Florida lawmakers reject assault weapons ban, approve bill allowing teachers to carry guns



  • Florida lawmakers shot down an amendment on Monday that would have banned semi-automatic “assault” weapons like the AR-15 used in the Parkland school massacre.

    They did, however, agree to raise the legal age for purchasing a firearm to 21 — and approved legislation that would give teachers the right to carry guns in school, NBC-2 reports.

    https://nypost.com/2018/02/26/florida-lawmakers-reject-assault-weapons-ban-approve-bill-allowing-teachers-to-carry-guns/

    Raising the legal age will do nothing except hurt law-abiding citizens. I am glad to see they rejected an 'assault' weapons ban and approved teachers to carry guns.



  • I am a bit on the fence about the minimum age. Setting aside the fact that most 18-20yo don't act with much maturity most of the time, there is a bigger issue with being able to purchase at the 18th birthday.

    In most cases school records and medical records, including mental health records, are sealed for minors. So even if an individual has a long history of mental illness as a minor, it is difficult for anyone looking to be able to find those records and determine which persons are a potential high-risk gun owner. Requiring them to wait until 21 gives the system 3 years to collect that information. That, in theory at least, should give background checks a better chance of identifying the unstable ones.

    Of course this all assumes that you believe there should be any background checks in the first place. And that the system would be effective at identifying them. And that they couldn't get access to a weapon illegally anyway. Other than that, the new system should work great.



  • IMHO, if an 18 yr old can go into the service and be trained to fight and kill for our country, there should be no restrictions on 18 yr old's to be able to by any legal guns any different than older people. But, it does seems prudent that some kind of licencing process, much like getting a driver's license, should be in place.

    Just as an interesting factoid I find interesting; scientists have recently found that the human brain doesn't fully mature until around age 25 (for things like having to do with the ability to perceive reality accurately, functions of reason and control over emotions). Funny though, I have family members who do seem to have "matured" in those ways until around age 40-45. ;-)



  • @straightshooter1 from what was being spoke of over the last week, the new age requirement does have exceptions for those who are in the military, LEO, and a few others. I’m not sure if that went through as law though.

    This is another worthless gun control law. If it’s anythng like CA age law it only blocks purchasing not ownership. A parent that wants to gift their child a AR-15 at the age of 18 can do so. So all this stops is new sales from stores to the under 21.



  • You can vote at 18, and you can do a hell of a lot more damage voting then with a firearm.

    Besides that rights should apply to everyone at all ages.



  • You can drive at 16. There are a whole lot more kids being irresponsible with cars and getting other people killed than with guns.

    BTW— I am not advocating for a higher driving age or gun ownership/purchase age. In both cases we need to stop expecting the government to protect us.



  • @straightshooter1 said:

    IMHO, if an 18 yr old can go into the service and be trained to fight and kill for our country, there should be no restrictions on 18 yr old's to be able to by any legal guns any different than older people. But, it does seems prudent that some kind of licencing process, much like getting a driver's license, should be in place.

    Just as an interesting factoid I find interesting; scientists have recently found that the human brain doesn't fully mature until around age 25 (for things like having to do with the ability to perceive reality accurately, functions of reason and control over emotions). Funny though, I have family members who do seem to have "matured" in those ways until around age 40-45. ;-)

    With respect, I think that an 18 year old that went through basic training in any of the branches of the armed forces is going to have a different perspective and values than an 18 YO out of high school a short time. I don't think you can consider those two 18YOs in general will have the same level of maturity and discipline. There are exceptions to every rule, but IMO the young nut jobs that do these mass shootings appear to have no concept of boundaries which amongst other things is exactly what the military either drills into you or drums you out.

    A few weeks ago a 10 or 12YO was cuffed by the cops. I listened to the parent rant and rave on the news as to how the kid that age could be handcuffed by the cops.... Easy Greg.... Well this little angel was cuffed according to police procedure for striking his teachers numerous times. I can't even conceive of the kind of upbringing that would allow a kid that age to even remotely think that kind of behavior was OK. Spare the Rod and spoil the child, you end up raising a demon. If that were my kid, his backside would have gotten lit up.



  • @martino1 said:
    If that were my kid, his backside would have gotten lit up.

    I commend you for raising your children with proper discipline. Yet the sad thing is...in our society if you had "lit up" your child in the presence of the right people, then you would be the one wearing cuffs and your child would be in the care of the state.



  • Anyone here familiar with the old song Eve of Destruction?

