Mass shootings in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale have brought conversations about gun rights and restrictions front and center this legislative session.
Republican state of Sarasota has proposed 10 bills to expand gun rights. The easiest way to sum up that legislation: Take away as many barriers as you can to bringing concealed weapons into public places, and allow the open carry of a weapon wherever it鈥檚 legal to bring a concealed one.
Steube, though, may not be the most important lawmaker this session when it comes to guns. Enter Miami Republican . She鈥檚 the second-in-command in the Florida Senate and a key member of the Judiciary Committee. She鈥檚 in an important post to stop gun legislation.
鈥淚 do not support having guns on campus,鈥� Flores said. 鈥淚 do not support having guns in airports. I do not support having guns in school zones. I do not support those things.鈥�
That means those measures are likely dead this year. But there are others: more than 18 gun rights expansions and restrictions proposed. Even for Florida, it鈥檚 a lot.
They allow . One bill would make it easier to . Others would allow . One bill , so you could carry a gun into a bar, a courtroom and a polling place.
鈥淚 like to call these bills this year gun bills on steroids, because we鈥檝e seen some proposals that are just mind-boggling,鈥� said Patricia Brigham, the first vice president and gun safety chair with the .
The gun bill that鈥檚 the biggest priority for Senate President Joe Negron? A bill that would Currently, defendants have to prove at a pretrial hearing why they should be immune from prosecution. Now that burden would shift to prosecutors.
鈥淚f the state is going to charge you with a crime and convict you and incarcerate you, they have the burden of proof at each and every stage of the criminal proceeding to prove the case against you,鈥� Negron said. 鈥淎nd the standard in our constitution is beyond and to the exclusion of every other reasonable doubt.鈥�
On the gun control side, Democrats have filed bills to require a . They want to and tighten requirements on 鈥� proposals that have little chance of passing in a Republican-controlled Legislature.
In the wake of Pulse, Orlando Democrats have filed bills to restrict assault weapons and high capacity magazines.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 want to say the 鈥楶鈥� word in Tallahassee,鈥� Guillermo Smith said. 鈥淎nd that鈥檚 Pulse. And the reason why is because Republicans are uncomfortable talking about the issues invoked by Pulse.鈥�
Guillermo Smith recently debated Longwood Republican Scott Plakon on one gun control measure: . Plakon said when he was first campaigning, he hoped to avoid questions about guns on college campuses.
鈥淲ell, much like the people who oppose it today, I had this vision of drunken fraternity people with weapons,鈥� Plakon said.
Plakon says people are born with the constitutional right to bear arms. The government needs a compelling reason to take that right from you. He hasn鈥檛 found that compelling reason on college campuses.
He changed his mind three years ago when his daughter, a senior at Lake Mary High School, thought there was a shooter at her school.
鈥淔ortunately, this turned out to be a hoax, but for the better part of an hour, I lived believing my daughter was trapped in a gun-free zone with a shooter,鈥� Plakon said. 鈥淭hat changed my perspective as well.鈥�
On the black-and-white concrete Pulse sign in downtown Orlando, there are two photos taped to the beam. It鈥檚 a makeshift memorial for Drew Lienonen and his boyfriend Juan Guerrero, who both died in the mass shooting last summer. The photos are fading in the brutal Florida sun.
Drew鈥檚 mother Christine Leinonen is working to keep her son鈥檚 memory from fading. Her perspective on assault weapons has been the same since she was a police officer: She was afraid she would come up against an assault weapon. Since Pulse, she鈥檚 been advocating to control them.
鈥淲e didn鈥檛 put not one single road block in place for my son鈥檚 killer,鈥� Leionen says. 鈥淲e as an American people, we let my son down. This guy didn鈥檛 even have to break one law until he walked into that gun-free zone.
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