Survivors launch initiative
Proposed amendment would let citizens vote to ban sale of assault weapons
Survivors of the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School hope the state’s voters will do what they say elected officials have not achieved: Reform gun laws to ban the sale of military grade weapons.
They presented the first batch of petitions to the Broward County supervisor of elections Monday for a proposed amendment for Florida’s 2020 election ballot. The law would not prohibit handguns and would exempt assault weapons that were legally owned before it is enacted.
Among the speakers at a news conference Monday in downtown Fort Lauderdale: Voting and gun control activist David Hogg, who was a student in the Parkland school on Feb. 14, 2018, when 17 students and staffers were killed and 17
others were wounded.
Gail Schwartz, whose 14-year-old nephew Alex Schachter was one of those murdered, submitted to the elections office 200 of the hundreds of thousands of petitions they’ll need to gather.
Debbi Hixon, whose husband, Chris Hixon, was the school’s athletic director, attended the event as did Mitch and Annika Dworet, parents of Nicholas Dworet, 17.
Hixon, the educator, and Dworet, the student, also were killed that day.
“As Americans and Floridians we can come together to say that gun violence is not going to happen in the Sunshine State,” Hogg said. “Gun violence is a preventable issue. … The fact of the matter is, if you are using an assault weapon to defend yourself … you are hunting someone. You are not defending yourself.”
Giving the event bipartisan political support was Ann Marie Milano, who spoke on behalf of Al Hoffman Jr., a former ambassador to Portugal and GOP donor. Milano said Hoffman is a veteran, lifelong Republican and longtime holder of a concealed weapon license. He is a developer of Parkland and a leader of the Republican organization Americans for Gun Safety Now!, which is supporting the constitutional amendment.
Milano said that group’s goals include “educating Floridians on the critical need to ban assault weapons in our state to protect the ones we love. Our bipartisan coalition is not trying to take anyone’s guns or Second Amendment rights. We are simply striving to keep the use of military grade assault weapons in the hands of the military and law enforcement, who are trained to use them.”
Asked if Hoffman was hearing from other Republicans who did not feel the way he does about possible restrictions on military grade rifles, Milano said, “I think the point is that we have a lot of people that are coming together in our party, and we’re moving forward with that.”
Marion Hammer, the Florida lobbyist for the National Rifle Association and the group’s past president, said of the proposed law, “This petition seeks to ban practically every rifle and shotgun in America today with the exception singleshot bolt action rifles or single-shot shotguns by calling them assault weapons.
“It is a blatant attempt to fool Floridians by sucking them into a deception that would effectively ban most hunting, target shooting, and significant home defense as well.”
The constitutional amendment petition form summarizes the ballot measure as “prohibiting possession of assault weapons defined as semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition at once, either in a fixed or detachable magazine, or any other ammunitionfeeding device. Possession of handguns is not prohibited.”
It also says that military and law enforcement personnel are exempt in their official duties. And it “exempts and requires registration of assault weapons lawfully possessed prior to this provision’s effective date,” and creates criminal penalties for violations.
Schwartz is chair of Ban Assault Weapons NOW! Its mission is to take the gun safety issue directly to voters, according to the group’s website. She is also a member of the gun reform group Do Something Florida!, which describes itself a coalition of Florida voters, students, nonprofits, businesses, community leaders and government officials.
“We are here today because it’s time to turn our grief into action,” said Schwartz. “It’s time for us to do something, Florida. It’s time to ban the type of military grade assault weapons in the state of Florida that are used by our military, overseas, on our enemies, on the battlefield.”
She wants it to become illegal to sell such weapons in the state.
Hixon — whose husband, Chris Hixon, 49, a veteran and wrestling coach who was killed while trying to protect his students — said she supported the petition effort.
“I’m not trying to take guns away from anybody except from people who shouldn’t have them,” Hixon said.
Other supporters at the press conference included members of the League of Women Voters of Florida and of the Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action.
They will need 776,200 signed and certified petitions by the end of this year and plan to gather about 1.1 million petitions in case some signatures don’t match those on 2016 ballots and are tossed out, an organizer said. There were 88,000 ballots collected so far across the state that are yet to be submitted to other supervisor of elections offices.
Before the Supreme Court of Florida reviews the amendment and decides whether it can go on ballots, 76,620 petitions need to be certified.
Andrew Pollack, a gun owner whose 18-year-old daughter Meadow also was killed at the Parkland school, said of his fellow grieving parents who are pursuing gun law reform, “If they want to focus on guns, I have no problem with it. I like to concentrate on school safety and accountability.
“Once you bring the gun debate into it, you deflect from making our kids safe,” Pollack said. “You bring up a whole other debate that people are going to debate for hundreds of years.”
He was proud of the state law that he and Ryan Petty — whose daughter Alaina was 14 when she was fatally shot at the high school — both supported. It was passed less than a month after the shootings.
The law raised the minimum age to buy rifles and shotguns to 21; extended a three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns, and banned bump stocks that transform guns into automatic weapons.
It allowed school employees to be armed, funds mental health programs and established the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which continues to investigate the shooting.
It also allowed a legal process for police to seize firearms from people who make violent threats to themselves or others, and required every school in Florida to have threat assessment teams meet each month.
Pollack called himself a “law-abiding gun owner” and said having a weapon makes him feel safe “wherever I go. I’m not gonna be a victim. I’m going to be able to protect the people around me that I love. … When evil shows up, I want to be able to protect myself.”
Thursday marks one year since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Hogg said he will spend it with his sister Lauren. Four of her best friends were killed in the shootings and he said she still cries for them every day.
“This is something you do not move on from,” Hogg said.
Pollack said he won’t be going to the school on Feb. 14.
“Every day is the same to me,” he said. “We all feel the same.”
“As Americans and Floridians we can come together to say that gun violence is not going to happen in the Sunshine State.”
Parkland survivor David Hogg