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Old 03-05-2018, 09:02 AM   #1
Vetter
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Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Central Florida
Age: 76
Posts: 62,704
Thumbs up Florida Senate rejects ban on assault weapons, votes to arm teachers

For a moment, Florida lawmakers gave gun control a shot.

The Florida state senate briefly approved a two-year freeze on the sale of AR-15 assault rifles on Saturday ? before overturning the measure 15 minutes after the initial vote.

The fleeting prohibition came on an unrecorded voice vote, in which lawmakers shouted yea or nay, according to the Tampa Bay Times. It was swiftly reconsidered and overturned by a more formal roll call vote of 21-17.

All of the votes in the Florida senate that rejected the bill banning AR-15s were from Republicans.

They argued that a ban on any specific weapon would be unconstitutional and the first step toward confiscating guns from law-abiding citizens.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shelved the gun debate on the federal level for the moment, saying the Senate will turn next week to other measures.

And now there's more! Yeah Florida!

The Florida Senate rejected a proposal to ban assault weapons, and voted for a measure to arm some teachers, weeks after 17 people were killed in the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.

An amendment that would have banned assault weapons attached to a wider bill failed on Saturday in a largely party-line vote, in response to the Feb. 14 killing of 14 students and three faculty at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Parkland.

The vote was 20-17 against the assault weapon ban, with two Republicans joining all of the senate's 15 Democrats in support of the proposal, the Miami Herald reported.

The full bill, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, is expected to pass the state Senate on Monday, then go to the Florida House.

Last edited by Vetter; 03-05-2018 at 10:36 PM.
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