Local teen fighting state limits on gun sales, but wants to remain anonymous
TALLAHASSEE — Republicans running to replace Attorney General Pam Bondi disagree with her legal stand against a 19-year-old Alachua County woman who wants to remain anonymous in a National Rifle Association challenge to a new state gun restriction.
And all five announced attorney general candidates, from both parties, object in some fashion to a wide-ranging law approved by the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott after the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.
The law, in part, raises the minimum age to 21 to purchase rifles and other long guns, imposes a three-day waiting period on the sale of long guns and allows specially trained teachers and other school personnel to bring guns to school.
The NRA, which is challenging the age restriction, is appealing a decision by U.S. District Judge Mark Walker that would prevent the Alachua County teen from being a plaintiff in the lawsuit under the pseudonym “Jane Doe.”
Bondi’s office argued that the request for anonymity “does not provide a sufficient basis for overcoming the strong presumption in favor of open judicial proceedings.”
Republican attorney-general candidates Jay Fant, Frank White and Ashley Moody sided with allowing the teen to remain anonymous, while Democratic candidates Sean Shaw and Ryan Torrens favor disclosure.
White, a state House member from Pensacola, pointed to the safety of the woman and said he wouldn’t have contested the addition of a “Jane Doe” to the case.
“The gun control crowd wants to bully and threaten her into not taking a stand for the Second Amendment,” White said. “I don’t think the identity of the individual impacts the substance of the case and as attorney general, I would not
