Defying the governor:
Board wants stricter gun laws
A tone of defiance dominated the discussion Friday as members of a Broward County board headed toward a confrontation with Gov. Rick Scott over Florida’s gunfriendly laws. “I don’t care if the governor’s removes me. I really don’t,” said Marilyn Leto, a member of the Broward Charter Review Commission. At issue was a 2011 law, supported by the National Rifle Association and signed by the governor, that prohibited local governments from passing their own restrictions on guns.
A tone of defiance dominated the discussion Friday as members of a Broward County board headed toward a confrontation with Gov. Rick Scott over Florida’s gun-friendly laws.
“I don’t care if the governor removes me. I really don’t,” said Marilyn Leto, a member of the Broward Charter Review Commission.
At issue was a 2011 law, supported by the National Rifle Association and signed by the governor, that prohibited local governments from passing their own restrictions on guns. Penalties are stiff: Any public official who approves such a restriction could be removed from office by the governor and face a fine of up to $5,000, as well as possible lawsuits.
But members of the Broward Charter Review Commission, which proposes charter amendments for consideration by the county’s voters, said they had to take action to make the county safer after the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Commission Chairman Thomas McDonald and commission member Grant Smith both offered to pay the
$5,000 fines for other commissioners.
“We have to stand up,” said McDonald, who has two children who had attended
the school.
The commission lacked the 10-member quorum to take action on the proposals, which included banning assault rifles, banning highcapacity magazines, banning the sale of devices to turn an semi-automatic
weapon into an automatic one and banning gun shows on county-owned property. So the nine at the meeting agreed to have their executive director contact all members and set a meeting within the next two weeks to consider whether to put such restrictions on the November ballot.
“It can happen anywhere and we need to try to stop it now, and whatever we have to do we should take the position to do just that,” said Joseph Wells, a member of the commission and a teacher at Pompano Beach High School. “All of us need to stand up together and say enough and enough.”
Cities are considering similar steps.
Weston Mayor Daniel Stermer told the board that his city commission will meet Monday to consider suing the state to invalidate the statute and to consider passing a gun-control law in defiance of it.
“I’m prepared to bring forth an ordinance, against the legal advice of my counsel, against the advice of my city manager, at a special meeting next Monday, outlawing and banning firearms in Weston’s publicly owned facilities and buildings,” Stermer said.
“You know the saying, put your money where your mouth is? I’m prepared to put my office where my mouth is,” he said. “Let the governor remove me. That’s
fine. My hope then is that another city and another city and a county will do it.”
McKinley Lewis, spokesman for the governor, would not say whether he would remove members of the charter review commission or any city commissioner who adopt a law restricting guns.
“We will review it,” he said.
Several students from Stoneman Douglas and other high schools spoke at the meeting. Rather than relying on emotional appeals, they deployed studies and constitutional arguments to support the proposition that weapons such as AR-15s should be banned.
Charles Mirsky, a junior at Spanish River High School, cited a National Academy of Sciences study that found waiting periods reduced gun homicides by 17 percent.
Jacob Zaslaw, 15, a freshman at Stoneman Douglas, knew two of the children who were killed, Alyssa Alhadeff and Alex Schachter. He focused on the meaning of the Second Amendment and studies that showed assault rifle bans reduce shootings
“Obtaining a ban may not be possible today or tomorrow or in the foreseeable future,” he said. “But I know my generation will vote out all the politicians that stand in the way of a ban of this nature.”