Our reader on the ground in the Sunshine State reports:
Like Westley in The Princess Bride, Florida’s open carry bill currently in the Senate judiciary committee, SB-140, is only mostly dead. But it has one hell of a fight ahead of it and could use a prayer or two.
The main obstacles: Senators Rene Garcia (above) and Anitere Flores. That may seem surprising; both of them voted in favor of Sen. Rob Bradley’s SB 128 (self defense burden of proof).
Alex Blair, legislative assistant to Sen. Greg Steube, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, stated that he was getting calls left and right and receiving a deluge of emails about the bill’s fate. He stated that the chairman has four more weeks of committee meetings left to work on SB 140 and that Sen. Steube has two plans of attack.
1. Push the bill through committee as one piece and see if it gets voted on and passes
2. Break the bill into separate items; one for open carry, another for campus carry, and a third for airport carry
But he emphasized that Senators Flores and Garcia are the two holdouts currently standing in the way.
Senator Anitere Flores (R)
https://www.flsenate.gov/Senat
ors/S39 District Office
10691 North Kendall Dr. Suite 309
Miami, FL 33176
(305) 270-6550Tallahassee Office
404 Senate Office Building
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
(850) 487-5039Senator Rene Garcia (R)
https://www.flsenate.gov/Senat
ors/S36 District Office
1490 West 68th Street Suite 201
Hialeah, FL 33014
(305) 364-3100
FAX (305) 364-3110Tallahassee Office
310 Senate Office Building
404 South Monroe Street
Tallahassee, FL 32399-1100
(850) 487-5036
I went to offices of both Sen. Flores and Sen. Garcia. Staff members in both stated that presently they have no comment on the bill. However the body language of the person I talked to in Sen. Garcia’s office said it all. Sen. Garcia is no fan of open carry. Sen. Flores’ Miami office had already let the cat out of the bag…we know where she stands.
Marion Hammer of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida and the unofficial voice of the NRA was there, as was Eric J. Friday of Florida Carry.
Alex Blair, Senator Steube’s legislative aide, told me that under no circumstances does the Senator want to see SB 140 die.
I told him flat out that no matter what, it needs to go to a vote. If it doesn’t, that would be a repeat of the death of a similar bill last year engineered by now former Senator Miguel Díaz de la Portilla.
If it dies, we’ll get to see clearly who the turncoats were and they will face the same electoral fate as Senator Diaz.