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Tag: gun lobby
DeSantis

Secret DeSantis Bid To Ban Firearms At Party Enrages Gun Lobby

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a high-profile proponent of loosening firearm laws, tried to ban guns at an election event in downtown Tampa last year and blame the city officials for the prohibition, emails obtained by The Washington Post showed.

The Post reported that Republican governor's campaign sought to ban firearms from his re-election party at Tampa Convention Center on November 8 and — in an effort to deceive constituents — requested that the city take responsibility for the ban.

In an October 28 email, the safety and security manager of the convention center, Chase Finch, informed Tampa officials of DeSantis’ request and said that “DeSantis/his campaign will not tell their attendees they are not permitted to carry because of the political optics,” according to the Post.

The strange request — conveyed by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which a DeSantis appointee leads — was due to “Republicans largely being in support of 2A and all,” Finch explained, referring to the Constitution’s Second Amendment.

“Basically it sounds like they want us to say it’s our policy to disallow firearms within the event space if anyone asks,” Finch added, noting afterward that the campaign had designated “deciding authority” to the FDLE, which didn’t rent the space for the event.

“I’m certainly not signing this without any sort of guidance,” Finch wrote, prompting a reply from Tampa’s administrator of development and economic opportunity, Nicole Travis.

“We are not saying anything about concealed carry. That is the responsibility of the renter. We follow State Statute that permits concealed carry,” Travis responded less than 30 minutes later.

The statute, which went into effect in 1987, granted the state authority to issue licenses to carry concealed weapons. Over 2.6 million licenses have been issued since then, the Post noted.

Travis followed up with another email, published by the Tampa Bay Times, saying, “Just to be clear, we’re not signing this.”

Finch wrote back to the FDLE afterward, informing the state police agency that a no-weapon policy at the event would leave the city in a “legal quagmire.”

“I understand the campaign does not wish to ‘restrict’ 2A for their event because of the optics, but if any guests asks, we will not say it’s TCC’s policy to disallow legal carry,” he said, rejecting the FDLE’s request.

Finch told the Post that firearms were ultimately permitted at the event, but guests had to pass through metal detectors stationed at the venue.

After the Post published its report, FDLE spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger denied the agency ever “request[ed] the venue restrict weapons at the direction of the Governor or campaign.”

“We recognize and value the rights of our citizens to legally bear arms,” Plessinger said, per the Times. “FDLE makes security determinations and based on security threats, FDLE encourages private and public venues to limit weapons when hosting the Governor and First Family at large events.”

DeSantis’ press secretary, Bryan Griffin, sought to distance the governor, who the National Rifle Association gave a 100% rating in November, from potential fallout after the Times’ story, saying, “the governor strongly supports the constitutional right of Americans to bear arms.”

The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, slammed DeSantis, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, for an “astonishing” display of hypocrisy.

An activist for gun violence prevention, Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jamie Guttenberg was one of 17 students killed by a gunman in the 2018 parkland school shooting, said DeSantis was "a fraud and he should be treated that way."

“The tough guy act covers for a small, weak, and weird man. His decision to be ok with others being at risk of gun violence but not him and to try and cover that up? WEAK!” Guttenberg tweeted Saturday.

Lambasting DeSantis, Shannon Watts, a gun safety activist and founder of the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action, said that “the hypocrisy of “the dangers of unregulated guns for thee but not for me” is next level.”

“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis caters to an extremist, MAGA Republican base by pushing permitless carry while having the privilege to keep those same armed extremists at a distance,” Watts wrote in a tweet.

The Post noted that DeSantis had a taste for events requiring guests to pass through metal detectors, a habit that had not escaped the notice of gun owners. The chairman of Alachua County’s GOP, Tim Marden, told the Post he had passed on attending a DeSantis fundraiser in October because the governor had insisted on installing metal detectors at the event.

