Call to ban weapons

Pulse survivors want sale of assault firearms to be outlawed in Florida

Survivors of the Pulse massacre gave an emotional appeal Thursday in favor of a new bill that would ban assault weapons in Florida.

“With all the chaos happening that night, I ... thought I was only shot three times in the beginning, later on finding out out I was shot six times,” said Angel Colon, who walked with a cane to the lectern at a news conference at the Orange County Courthouse. “Both of my legs, both of my hips, burned nerves, a shattered femur.

“After all these injuries I received, and all the surgeries, I can’t work for over a year,” he said. “So now my job is not only to spread hope, love and positivity, it is now to protect our country, our community, our city. And to fight for the 49 souls today and ban these assault weapons.”

The bill, introduced Thursday by Democratic state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Sen. Linda Stewart, would ban the sale or transfer of assault weapons and largecapacity magazines in Florida.

It defines assault weapons as “any selective-fire firearm capable of fully automatic, semi-automatic, or burst fire at the option of the user.”

It also bans the sale of AK and AR series weapons as well as more than 30 other specific models, including the Sig Sauer MCX rifle, the kind used by Pulse shooter Omar Mateen.

“Large-capacity” magazines are defined as those that hold more than seven rounds.

The bill, which its sponsors admit will be a hard sell in a Republican-controlled Legislature, would take effect Oct. 1 if passed. A draft version had said it would take effect in July 2018.

After that, a certificate proving that the weapon or magazine was purchased beforehand would be required to avoid a third-degree felony with a mandatory two years in prison.

The bill, said Pulse survivor Brandon Wolf, would be “a clear signal that while we can’t just stop hate today, we can certainly stop arming it.”

“It was just half a year ago when a man walked through the front doors of Pulse and pulled the trigger,” he said. “And in just one minute, he fired 30 rounds. And while I sat frozen in a bathroom, 13 of those rounds murdered my best friends.

“We didn’t just arm hate on June 12,” Wolf added. “We militarized it. We handed hate an assault weapon and we said, ‘Is that going to be cash or card?’ ... While we stood by and remained inactive, we were complicit in murder after murder. We served up moviegoers, nightclub patrons, and even first-grade children as sacrifices to the gun lobby. And for what? How can we stay proud of who we are when there’s nobody left to murder?”

For Smith, the first LGBT Hispanic state legislator in Florida, the bill is the first one he introduced since his election in November.

He said the people killed in the shooting were victims of terrorism, homophobia and racism, but also “our culture’s obsession with assault weapons. We are fighting for our 49 friends who didn’t deserve to die.”