Menu Content/Inhalt

What is this?

CCW Training

Find CCW Instructors
Florida Becoming National Model for Gun Rights PDF Print E-mail
Written by Daniel White   
Wednesday, 26 October 2005

Lead submitted by Tom McNaughton
One night a few years ago, Ginny Brown-Waite pulled into a parking lot in Chiefland around midnight to rest her drowsy eyes before continuing her drive to a state legislative session in Tallahassee.

She says she awoke to four or five young men rocking her car and demanding she open up.

"I said, 'No, I've got a gun in the glove compartment,'" recalled Brown-Waite, 62, who was then a state senator and now is a member of Congress. "'You'd better leave.'"

She was bluffing, but the men fled. And Brown-Waite later got a concealed weapon permit after training on a .357 magnum.

So begins an article from the Sarasota, FL Herald Tribune.

Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite publically acknowledges she was her ccw license, and has been part of a strong voice for gun rights coming out of Florida recently.

(Click 'read more' to continue...")

Brown-Waite is a strong proponent of the "Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act." According to the Herald Tribune, "After the vote, she lashed out at what she said was an 'out-of-touch and dwindling minority of Congress' that opposes gun ownership."

The original house version of the bill was written by another Floridian, Republican Rep. Cliff Stearns.

All of this, of course, follows on the heels of the legislation currently being considered in Florida which would prohibit businesses from abnning legal firearms from being stored in vehicles in their parking lots.

Before that, the big news was the law overwhelmingly passed in Florida which removed the requirement to try to flee when a person becomes the victim of a felonious criminal attack, whether inside or outside the home.

Not to mention the fact that Florida was the first state to pass a "shall issue" law, requiring that a concealed carry license be issued to any person who meets certain legal requirements. The Florida non-resident license has become on of the most sought after in the country due to the numerous reciprocity agreements that a licensee can benefit from.

Anti-gun groups across the country are lamenting Florida's strong gun rights stance, and fear it represents a national opinion swing.
Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Violence, said Florida's political makeup -- largely pro-gun -- reflects the national climate on this issue.

"Right now, you have a microcosm of exactly where the issue is on a national basis," Hamm said of Florida. "In that sense, it's currently mirroring the national debate over these issues."

Slowly but surely, the gun control experiment has demonstrated it's failure, and citizens across the nation are taking back their rights, following the common sense leadership of individuals such as are found in the Florida legislature. This country will be better and safer because of it.