“In my thinking, it was a little hypocritical to have this measure in place for law-abiding citizens at a time when a lot of folks in the gun community will condemn a Democratic politician for having a security force,” Marden said.

Republican Liberty Caucus chair Bob White told the Times that DeSantis’ masquerading could cost him the support of gun lovers across the country and, thus, his shot at becoming the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee.

“I think it’s entirely possible, if not even likely, that he will lose support within the Second Amendment community if he doesn’t take a really bold position right now,” White said.

Randy Fine

Florida Legislator Threatens Biden Over Gun Safety Speech

A Florida state representative appeared to threaten President Joe Biden on Twitter after the president’s remarks about the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 children and two adults were killed.

“I have news for the embarrassment that claims to be our President – try to take our guns and you’ll learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place,” Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican who likes to say he represents the “southern portion” of Brevard County. That’s east of Orlando on the Atlantic Coast.

Fine later tweeted that the reaction to his tweet “exposes the lie of the left that they just want ‘common sense gun control.’ They want one thing and one thing only — gun confiscation and an end to the 2A — and the notion that Americans will exercise their right to fight them makes them go crazy. Boo hoo.”

On Facebook Fine called Biden “Traitor Joe.”

Fine’s threatening and fact-free tweets came after Biden called for action so America has fewer school shootings like the one in Uvalde.

“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden asked in remarks laced with religious references. “Why are we willing to live with this carnage?”

Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act which would have set up offices focused on domestic terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice and the FBI.

Former federal prosecutor Joyce Vance called Fine’s comments “the language of fascism, not democracy.”


Fine defended his comments as reasonable, even necessary.

“If the president of the United States wants to politicize a tragedy, he should expect people to get upset,” Fine said.

In a scrum with reporters, Fine called Biden’s remarks “incendiary” because the president spoke in support of gun control.

An FBI spokesperson declined to comment on Fine’s tweets. The Secret Service didn’t return an email from DCReport.

Federal law makes it a crime to in any way threaten to harm, kidnap, or kill the president. Typically public officials who make threats like Fine’s are ignored or get a visit from the Secret Service.

Fine has described a fantasy history of the Second Amendment, one popularized by pseudo-historians, white supremacists, religious fanatics, and gun manufacturers whose most profitable products are military-style assault weapons like the AR-15. Fine is all in on so-called "Constitutional carry," which would let anyone carry a gun openly with no training, no license, no firearms registration.

Fine articulated the gun industry’s Big Lie when he spoke with Florida reporters about his threatening tweets. “People need to understand the history of the Second Amendment,” Fine said. “The Second Amendment was created to protect people from an overarching government. That’s what it was created for. And when the government says we’re going to come after you and we’re going to treat you the way the Chinese treat their citizens, we’re going to take away your ability to protect yourself from an overarching government, people are going to be upset.”

As the Second Amendment states on its face it was enacted to make sure that each state could have a “well-regulated militia.” All Constitutional rights have limits, as our Supreme Court has held in many cases.

There have been 214 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Education Week, which tracks school shootings, said there have been 27 American school shootings with injuries or deaths this year. The United States this year has suffered more than one school shooting per week. Most countries have had zero school shootings this year.

Fine is a former gambling industry executive. He has an MBA and an undergraduate degree from Harvard University so he’s not lacking in education, just common sense and decency.

Fine’s threats and lies about the Second Amendment come as NRA-funded Republicans blocked the confirmation of David Chipman, Biden’s nominee to run our nation’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives. Biden’s second choice for the job, former federal prosecutor Steven Dettelbach, also may not be confirmed because of Republicans toeing the line of the NRA, a former organization of hunters and target shooters that now represents gunmakers.

The ATF hasn’t had a Senate-confirmed leader since 2015. Firearm lobbyists have even blocked the bureau from making a searchable database to trace weapons used in murders and other crimes.

Reprinted with permission from DC Report.

