Understand the Issues
While acknowledging the Second Amendment rights of all citizens, gun violence remains a persistent and disturbing public safety issue. Its impact is most keenly felt by minority communities but has touched a broad cross section of our country. Guns kill over 30,000 people in the U.S. each year; in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, over 33,500 people were killed by a gun.
In 2017, the Florida Legislature considered laws to permit open carry, campus carry, expansion of the Stand Your Ground law, and elimination of gun-free zones, as well as expanded background checks and a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons. The tand Your Ground law was expanded but all other bills failed. At the federal level, the new administration supports federally mandated concealed carry reciprocity, a “national reciprocity act,” taking from the states their right to design concealed carry laws.