Guns Emerge as central issue in race for governor

Rights, stand your ground law have become key issues.

In a state

TALLAHASSEE — home to two of the deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history, Florida’s Democratic and Republican gubernatorial primaries

enter their last month with guns emerging as a central issue on both sides.

Well- fifinanced Republican Adam Putnam has seen his lead slip away in most polls to President Donald Trumpbacked rival Ron DeSantis, amid a cascade of criticism over how, as agriculture commissioner, he mishandled the state’s concealed weapons licensing program.

Both men are NRA favorites — with Putnam drawing an A-plus rating and DeSantis an A.

Meanwhile, five Democrats battling for their party’s nomination in the Aug. 28 primary are looking to out-duel each other with pledges to enact tougher

gun laws in Florida. Democrats in past statewide elec tions often tip - toed around proposals to strengthen gun laws — wary of alienating centrist and conservative voters needed in November.

This year, though, tough talk on guns is viewed as a more promising politic al strategy for Democrats and a potential vote-driver for

the close, end of summer primary where turnout historically averages only 22 percent.

“Putnam’s had his problems ... but it looks like the Democrats are trying to win by being the biggest gun banners they can be,” said Eric Friday, a Jacksonville lawyer

and general counsel for Florida Carry Inc., which advocates for the rights of gun owners.

P ut n a m was f o rc e d t o acknowledge his offiffice quietly revoked 291 concealed weapons licenses issued in 2016 and 2017 after failing to adequately review background checks.

Other accounts point to more sweeping problems

with the unit overseeing the state’s almost 2 million

licenses, most in the nation. Avery Gardiner, co-president of the Brady Campaign and Center to End Gun Violence, said a focus on guns this election season stems from polling which shows the

public is demanding answers. She said in the 2017 Virginia governor’s race, gun i ssues were behind only health care as the top issue on voters’ minds from both parties, according to polls. Florida is shaping up similarly, Gardiner added.

“Florida is a microcosm of what we’re seeing nationally, with candidates willing to take stands you would not have seen taken two or four years ago” said Gardiner, whose organization called for Putnam to resign and quit his campaign over his handling of the concealed weapons program.

The change is prompted by events, she said, with the mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School joined by massacres in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas, since voters last cast ballots in major state or national elections.

Stand your ground

N ow a n o t h e r e p i s o d e in the national headlines involves Florida, with the shooting death earlier this month of a Clearwater man in an altercation over a parking space at a convenience store. It has drag ged the state’s self-defense “stand your ground” law back under the microscope.

The black man killed was the father of three children, shot by a white man he had shoved to the ground after breaking up an argument between his girlfriend and the shooter.

The shooter has not been charged — sparking protests over the “stand your ground” law and parallels to the Trayvon Martin shooting death in 2012 in Central Florida.

Democratic candidates for governor are calling for state lawmakers to re-examine the stand your ground defense, enacted in 2005 but recently made easier for shooters to deploy.

Although DeSantis has not commented publicly on the case, Putnam said that he supports stand your ground.

Whether any charges will be fifiled is now up to Pinellas County State Attorney Bernie McCabe, a decision that potentially could further enflflame the issue politically.

“St and your ground i s very opposed by black voters, a strong base of Democratic voters,” said Susan MacManus, a University of South Florida political scientist. “The candidates are listening.”

She added that the way people view guns, generally, is sharply divided in Florida.

In South Florida and most cities — where Democratic candidates draw their strongest support — guns are connected with violence and danger, she said. The Parkland shooting and the slaying of 49 people at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in 2016, stand as vivid reminders of what guns can do, MacManus said.

Much of the rest of Florida, though, see guns through a difffffffffffferent lens. Guns are used for sport-shooting, hunting and carry a strong cultural value, she said.

“In this election, though, suburban, women voters with kids are seen as likely to support more gun restrictions and they represent a big swath of voters,” MacManus added.

Kate Kile, of Tallahassee, a leader of the Moms Demand Action campaign aimed at promoting gun safety, said her organization has tried to counter the NRA and its ratings of favored politicians, with a “gun sense” candidate questionnaire.

The fifive Democratic candidates for governor have completed the survey but the Republicans have not, she said.

“We’re a nonpartisan organization,” Kile said. “But I think a lot of people this year — from both parties — want changes so we’re not in such a hurry to get guns into people’s hands.”

On the Republican side, Putnam’s costly missteps with the concealed weapons program seem almost Shakespearean. Only a year ago, he proudly cast himself as a “proud NRA sellout” in a tweet that became explosive after the slaughter in Parkland, even prompting a boycott of Putnam-supporting Publix, the Florida grocery chain.

His primary opponent, DeSantis, a Palm Coast congressman, ridiculed Putnam’s oversight of the program as a sign of incompe

tence. But DeSantis, who will have Trump campaigning for him Tuesday in Tampa, hasn’t tried to blister Putnam on the issue — since Democrats are already doing that.

While both Republicans say they don’t support the post-Parkland state law that increases the age for buying guns from 18 to 21, Democratic candidates for governor want to go farther.

Expanded background checks, waiting periods for gun purchases and a ban on assault-style weapons are all supported by former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine, Tallahassee Mayor

Andrew Gillum, Orlando businessman Chris King and Palm Beach billionaire Jeffff Greene.

King is campaigning on a proposal to tax bullets to enhance crime prevention. Greene is up with a new TV ad saying he’ll take on the NRA in a spot that features a young survivor of the Parkland shooting.

Parkland students have been leading March for Our Lives events across the nation, which they brought to Tallahassee and the Florida Panhandle over the weekend.

Leaders of the campaign say they will continue such demonstrations after the primaries and heading toward November’s elections.