Paradise Screwed by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

October 12, 1987

HANDGUN FORCES PERCEIVE SAFETY IN REVISED LAW

Leave it to our fearless leaders in Tallahassee to put the handgun fiasco in its proper, Florida-type perspective.

See, the trouble with the gun law wasn’t that it allowed folks to swagger down the streets with a six-gun on their hips, or that it was marred by any particular legal loophole. The trouble, they tell us, was the perception of a loophole.

Rather than admit to their own sloppiness, the pro-handgun forces adopted this line: The law wasn’t bad—rather, the public was simply “misinformed.”

Gun lobbyist Marion Hammer, defending what has soured into a public relations disaster for the NRA, insisted: “Open carrying was not our issue. We did nothing to allow open carrying.”

Nonetheless, the NRA’s prepaid toadies in the state Legislature acquiesced last week and voted with the unanimous majority to change the law back, so that the open display of firearms is now a second-degree misdemeanor.

What finally got the lawmakers’ attention? What was it that ultimately persuaded them to close a loophole that supposedly did not exist?

Could it have been the plea from the state attorney general, the protests from prosecutors, the anger from law enforcement and the fear from the citizenry—all screaming bloody murder? Probably not.

What really got them worried in Tallahassee was all the nasty national publicity. They simply couldn’t sit still while yet another network news correspondent stood under the palm trees and talked about Dodge City, 1987.

This sort of thing is bad news, because it’s bad for the tourist business.

As cynical as it sounds, many lawmakers weren’t reacting to the thought of more dead bodies in the county morgue, but to the thought of empty hotel rooms at Disney World.

When Gov. Bob Martinez commented about the revised law, he didn’t talk much about saving children’s lives or protecting, cops on the street. He talked about the perception that the handgun law was flawed, and pointedly noted how hotel and convention bookings were holding steady, despite all the bad publicity.

Only in Florida does tourism take primacy over human life.

I suppose we should be grateful that the Legislature finally agreed to fix the most dangerous gap in a hopelessly dangerous law. Much of the credit for this goes to Ron Silver, Mike Friedman and other South Florida lawmakers, who pushed the issue when their colleagues seemed reluctant.

Panama City Rep. Ron (“I think Florida is a safe place to live”) Johnson actually wanted to have the ban on open pistoleros expire after one year, so the Legislature might “review” its necessity. Talk about a guy born in the wrong century.

With the Wyatt Earp loophole closed, the streets will be a little safer, but there is still no cause for a sigh of relief.

By this time next year, 130,000 Floridians are expected to hold permits for concealed weapons, most of them in South Florida. Some of these citizens will be responsible, well-trained and cautious. Others will be trigger-happy, drug-addled maniacs.

From a police officer’s point of view, the newly “fixed” gun law is not much better than the original.

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