GOP-Led FL Senate Committee Bucks NRA, Passes Gun Control

A Republican-led Florida Senate committee bucked the NRA to pass new controls for gun shows in the Sunshine State.

The gun control got the support of State Sen. Tom Lee, the same Sen. who voted to reinstate disgraced Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel in October 2019.

The Miami Herald reports the new controls are aimed at private sales at gun shows.

They require a gun seller “to check the person’s ID to make sure they’re legally allowed to own the weapon and fill out a form recording the transaction.” The vendor would check these things via a “form” which “would include a list of questions for the buyer, such as whether they’re a felon, a fugitive from justice, or have anything else in their history that would prevent them from owning a gun.”

The NRA’s Marion Hammer said, “It appears to be an actual attempt to ban private sales through red tape and fear. Asking average citizens to create what amounts to a government form and get it notarized is ridiculous.”

Hammer described the new regulations as “nothing less than gun control on steroids.”

But Sen. Tom Lee defended the gun control vote, saying, “This committee bill is our best effort to try to improve public safety on the margins here. It is not a perfect system.”

Lee admitted that putting the seller in the position of performing a quasi-background check on buyers places the seller in a tight spot. He noted that the seller should hold on to a completed form “indefinitely,” to show compliance with the regulation, in the event that a gun “ultimately [gets] used in the commission of a crime.”

Michael Bloomberg-funded Moms Demand Action supported the gun control.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.