James Call

Democrat Capitol Reporter

Gun advocates in Florida didn’t take a break over the holiday weekend. Florida Open Carry Inc. began rallying its troops New Year’s Eve with a mass email in support of “the most important pro-Second Amendment rights bill of the 2017 legislative session.”

SB 140 repeals laws forbidding guns on college campuses, in airports terminals, and at government meetings. Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, will introduce the measure to the Judiciary Committee Tuesday. Florida Open Carry Inc. urged its members to call lawmakers and tell them to line up behind Steube’s proposal.

Campus carry and open carry measures have died in the committee the past two years when the chair failed to schedule it for a vote. Advocates believe 2017 will be different because Steube is the committee’s new chair. He served the past six years in the Florida House where he was one of the Legislature’s fiercest opponents to gun-free zones.

“If you want to kill as many people as possible before the cops arrive then you are likely to go to a place where law-abiding citizens can’t carry,” Steube explained when he filed the bill last month. “That’s what we’ve seen, time and time again and why I think we shouldn’t have them.”

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The Campus Carry provision is opposed by university and college presidents, police chiefs and faculties. In a 2016 address, Florida State University President John Thrasher vowed to continue the opposition if the idea resurfaced in the Legislature.

“I opposed it. I killed it,” Thrasher recalled to the faculty about 2014 when he was a senator and lawmakers considered a campus carry bill. “I have worked against it since then and you have my promise that I will work against it this year also.”

Since he has been out of the Senate for two years, Thrasher can now lobby his former colleagues on behalf of FSU and the State University System.

In the House, Rep. Scott Plakon’s, R-Seminole, campus carry bill has yet to be assigned a committee. Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Broward, observed the gun bill has become a legislative perennial among conservatives. He said it is unusual for lawmakers to keep championing a proposal universally rejected by affected communities.

“I am not aware of one iota of data that indicates presidents, police chiefs, students or teachers want guns on campus,” said Jenne. “It is not a sound policy. It is politicians trying to placate their base, but it is not where we are as a state.”

Jenne suspects the 2017 gun debate will be similar to last year’s; measures will pass the House and stall in the Senate.

“We’re in a perpetual campaign in the House and this is just red meat to keep people riled up,” said Jenne. “When you have to run every two years keeping your base engaged and motivated is very important.”

Reporter James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on Twitter @CallTallahassee.

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