But despite its efforts to influence policy in Florida, Everytown is already fighting efforts to change the very law it celebrated last year. The group spent more than $4 million in Florida during the 2018 elections, including $500,000 it gave to a political committee supporting Senate President Bill Galvano, who sponsored the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act.
Galvano, R-Bradenton, initially included language last year in the bill allowing teachers to carry guns under the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian program, but after considerable pushback limited that provision to only faculty not exclusively teaching in the classroom. This year, following a recommendation by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission that trained and certified teachers be allowed to carry, the proposal is back before the Legislature and Galvano says he’s again open to the idea.
Damn! Galvano got half a million bucks from Bloomberg? The initial info we had was $200K, but I guess they figured more was better. and Bloomberg spent $4 million in total not counting the free advertising the laws were getting from almost every single media outlet in the state and nationally.
When the first version of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission official report came out, I tentatively predicted it was going to impact things, beginning with the media narrative that got established in the CNN Town Hall with Dana Loesch and now disgraced Broward Sheriff Scott Israel. The Democrat Machine of Broward County and the Teacher’s Union had to spend a lot of political to save School Superintendent Runcie, failed to do the same with Israel and they are fighting tooth and nail. The “danger” of Senate Bill 7030 is not only that is moving but that all the amendments introduced to sabotage lifting the prohibition for volunteer teachers to train and carry in class have been defeated. It is pretty much a clean bill as it stands right now. While the House version (HB 7093 – School Safety ) got flooded by 53 amendments after being voted favorably by the Education committee (11-5 party line) and witness the failure in the Senate bill to pass amendments. And by the amount of them that were repetitive almost word by word and introduced by different Representatives sporting the (D) after their names, I am guessing the School Union and the Democrats were in panic mode and uncoordinated. Eventually 27 of the amendments were withdrawn.
But there is another problem with the bills: It is not only about armed teachers but a whole bunch of stuff including monies for mental health screening and help of school children. In fact, the bill deals with the money set aside last year for School hardening and assistance to students and teachers would love to lay hands on it. Some of the amendments I read IIRC were in the tune of “Screw the guardian program, give us the cash. We will do security our way” which really does not inspire confidence.
The only two gun-related bills advancing in Tallahassee are the School Safety and the Safety of Religious Institutions. Anyone of them becoming law would represent a slap on Bloomberg’s and Shannon Watt’s face. Both becoming law? A net loss of $4 million dollars and total embarrassment. And if none of the Gun Control Bills ever make it to commission discussion., it would be catastrophic for Gun Control in Florida. They spent a year shoving David Hogg and the Parkland kids down our throats so they could ban “Assault Weapons” and evil automatic magazine clips, force Universal Background Checks and impose Gun Registration among many of their dreams.
Now imagine if we had one million dollars to use for Gun Rights in Florida. How nice would it be for a change to fight without both hands tied behind our collective backs? To be able to drop a couple of busloads of equally minded individuals and flood the Legislature’s hearings and addressing the members, visiting legislators at their offices and dropping boxes upon boxes of petitions. Parading in front of the media in such numbers they would have to reluctantly give us a coverage, specially when we stand next to the Mom Demand crowd. Hell, we could even hire some professional web designers to have a nice looking websites and Social Media presence!. And if we have the time, we can do some fishing to boot!
I also want a Dillon Mini Gun and free ammo to feed it for the rest of my life.
Semi-retired like Vito Corleone before the heart attack.
Consiglieri to J.Kb and AWA.
I lived in a Gun Control Paradise: It sucked and got people killed.
I do believe that Freedom scares the political elites.
—only faculty not exclusively teaching in the classroom.—
Add “Campus Physical security” to job description. They are no longer exclusively “teaching” in the classroom.