    Not much has changed with regard to the lyrics of that son. When the subject of young people voting, this opening stanza of that song seems to always jump into my mind:

    The eastern world it is exploding
    Violence flarin', bullets loadin'
    You're old enough to kill but not for votin'
    You don't believe in war but whats that gun you're totin'?
    And even the Jordan River has bodies floatin'

    Yeah . . . I'm of THAT generation. ;-)



  • @dddoo7 said:

    @martino1 said:
    If that were my kid, his backside would have gotten lit up.

    I commend you for raising your children with proper discipline. Yet the sad thing is...in our society if you had "lit up" your child in the presence of the right people, then you would be the one wearing cuffs and your child would be in the care of the state.

    And therein lies the problem, children cannot be disciplined at home, they cannot be disciplined in school. I'm not saying beat the child to a pulp but a defining moment is all one needs to experience to realize that if consequences are swift and certain, undesired behavior simply goes away.

    I went to a Catholic High School. A kid in our algebra class didn't do his homework and lied about it. He got his in class when the teacher found out. Needless to say, the rest of the class approached their homework assignments with renewed vigor from that point on. Needless to say that student did also.



  • @martino1

    You are absolutely correct that discipline is a major reason why young people today are so unruly. Young people today are being raised by a generation that had very little discipline themselves and I hate to see where the next generation ends up.

    However...a parent trying to do their best at raising their children properly has to be very careful about disciplining their children at all. This is due to over zealous police, DA's, Judges, and ultimately the politicians making the laws. I don't believe a child should be beat and a parent that beats their child should be punished...however a parent should not be punished or have to worry about repercussions from regular discipline. When a parent is not allowed by government to properly discipline their child...then society will fall. It is just a matter of time and sadly I believe we are witnessing that crash and standing back and asking "why?".



  • @dddoo7 said:

    @martino1

    You are absolutely correct that discipline is a major reason why young people today are so unruly. Young people today are being raised by a generation that had very little discipline themselves and I hate to see where the next generation ends up.

    However...a parent trying to do their best at raising their children properly has to be very careful about disciplining their children at all. This is due to over zealous police, DA's, Judges, and ultimately the politicians making the laws. I don't believe a child should be beat and a parent that beats their child should be punished...however a parent should not be punished or have to worry about repercussions from regular discipline. When a parent is not allowed by government to properly discipline their child...then society will fall. It is just a matter of time and sadly I believe we are witnessing that crash and standing back and asking "why?".

    Totally agree!!

    AR's have been in the public domain for about 50 years or so but these mass killings have occurred with increased frequency lately. What changed.... Not the rifle.... the undisciplined little monsters wielding them. I had a discussion yesterday regarding the gun ban, So I asked so what do we ban next, Moving trucks one was used to kill people in NY if I recall, Pressure cooker's, one was used in the Boston Marathon Bombing. I closed the discussion with, Blaming the gun for the misdeeds of the one holding it is like blaming pencils for bad math or sloppy handwriting. I was told I was being unreasonable. I suggested that the individual not let facts get in the way of their opinions. They assured me they wouldn't.



  • @martino1 said:

    @dddoo7 said:

    @martino1

    You are absolutely correct that discipline is a major reason why young people today are so unruly. Young people today are being raised by a generation that had very little discipline themselves and I hate to see where the next generation ends up.

    However...a parent trying to do their best at raising their children properly has to be very careful about disciplining their children at all. This is due to over zealous police, DA's, Judges, and ultimately the politicians making the laws. I don't believe a child should be beat and a parent that beats their child should be punished...however a parent should not be punished or have to worry about repercussions from regular discipline. When a parent is not allowed by government to properly discipline their child...then society will fall. It is just a matter of time and sadly I believe we are witnessing that crash and standing back and asking "why?".

    Totally agree!!

    AR's have been in the public domain for about 50 years or so but these mass killings have occurred with increased frequency lately. What changed.... Not the rifle.... the undisciplined little monsters wielding them.

    I agree that there's a problem concerning discipline and that many of the laws governing it have overstepped their bounds. But I think there's a much bigger problem that seems to go ignored.

    The Media

    Companies know the power of advertising using various media and spend billions on it to sell their products. Well, violence is being advertised/promoted in every medium being used, included news broadcasts. Movies, television programming, games, news, social media, etc., all are heavily vested in violence to obtain and maintain as much market share as they can to make as much money as they can. Kids are watching and taking in this stuff and seeing it everywhere (often, included in real life). Any wonder why so many kids are violent and/or depressed?

