Fort Lauderdale to Tallahassee after having survived one of the worst massacres in recent history — only to be greeted by GOP lawmakers voting against a motion to consider a military-style firearm ban for guns like the AR-15. That is the weapon that was used by the killer in the halls and classrooms of Marjory Stoneham Douglas High School killing 17. These kids stood in the state capital stunned and incredulous at the GOP lawmaker's cruelty. That brief moment in time did not last long, as students spontaneously erupted at the lawmakers with shouts and chants of ‘Shame on You’ and ‘Never Again’ ricocheting off the walls of the chamber.
If lawmakers thought they would go silently back to Parkland, let them mourn for a couple of weeks for their anger to simmer down, and then continue to do nothing to stop the flow of AR-15 rifles, they were severely mistaken.
Parkland student Delaney Tarrloudly looked at the cameras of the assembled media covering the story and defiantly announced "To shoot down a bill that is absolutely abhorrent, to not even give it a chance to be discussed. That disgusts me, and it disgusts my peers because we know what we've been through and we know that this needs to be changed...To every lawmaker out there: you can no longer take money from the NRA...We are coming after every single one of you and demanding that you take action, demanding that you make a change."
Thousands rallied in Washington, DC, for a March for Our Lives protest to advocate for gun control. Thousands more joined them at other marches in cities large and small across the country.Rick Scott is trying his best to hoodwink Florida’s voters about his gun record for his US Senate run. He has had eight years to do something meaningful about the power of the gun lobbies extreme influence on this state during his eight years as Governor. The reality is that he has done nothing. It took not one massacre but two before he was pushed to act by public outcry. The legislation he signed will raise the age to buy rifles to 21 from 18 and also require a three-day waiting period for long guns. That’s it! What a disgusting and despicable human being he is.
So Florida, this is why Rick Scott does not deserve your vote this November.
2011: Rick Scott signed preemption legislation, prohibiting localities from regulating firearms and ammunition. Cities and counties were forced to allow guns in parks, hospitals, and government buildings as a result. [Tampa Bay Times, 8/19/11]
2011: Rick Scott signed a controversial “docs versus glocks” bills, which punished doctors who asked patients about gun ownership. Pediatricians feared the safety repercussions of the legislation.
2011: Rick Scott said he would sign a guns-on-campus bill if it reached his desk despite the fears of many about the dangers of the mixture of guns and alcohol on campuses.
2012: A Federal judge barred enforcement of the docs v. glocks law, saying it was based on anecdotal information and unfounded conjecture.
2012: Rick Scott cut the cost of a concealed weapons permit.
2013: Rick Scott said he would not be proposing any changes to state gun laws during the year, despite the Sandy Hook massacre just weeks earlier.
2013: Rick Scott opposed universal background checks for gun purchases: “It’s always easy to say do something when no one understands what it is.”
2014: Rick Scott signed House Bill 89, which intended to allow people to use threatened force, such as a warning shot, as part of the stand your ground defense.
2014: Rick Scott signed legislation allowing children to play with simulated weapons in school.
2015: Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 290, which allowed Floridians to carry a concealed weapon for 48 hours during a mandatory evacuation without a license.
2016: Rick Scott cut the cost of a concealed weapons permit — for a second time in his Administration.
2016: Rick Scott refused to talk about gun measures in the aftermath of the Pulse shooting: “There will be plenty of time to deal with how our society comes together.”
2016: Rick Scott refused to talk about gun measures in the aftermath of the Fort Meyers club shooting: “The Second Amendment Has Never Shot Anybody”
2017: 11th Circuit Court Of Appeals struck down the docs v. glocks law.
2017: Miami Judge ruled that the new changes to the Stand Your Ground Law were unconstitutional.
2017: Rick Scott refused to talk about gun measures in the aftermath of the Fort Lauderdale Airport shooting: “It’s not a time to be political” [Transcript – Rick Scott Press Conference, 1/6/17]
2017: Rick Scott cut the cost of a concealed weapons permit — for a third time in his Administration.
For those curious on why the NRA has a stranglehold on Florida gun laws, the below New Yorker article explains it in all of its gory details.