Candidates disagreed over how to limit gun violence.
Bill Nelson and Rick Scott disagreed Tuesday over how to limit gun violence during a contentious exchange during the first debate of Florida’s U.S. Senate race.
Nelson, the incumbent Democrat, described himself as a champion of the kinds of gun restrictions he said could reduce gun violence — and that polling shows the public wants.
Scott, the current governor and Republican candidate for the Senate seat, described himself as a backer of gun rights and an advocate of keeping guns away from dangerous people.
The candidates debated for an hour at Telemundo 51 studios in Miramar.
High-profile issue
Guns and school safety have become a major issue in the midterm elections, especially in Florida, which has experienced two big massacres in the state in the past two years.
On Feb. 14, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, 17 people were killed and 17 were wounded. On June 12, 2016, 49 people were killed at Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
Polling shows strong support for a variety of stricter gun laws, including universal background checks for gun buyers and an outright ban on assault-style rifles, such as the AR-15 used in the Stoneman Douglas shooting.
Nelson
Nelson said he wants to “get the assault rifles off the street” and wants universal, comprehensive background checks for people buying weapons.
Nelson attacked Scott for his “A-plus rating with the NRA. He has passed more NRA-backed legislation than any other governor in the history of this state.”
Nelson, who said he is a hunter, said assault weapons like the AR-15 used in the Stoneman Douglas massacre aren’t for sport. “These weapons are for killing. They’re not for hunting.”
Scott
Scott began by professing his support for gun rights. “I believe in the Second Amendment. I believe in the First Amendment. I believe in all the amendments of the Bill of Rights.”
Scott contrasted his approach with what he said was Nelson’s.
Nelson, Scott said, believes in “taking away certain guns from law-abiding citizens. I think we ought to focus on the problem. The problem is we have people that want to harm themselves or others. And I think we ought to take all weapons away from them.”
The governor used the subject to pursue his general line of attack during the hour-long debate: an assertion that Nelson is ineffective despite his decades in public office. Scott said Nelson has “never gotten anything done with regard to creating school safety.”
By contrast, Scott said, the Legislature passed and he signed a new gun and school safety law soon after the Stoneman Douglas massacre. “Within three weeks after the Parkland shooting, we passed a comprehensive bill.”
The new state law, the first Florida gun-control measure in more than 20 years, raised the minimum age to buy rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, extends the previous three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns, bans bump stocks that allow firearms to perform like automatic weapons and provides for enhanced school security.
Parkland
Nelson was prepared for the issue. When the question was asked, he introduced one of his guests in the audience, Fred Guttenberg.
“His daughter Jaime was gunned down,” Nelson said. “Fred wakes up every day and goes to the cemetery first thing. He’ll never have another birthday for Jaime.”
Nelson said Scott should “look Fred Guttenberg in the face” and promise that he’d no longer support NRA-sought policies.
Scott expressed sympathy “for Fred’s family, for all the families that lost their loved ones at Parkland. My heart goes out to them.”
Guttenberg has become an outspoken supporter of Democratic politicians running in the 2018 midterm elections and has endorsed Nelson.
After the debate, Guttenberg was one of the senator’s surrogates who spoke to reporters.
He said the law passed after the Stoneman Douglas massacre was too late. “While something was done after Feb. 14, and I’m thankful that it was, I am angry that nothing was done before it,” he said. “My daughter would be alive today if the law that got put in place after Feb. 14 was in place before Feb. 14, and so I am angry.”
Guttenberg repeated his support for Nelson, who he said “has history on this issue, which has always been supportive of gun safety.”
To him, the NRA is proving that Scott isn’t good on the issue. Even after passage of the new Florida law, the NRA isn’t going after Scott the way it is trying to defeat some Republicans who aren’t in sync with the organization’s views.
“The NRA is right now going after various Republicans in the country that support gun safety … You know who they’re not going after? They’re not going after Rick Scott because he is still committed to them.”