F-minus rating a badge of honor
Ranking proves hard work pays off, NRA’s lowest-graded Florida legislator says
State Rep. Jared Moskowitz says he considers his new F-minus rating from the National Rifle Association as proof that hard work pays off.
The Coral Springs Democrat vowed on Twitter to wear his rockbottom mark as a “badge of honor.” Moskowitz, 37, is the only Florida lawmaker to receive the F-minus grade in the gun rights group’s latest ratings.
He views the grade as an effort by the NRA’s influential lobbyist Marion Hammer to punish him for helping to secure the passage of Florida’s first new gun-control measures in 20 years.
“Marion Hammer considers me public enemy No. 1,” he said.
Moskowitz is a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and his district includes many of the students and families affected by the Feb. 14 shooting that killed 17 students and staff and injured 17 others.
His emotional floor speech helped to seal the passage of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. That measure, signed into law in March, raised the age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21, created a statewide waiting period for longgun sales and made it easier for law enforcement to seize weapons from people suspected of being dangerous.
The bill also allocated $400 million in funding for mental health and school security and allowed school districts to arm some school staff.
Hammer, who has been called the most influential gun lobbyist in America, said Moskowitz’s F-minus rating had to do with a track record of hostility toward the Second Amendment.
“He has always been very antigun,” she said. “That is the grade he earned. His conduct with regard to Parkland and the gun-control bill passed this session is just more of the same from him. It was not unexpected.”
Moskowitz, first elected in 2012, said he’s not aware of a Florida legislator ever receiving an F-minus grade. Hammer said that grade has been awarded in the past, but she could not recall anyone who received that mark. It’s not on the NRA’s grading scale on its website.
Moskowitz recalled a tour of Stoneman Douglas he gave after the shooting to House Speaker Richard Corcoran, R-Land O'Lakes, and other GOP legislators.
“Down the hallway, you could see blood against the wall,” Moskowitz said. “It was fresh. … Seeing the school with bullets through windows is a visual you do not forget.”
He said members of his party also wanted to kill the bill because they didn’t think it went far enough on gun control. He said he pushed them to accept a compromise.
Moskowitz favors a ban on assault-style weapons, a measure excluded from the Parkland legislation to ensure its passage. He opposes a tax on bullets — a proposal floated by some in his party — because he thinks it would alienate law-abiding gun owners while doing nothing to prevent gun violence.
He has plenty of company at the bottom of the NRA’s grading scale. Numerous South Florida lawmakers received F’s, including State Rep. Kristin Jacobs and state Sens. Gary Farmer and Bobby Powell.
Three Democratic candidates for governor — Andrew Gillum, Gwen Graham and Philip Levine — received F’s in the latest scores released this week. They quickly took to social media to tout their grades. Candidate Jeff Greene, a latecomer to the race, was omitted from the list of candidates, and Chris King, a Winter Park businessman, said he threw away the NRA’s questionnaire, earning him a question mark.
Moskowitz will be term-limited if re-elected, and he doesn’t think significant gun control measures will pass in the next two years with the GOP firmly in control of the state Legislature. He is facing a primary challenge from Imtiaz Mohammad, a Miramar businessman.
Moskowitz is more optimistic that important adjustments could be made to the school safety law, such as giving more direction to judges on the seizure of firearms and creating uniform standards for school safety officers.
When the Parkland shooting happened, it changed everything, he said. Moskowitz said he carries with him the memory of attending seven funerals in the days after the massacre.
“I couldn’t go to all the funerals,” he said. “They were happening simultaneously. I was driving past funerals to go to other funerals.”