Florida citizens will no longer have to run away from an attacker under legislation passed by the state legislature earlier this month, while critics of the bill—which Gov. Jeb Bush promised to sign after the House voted 94-20 to approve it—said it will bring the “wild west” to Sunshine State neighborhoods.
Bush said the bill is about self-defense, calling it an “anti-crime issue.”
Opponents seemed to fall back on traditional anti-self-defense rhetoric, insisting that it will result in more blood in the streets. The same arguments seem to surface every time a legislative body considers bills that deal with self protection, including right-to-carry and shall-issue bills.
According to published reports in Associated Press, Tallahassee Democrat and elsewhere, House anti-gunners were chagrined. Rep. Irv Slosberg (D-Boca Raton) predicted the new law “will possibly turn the state of Florida into the OK Corral” and added, “all it’s going to do is sell more guns.”
Marion Hammer, executive director of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida and a former president of the National Rifle Association, was quick to respond.
“This is the same identical rhetoric, word for word, that they used in 1987 when we passed right to carry,” she said in a telephone interview with Gun Week, “and none of it happened then, and none of it’s going to happen now.”
Hammer recalled that after passage of the right to carry legislation, Florida’s crime rate went down, and she predicted the same thing will happen once this new law is in effect.
Hammer lobbied strenuously for the bill, and considered its passage a major victory. She suggested that the public attitude about self-defense has changed in Florida, not only because of the 9/11 terrorist attacks four years ago, but because of what happened in the wake of last year’s devastating hurricanes.
“In this state last year we had four hurricanes and we had problems with looters the likes of which we have not had since Hurricane Andrew,” she said.
At such times, Hammer said, it is impossible for law enforcement to respond. Individual citizens are essentially “on their own.” She said the public overwhelmingly supported the legislation, primarily because people have learned that they want to have the choice whether to buy a firearm and be able to use it in self-defense.
“The people of the state of Florida have realized that freedom and their right to protect themselves with firearms or anything else are more important than they used to be,” Hammer said.
Rep. Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) was quoted by Associated Press as noting, “I’m sorry, people, but if I’m attacked I shouldn’t have a duty to retreat. That’s a good way to get shot in the back.”
Baxley had sponsored identical legislation in the House, but according to published reports, the Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Durrell Peaden (R-Crestview) was substituted in order to get the measure approved and sent to the governor’s desk. It was passed unanimously in the Senate.