Florida Governor, Rick Scott signed the new Gun Bill into law on Friday while surrounded by parents of victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting which occurred on February 14. The tragedy had 17 fatalities and led up to the speedy resolution to review gun laws and make them stricter.
A few hours after the Governor signed the bill, the National Rifle Association (NRA), a non-governmental organization that supports the Second Amendment moved to court with the objective of fighting the constitutionalism of the law. The NRA is against a few of the provisions comprised in the bill. They critic the clause which raises the minimum age for buying guns from 18 to 21; a three-day extension on the waiting period for long guns; and the ban on bump stocks that capacitate normal guns to mimic automatic fire capabilities.
Criticism from Both Party Divides
Republicans are outright supporters of the Second Amendment and therefore it would be normal to receive criticism from their camp. Ron DeSantis the Republican US Representative stated in a Fox News interview late on Friday that when the bill starts getting into blanket restrictions on American’s Second Amendment rights, then it makes the Second Amendment right vulnerable. He explained that if one has a right in the Bill of Rights then there cannot be any precedent to effect a blanket ban on the same person. Ron is planning to run for the Florida gubernatorial seat.
Democrats are generally against gun ownership but have had to settle for stricter gun control laws as a mechanism of not going against the Second Amendment. Their pick with the new Florida gun law is that it did not contain a provision that would have banned the sale of some semi-automatic weapons such as the one used by Nikolas Cruz to gun down 17 people at his former high school. Andrew Gillum, Tallahassee’s Mayor said that elected officials in Florida have not done enough to fight gun violence. He added that Scott’s signing the bill into law does not adequately solve the epidemic.
The NRA’s Position
The NRA still feels that the new law is unconstitutional as it raises the age limit for gun purchases and effects a blanket ban on the rights of some Florida residents. The organization believes that the approach taken to come up with the bill was not right. Chris Cox, NRA executive director stated that if the state wished to prevent atrocities, they should have looked for a solution that will keep guns away from the hands of deranged perpetrators like Nikolas Cruz.
