Florida Forces Towns to Pull Local Laws Limiting Guns

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

MIAMI — The signs — “No Guns Allowed” — are being stripped from many Florida parks, government buildings, libraries and airports. And local ordinances that bar people from shooting weapons in their yards, firing up into the air (think New Year’s Eve) or taking a gun into an airport are coming off the books.

The state has spoken, again, on the matter of guns, and this time it does not want to be ignored: Since 1987, local governments in Florida have been barred from creating and enforcing their own gun ordinances. Few cities and counties paid attention, though, believing that gun laws in places like Miami might need to be more restrictive than the state laws applicable in rural Apalachicola, for example.

But this year the State Legislature passed a new law that forces counties and municipalities to do away with, and stop enforcing, their own firearms and ammunition ordinances by Oct. 1. Mayors, council and commission members will risk a $5,000 fine and removal from office if they “knowingly and willfully violate” the law. Towns that enforce their ordinances risk a $100,000 fine.

To comply with the law, cities and counties are poring over their gun ordinances, repealing laws and removing gun-related signs. In Palm Beach County that means removing ordinances that ban people from taking guns into county government buildings and local parks and from firing guns in some of its most urban areas. In Groveland, that means they can fire their guns into the air to celebrate. And in Lake County, firearms will soon be allowed in libraries.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/us/11guns.html

[russspeakeasy]

1. Just what we need...less regulation in this soon to be forgotten

dangling piece of land...Rickie scott will be the end of this state.:nuke:

[Ineeda]

4. Many of us DUers live here, you know.

Disparaging an entire state (admittedly not exactly the most enlightened of the 50) is frowned upon.

[russspeakeasy]

5. I said "we"...I live here...but gee, thanks for the info.

:grr:

[Ineeda]

6. No profile, so no way of knowing that the 'we' is not generic.

So right back at you--->>>>:mad:

[HockeyMom]

8. Living, paying taxes, and voting in a particular state

gives you the right to disparage it, AND blast it's elected officials and stupid laws. I live in Florida, for now, and while I am still here will continue to do the aforementioned. If people didn't, the status quo will remain.

[russspeakeasy]

9. That is correct...Thanks for living here. Our states sanity

percentage needs all the help it can get.:hi:

[gejohnston]

10. Is any state enlightened?

There is the image, and there is the reality. When I was at Travis AFB, California I worked for a guy that was routinly pulled over for driving while black. This was about the same time Mike Savage was a local ranter at KSFO.
My vote for most enlightened today is Vermont. You may or may not like their gun laws (I do) but home to Howard Dean and Bernie Sanders.....

[Euromutt]

15. Surely Florida has some law prohibiting "reckless endangerment"?

We had an incident in north Seattle a year or two ago where two indigents (one with a prior felony conviction) emptied a 30-round magazine of tracers into the air on a bridge over I-5. While the Washington state preemption law permits municipal government to pass ordinances restricting the discharge of firearms within city limits, both were charged with reckless endangerment (a felony).

The fact that local ordinances against discharging firearms in one's backyard or into the air might be required to be struck, that doesn't necessarily mean that such actions will thereby become legal.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

2. Similar thread and this is clearly a good thing

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1910027&mesg_id=1910027

[baldguy]

3. "Deadly accidental shootings on the rise in South Florida"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1913420

If guns are a problem, more morons with guns isn't a solution.

No matter what the RW anti-gun control idiots want.

[friendly_iconoclast]

11. And if morons are a problem, blaming inanimate objects isn't a solution.

I lived in Florida for 17 years, and believe me- morons are are problem there..

[AtheistCrusader]

14. Are they?

That article supports no such conclusion.

[SteveM]

7. When I was a kid in Florida, there were few if any "no guns allowed" signs...

Now, some 50+ years later, we return to that status. I doubt there will be real change in things, except that fewer folks get arrested for violating the law of Otter Breath City, or Okeehumpkee Co., or Jacksonville (how can you escape it?), as they cross from one jurisdiction to another. The state of Florida would be wise to enact laws which will make it a violation to fire off guns within municipal limits.

In Texas a few years back, legislation was passed to clarify and make uniform state laws governing the transport of weapons. It seems some sheriffs, particularly in Harris Co. (Houston), had overly-active enforcement glands, and were arresting hapless duck hunters for storing their shotguns in the backseat. That kind of arbitrary crap has ended due to the joint actions of the Texas Rifle Association and -- get this -- the Texas Civil Liberties Union.

[spin]

12. I'm damn glad this "new" law passed ...

Technically this was supposed to be the way the law worked.

Since 1987, local governments in Florida have been barred from creating and enforcing their own gun ordinances. Few cities and counties paid attention, though, believing that gun laws in places like Miami might need to be more restrictive than the state laws applicable in rural Apalachicola, for example.

It was possible before this law passed that as I traveled around Florida, I could have been hassled by some local jurisdiction because I had violated the unique gun laws in their area. If the state rules allow me to carry a firearm into a library how am I to know that it is illegal in Lake County. (Yes, I have carried my concealed weapon into a library in several Florida counties. It makes more sense then leaving it in my car where it might be stolen by a dangerous criminal.)

I realize this pisses off those who love restrictive gun laws.

Tough. If there is an actual problem, the state gun laws of Florida can be changed to deal with it. I don't need to carry a printout the size of a small telephone book in my car and pull over to read the local laws every time I enter a different county or city.

The concealed carry program in Florida has proven to be an outstanding success since its inception in 1987. Only 168 concealed carry permits have been revoked in that 24 year period for a crime that involved the use of a concealed weapon after the license was issued
(source: http://licgweb.doacs.state.fl.us/stats/cw_monthly.pdf)

[ileus]

13. Congrats to our friends in FL for their restored rights.