Blood On Their Hands -- And NRA Money In Their Pockets

Blood On Their Hands -- And NRA Money In Their Pockets

The gut-wrenching tragedy in Texas has turned into a thoroughly degraded political spectacle of corruption and cowardice. If anyone still wonders why America suffers from gun violence at a level unmatched by any other nation, the answer can be found on gaudy display in Houston. The Republican politicians who obediently kneel at the National Rifle Association's annual gathering there — as well as those too sniveling to show up right now in person but instead on video, like Gov. Greg Abbott — have blood on their hands and money in their pockets.

The crooked gang that has driven the NRA toward bankruptcy through the graft of millions in crony contracts and lavish "expenses" over their decades of self-dealing has greased its political allies, too. At last count the organization has doled out upwards of $100 million over the last few election cycles to its faithful servants, who echo its litany of bogus constitutionalism and absurd alibis against gun safety regulation.

That the NRA event will occur just across the Lone Star State from the bereaved town of Uvalde is more than a tragic coincidence. Under pressure of investigation from the attorney general of New York, where the NRA has been registered as a public charity for 150 years, the outfit's leaders may relocate to the more corruption-friendly Texas climate. The Republican leadership there is an utterly servile instrument of the gun lobby, insisting that they will tolerate no regulation of firearms whatsoever. If a disturbed teenager has the cash to buy two assault weapons that he will use to brutally murder small children, why should they stop him when the gun lobby says no?

Abbott, who held a happy hour fundraiser on the same day as the Uvalde slaughter, embodies the callous indifference to the murderous consequences and deceptions of the gun lobby. He is a quintessential "thoughts and prayers" and "pro-life" hypocrite, whose devout faith doesn't extend to protecting children after they are actually born. Abbott is the kind of deliberately "do-nothing" placeholder who leaves open the door to the massacre of children that makes people question democratic governance and fills them with despair.

While children are giving traumatic accounts of the slaying of their classmates and how they smeared themselves with their blood to pretend to be dead, Abbott is pretending that he will do something. Only the most naive will believe him, however, because we have seen this rodeo clown show before.

Four years ago in Texas, when a 17-year-old student shot dead eight students and two teachers, and grievously wounded 13 others at Santa Fe High School, Abbott promised he would offer new solutions. He called for "roundtable" discussions reflecting all points of view. He hinted at expanded background checks and ways to keep guns away from obviously dangerous individuals. "It's time in Texas that we take action to step up," he said, "and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again in the history of the state of Texas." Oh yeah.

But Greg Abbott did nothing — absolutely nothing — as bloody murders continued across his state— at the El Paso Walmart, in Midland-Odessa, and now Uvalde. In fact, he has continued to promote unfettered access of weapons of war to wanton killers. Now the Texas rodeo clown is telling the crowd he's concerned about "mental health," when the truth is that he has cut the state's mental health budget consistently.

To be sure, Americans need expanded access to mental health care, especially now in the aftermath of the pandemic, but that isn't the most effective way to address gun violence. We know that gun regulation works, because even the most violent cities that curb guns have fewer killings than those that do not. New York City has far fewer murders than Houston, where the monstrous NRA will celebrate as the innocents are buried. Today, the leading cause of death among children and teenagers in the United States is gun violence.

Don't mess with Texas? Sorry, but Texas is a bloody mess — and the enablers of its terrible distress begin but do not end with its governor.

To find out more about Joe Conason and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre

‘Thank God I’m Safe’: NRA Boss Hid Out On Yacht After School Massacres

NRA leader Wayne LaPierre says he faced an unprecedented “security threat” in the wake of bloody rampages at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut and a Parkland, Florida, high school — and had to seek refuge aboard his Hollywood producer friend’s 108-foot yacht. In a chutzpah-rich deposition, the politically powerful gun rights advocate said the fancy vessel christened “The Illusion” was one of the few places he felt safe from the national outrage that erupted after the slaughter of innocent children with military-grade firearms. “They simply let me use it as a security retreat because they kn...