Sun Sentinel Editorial Board Published 4:00 a.m. ET March 16, 2018
In this Feb. 22, 2018, photo, Dana Loesch, spokeswoman for the National Rifle Association, speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), at National Harbor, Md.(Photo: Jacquelyn Martin, AP)It speaks well of Florida's new gun law that the National Rifle Association hates it. That's faint praise, to be sure. But despite several strong features, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Act falls far short of what Florida still needs to do.The Constitution Revision Commission could do it, and should, when it begins its final deliberations next week. Assault weapons and high-capacity magazines should be banned, as they are in seven states and the District of Columbia. That some people like to use these weapons of war for target practice shouldn't trump their potential for enormous misuse.If the six-minute massacre of 14 students and three teachers and staff wasn't reason enough for change, what ever would be?The new law, which Gov. Rick Scott signed March 9, also errs dangerously in authorizing cadres of armed faculty, cafeteria workers and janitors. County sheriffs and school boards would be prudent to refuse such an army, as the law allows. MORE:
NRA sues Florida over new gun lawStill, the gun lobby made some points usefully clear by filing suit against the new law's ban on all firearms sales to people under 21: The NRA's hysteria over raising the minimum age a mere three years lays bare an uncompromising fanaticism in which nothing matters more than guns. (Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a leading Republican candidate for governor, objects to raising the age, too.) Yet federal law already forbids people under 21 from buying handguns and the courts have upheld it. Requiring people to be 21 to buy rifles and shotguns is reasonable, too.It highlights the Legislature's newfound courage, however limited it may be, in defying the state's most belligerent lobby. It's hard to recall the NRA being denied anything other than open carry and guns on college campuses. It's the first time in decades the Legislature actually enacted anything over the NRA's objections. Let it not be the last.It points up the contrast to the moral weakness of a president whose promises on the subject lasted no longer than a visit from the NRA. In a meeting, he chided the fears of people who didn't want to raise the age. It turns out that he's the one afraid of the NRA.An interesting twist to the litigation, filed in the federal district court for North Florida, is that the gun lobby isn't relying just on the Second Amendment. It also cites the Fourteenth, alleging a denial of equal protection of the laws to legal adults between 18 and 21. But where was the NRA when Congress was forcing states to deny such young people the right to drink?The odds are long against the success of the NRA's arguments. The U.S. SupremeRead more from our friends at the NRA
