Less than a month after the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, Las Vegas has moved away from national headlines. While fatigue over the gun debate, frustration over lack of information about the shooting or just the sheer amount of daily controversy the Trump White House is churning out could all be explanations, activists are concerned about how normal these shootings are becoming. If it happens all the time, when does it no longer become newsworthy?
Fighting against this acceptance of the inevitability of mass shootings are groups like the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence, an organization that formed in the wake of the Pulse Nightclub shooting in 2016. Its founder, Patricia Brigham — also the first vice president of the Florida League of Women Voters — briefed St. Petersburg activists on action officials at the state level are taking (or, as is often the case, not taking) to curb gun violence. She spoke Wednesday as part of Fired Up Pinellas regular community meetings.
“We knew we had to have our next guest come when we had another terrible atrocity happen with the Las Vegas shooting,” said Karen Berman of Fired Up Pinellas as she introduced Brigham. “It’s just constant daily shootings and gun violence and we all just need to be informed and we need to be active.”
Brigham broke down the current debate on gun laws in Tallahassee, including what gun safety advocates will be pushing for in the 2018 legislative session. As most followers of Florida politics know, this usually means playing defense against the might of the gun lobby. The two major goals of gun advocates are open carry and campus carry, which as of today is active in 45 states and 10 states, respectively. Brigham paid tribute to state politicians such as Senator Linda Stewart and House Member Carlos Guillermo Smith who have made efforts to prevent the implementation of these laws and emphasized the importance of grassroots efforts and raising public awareness.
“We know this is going to be a tough fight. We are committed to this, we don’t plan on giving up. We believe in raising public awareness about the dangers of gun bills that lack responsibility. A responsibility gun owners should understand they have,” Brigham said.
Brigham will continue to fight against some of Florida’s egregious gun laws, including felony charges for the creation a gun registry, and forcing secondhand dealers to expunge purchase records every 30 days, with 60 days for law enforcement. The gun show loophole, now becoming a factor on internet sales, that allows 22 percent of gun sales in Florida to occur without a background check will continue to be targeted, as will preemption laws that prevent cities from crafting their own legislation that restricts firearms.
While there is much to fight against, Brigham cited some victories for gun safety, including a court’s recent overturning of the physician gag rule, which prevented doctors from asking patients if they own guns and preventing an expansion of the Stand Your Ground law would put the onus on the prosecution to prove that self defense wasn’t being used and a crime was committed.
In terms of legislation, Brigham and the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence’s stated goals include plans to introduce measures that would call for a state ban on all semiautomatic assault weapons and large-capacity feeding devices, comprehensive universal background checks and ensuring that the State provides all relevant records to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), Promoting responsible firearm legislation to protect the victims of domestic violence.
Legislation regarding the ownership and sale of automatic weapons and large capacity magazines have been put forward, but are put in unfriendly committees and left to die. Brigham and her allies in Tallahassee will continue to put the bills forward regardless of the outcome, and encouraged attendees to contact Greg Steube and Ross Spano, the heads of the committees the bills currently sit in.
“We’ll bring these back every year until they get hearings and eventually the tide starts to turn,” said Brigham. “We don’t look at this as a partisan issue we don’t look at this as a second amendment issue. This is a public safety issue.”
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 2, 2017.
