Gun debate front and center in early campaigns

TALLAHASSEE — Gun politics are dominating the early primary races for governor and other Cabinet seats, with candidates from both parties heating up their rhetoric over the divisive issue.

For Republicans, the debate centers on whether limiting gun rights — even in the wake of a massacre like the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High mass shooting — violates the Second Amendment of the Constitution and brings on the wrath of the powerful National Rifle Association.

For Democrats, the spate of horrific mass shootings, recognizable by names and places like onenamed celebrities — Sandy Hook, Pulse, Las Vegas and Parkland — has invigorated gun-control activists. Some politicians who have been lukewarm on the issue are seeking to push it to the forefront of the party agenda.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a GOP candidate for governor, went on the NRA’s TV channel to criticize the gun-control provisions passed by state lawmakers in response to the Stoneman High shooting, blaming the news media for conflating Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old suspect charged with 17 counts of murder, with the rest of gun owners.

“The left-wing media wants to wrap those monsters up with any and all law-abiding citizens who like to collect firearms, who like to go to their local gun range, who like to take their families to the woods to hunt and to shoot,” he said. “They’re missing the point that the vast majority of law-abiding citizens can be trusted with their liberties, and that includes 18-, 19- and 20-year-old adults.”

The bill, which bans bump stocks, raises the age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 and imposes a threeday waiting period on gun buys, was passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature and signed into law by