    It struck me in a recent news report I read about an 11 year old girl who the day after this recent Florida mass killing had written a threatening paper about getting a gun and killing all the "ugly people" at here school. Where does an 11 yr old little girl get an idea like that? I think she get it from the news along with all the other violent stuff around her.

    The general public and the government want to treat the symptoms of the problem (e.g. the use of so called Assault Rifles in mass shootings). What needs to me addressed is the roots of the problem, which as I see it is the widespread promotion of violence as well as the lack of effort in managing mental health.

    So, throw this in with the shortage of discipline, and we have what we have in our society today.



  • People all want to be left alone. Yet almost everyone wants to tell everyone else how to live because, reasons.

    Modern society is a shit house full of rats.



  • Hmmmm??? I don't think the nature of Modern society is really any different than societies of any other time or place . . . just more of it today and more knowing more about it.

    *We have fallen upon evil times,
    And the world has waxed very old and wicked.
    Politics are very corrupt.
    Children are no longer respectful to their parents.

    Author, the King of Chaldea. Date, 3800 B.C*.
    Egyptian



  • @straightshooter1

    Nations usually go in cycles. At their beginning they are moral nations that tend to follow Biblical principles. With time almost every nation’s morals degrade until the nation sees economic failure and/or invasion. Israel in the Old Testament went through the same cycles, and most every modern nation that has fallen followed that same pattern. Israel fell at The hand of God when they were wicked. I have no doubts that God is in control in our nation as well and That when we have degraded to a certain point He will allow this “mighty” nation to fall.



  • @dddoo7 said:

    @straightshooter1

    Nations usually go in cycles. At their beginning they are moral nations that tend to follow Biblical principles. With time almost every nation’s morals degrade until the nation sees economic failure and/or invasion. Israel in the Old Testament went through the same cycles, and most every modern nation that has fallen followed that same pattern. Israel fell at The hand of God when they were wicked. I have no doubts that God is in control in our nation as well and That when we have degraded to a certain point He will allow this “mighty” nation to fall.

    They say those who do not heed the lessons of history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. Too bad we didn't learn a lesson from the Roman Empire.



  • In 1973 the age of majority was lowered to 18, the effective date was about a week before my 21st birthday. Talk about a major milestone missed. Anyway, my point is, according to all the neuroscience professors in the world, neither 18 nor 21 marks true brain maturity. That reliably occurs at more or less age 24, which I did not believe at the time but now am convinced is probably true. At the time the big issue about the age of majority was that 19 year olds were drafted and had been until very recently sent to Vietnam which by this time was massively unpopular on the home front. Then as now the argument was that if an 18 year old was old enough to join the Army and carry automatic weapons, handgrenades and shoulder launched missiles and be required to face mortal danger for the country then they damn well were old enough to vote and buy a beer legally. Those brand new voters elected Jimmie Carter, the second worst President ever, at the time the worst ever. About the only positive thing that came of it was it cut down some on the number of Minor in Possession convictions. We The People learned how to deal with the situation and the world did not end. Then, along came a psychopath lawyer who saw an opportunity to blackmail elected officials and make himself insanely wealthy and he found two alcoholics in Virginia whose equally alcoholic 18 year old daughter was killed in a car wreck and we got MADD, and created a massive number of new felons whose only crime was failing a blood alcohol test without regard to whether they were actually impaired or not. The Just Say No and revisions to the US Scheduled Drug Act all fell in with this new wave of Prohibition, creating more new felons and millions of new illegitimate babies and creating massive new opportunities for criminals. The Socialists and the Puritans have done more damage to this country and it's people than can ever be tallied.

    When I was a kid, if you had $5 and a 3 Cent stamp you could order a Mauser out of Boys Life and the Postman would bring it to you. Lugers were slightly more expensive but still within the reach of any kid willing to pull his Radio Flyer and pick up soda bottles and beer bottles off the side of the road. Our mothers drank, smoked while pregnant and from sunrise until sunset we were expected to entertain ourselves OUTSIDE. As long as you were home for supper, then all was right with the world. The poor little snowflakes our children have raised are not competent to blow their own noses because they've never been required to learn how. There were guns in our schools, probably on any random day half the boys in high school had at least one rifle in their car out in the parking lot and damn sure knew how to kill with it efficiently, I mean, 30-06 shells were $5 a box, you sure didn't want to waste one. And yet, against all odds, we managed to grow up into reasonably functional adults, earn our living and support our aging parents and not notice when the whole country went to Hell in a Handbasket. <RANT OFF>