A Democratic state senator from Orlando is renewing her efforts to pass legislation to ban the sale of assault weapons in Florida following Sunday night’s mass shooting in Las Vegas that left more than 50 people dead and 500 others injured.
“Last night’s horror set a new standard, testament to the sheer evil unleashed by one man armed with multiple high caliber automatic weapons, intent on provoking death and injury to so many,” said Sen. Linda Stewart. ““The senseless killings of Americans cannot be the norm for our Country…Nor should the easy sale of guns designed for maximum carnage.”
Sen. Linda Stewart
D-Orlando
Stewart filed legislation last year following the massacre of 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, which until Sunday was the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
Her legislation was never heard in the House or Senate.
“The bill in 2017 did not get one committee hearing,” Stewart said Monday. “I am pressuring our State Senate leadership to allow this year’s bill to have a hearing, or at the very least, a workshop – any avenue to bring this up for public discussion in a formal public setting.”
In August, Stewart filed another bill–SB 196–for the upcoming legislative session.
The new legislation defines an assault weapon as any gun “capable of fully automatic, semiautomatic, or burst fire at the option of the user.” The bill goes on to list a number of guns that would be included in such a ban, including all AK and AR series weapons.
“Hold hearings on this bill. Let the NRA speak. But let the other voices – the mothers, the fathers, the sons and daughters, the multitude of Floridians who are fed up with the carnage – have their say, too,” Stewart pleaded to legislative leaders.