Diaz de la Portilla said he was concerned the proposed law would create a bad impression on tourists who would see Floridians walking around with handguns.
Source: House, Senate disagreement means open carry bill likely dead
Out of the 97 million tourists that visited Florida in 2014. 77 million came other states of the Union. Not counting Florida, only four states did not have Open Carry: New York, California, South Carolina and Texas. Now, the first two will get scared of anything anyway and will get back home telling tall tales about how they survived the Wild East in the Gunshine state…while working hard at not being stabbed or shot in their own neighborhoods. Texas was fighting and got its Open Carry much to the dismay of the Antis and as Texans, they couldn’t care two bits about people with guns. That same attitude applies to South Carolina. The rest of the States have Open Carry already so they would not give two dams and a change of undies about Open Carry in Florida.
So what’s left? International visitors. Top would be the Canadians but they are too damn polite to get in any trouble, plus we like Canadians (most of them) a lot so whomever would try to harm the, would be in deep mierda. Next come the Brits and I think by now they are more afraid of being hacked to pieces for frying bacon in their homes than seeing a Floridian exercising Open carry, in fact I bet they wish they could do the same back home.
That leaves Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. Do you really think that people who have had guns pointed at them in a regular basis by either criminals or criminals with badges are going to be freaking out because they see a Floridian going to Publix with a holstered weapon? Does De La Portilla think South America is a Disney ride?
Guajiro, please!
They said the same thing here about allowing carry in restaurants. 37 other states had restaurant carry at the time, but if Tennessee did it, then no one would ever visit our state again!
Every year since, visitor numbers and revenue have gone up. But of course they don’t let facts get in the way of their reality.
No, De La Portilla is just another anti-liberty elitist. D or R after his name doesn’t mean squat. Can’t be havin the peasants exercising liberty, self-defense, or personal responsibility now. They may get ‘uppity’ and want more of their freedoms back.
He knows what he’s doing, this isn’t a matter of facts or ignorance.
Question: can the original bill be taken straight to the Senate floor without going through his committee? I ‘think’ that if it gets passed by both House and Senate with different language it has to go through a conference of both to make them the same, then gets re-voted on. At that point the stupid amendment put forth by the Sheriff’s Assoc could potentially get stripped out. But only if we have some strong pro-liberty support in the conference.
Email the Senator…
https://www.flsenate.gov/senators/s40
I did.
Not sure what the English equivalent of his first name is, but the rest translate as “from the hatch”.
This is the kind of idiot that is destroying our country.Just another liberal trying to push his no common sense garbage.