James Call

Democrat Capitol Reporter

Two years after the Strozier Library shooting voters redrew the battle lines over guns in the Florida Legislature.

They elevated nine pro-Second Amendment rights House members to the Florida Senate and sent Sen. Miguel de La Portilla, R-Miami, packing. He had killed a campus carry proposal the last two sessions, refusing to allow it to leave the Judiciary Committee he chaired.

This week, lawmakers begin preparing for the 2017 session but campus carry advocates and their opponents are already locked and loaded for another battle over guns in the classroom.

“By next week we’ll know who the committee chairs are and then we’ll have a better idea how to move the bills through the committee process,” said newly-elected Sen. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota. “But, I don’t see how you can say it’s not a more favorable landscape.”

Steube championed loosening gun regulations in the House and said he will continue to push to allow concealed weapons permit holders to carry firearms on university and college campuses. His advocacy has prompted a steady stream of educators to Tallahassee to oppose the idea.

“This year I will have survey data from directors of counseling centers, chiefs of police and students on campuses that permit concealed carry,” said Marjorie D. Sanfilippo, who has spoken against campus carry each of the last two sessions.

Sanfilippo is a professor of psychology at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg and points to this year’s presidential election as the kind of contentious discussion that would be stifled by the knowledge that one’s classmate may be armed.

“I will come to Tallahassee to testify against campus carry as many times as I have to to keep it from passing,” said Sanfilippo.

► Strozier victims supportive of campus carry

The Second Amendment provides the right to bear arms but an endless string of mass shootings and killings over seemingly everyday irritants has forced a discussion over how far that right extends.

Florida lawmakers' support for gun rights is such that in some circles Florida is the "Gunshine State." In 1987, the state Legislature prohibited local governments from regulating guns. In 2005, it approved the so-called “stand your ground” law — lifting restrictions on when lethal force can be used. In 2008, it passed a bring-your-gun-to-work bill. Earlier this year, lawmakers reduced to a misdemeanor firing a gun in a residential area.

But despite their successes, pro-gun lawmakers couldn’t get a campus carry bill past Diaz de la Portilla. His opposition he said was not a lack of respect for the Second Amendment but concern for student safety. Diaz de la Portilla lost re-election to Democrat Rep. Jose Javier Rodriquez of Miami.

“We’re pretty excited 2017 will be the year,” said Rebekah Hargrove, of the FSU Chapter of Students for Concealed Carry. “DLP is gone and we are in a much more advantageous position with the election of people who have consistently showed their support for gun rights.”

FSU President John Thrasher as a state senator was credited with helping to kill the bill in 2015. Thrasher can now lobby the Legislature on behalf of the school. A spokesman said his position remains unchanged.

Just after midnight Nov. 20, 2014, about a week after Thrasher assumed the FSU president's office, Seminole grad Myron May opened fire at the Strozier Library, injuring three people before he was shot and killed by Tallahassee and FSU police.

Opposition organizing

The opposition to campus carry is mobilizing. The Florida League of Women Voters earlier this year formed a coalition of more than 100 non-partisan organizations to promote stronger gun regulations. The Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence includes faith-based, education and business groups. It will lobby against campus carry and open carry proposals during the 2017 session.

“We knew Steube would be coming back and we’ll be there to stop him,” said Pamela Goodman, the League's president and a concealed weapons permit holder.

“This is a bad, bad, bad idea,” said Goodman who last year could count on every state university and college president and campus police chief to oppose the bill.

“This is not about Second Amendment rights but about sensible gun regulations," said Goodman. "Most people, including sensible gun owners, agree sensible gun regulations do not include putting guns in the hands of students on campus.”

Campus carry promoters say concerns over safety is why they want to change the law. They, including Steube, have argued in committee hearings that gun-free zones give criminals the upper hand since crime does not stop at the campus gate. Hargrove invoked the Strozier shooting earlier this year in committee testimony as proof that bad guys carry weapons on campus and that she, a law-abiding citizen, had a right to protect herself.

Ranking Republicans on the Judiciary Committee who might replace Diaz de la Portilla as chair include senators Aaron Bean, Lizbeth Benacquisto, Jeff Brandes and David Simmons. All but Bean voted yes on the proposal either in 2015 or 2016. Bean has not sat on a committee that heard the bill but has been supportive of the idea.

“We’ve got the facts, the stats and the data and we’re going to tell our story to people who are sitting on the fence,” said Hargrove. “We intend to explain why this is important. Why it is important for the safety of our rights and the safety of students.”

Their opponents say campus police make campuses safe places.

“I’m not sure what she means or what rights she thinks are unprotected,” said Michael Brawer, executive director of the Association of Florida Colleges, a campus carry opponent. “We respect the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms but do not think our founders intended it to include concealed carry in places of higher learning.”

The debate will unfold over the next six months at the state Capitol.

Committee chairs and assignments will be announced by the end of the month and the first committee meetings for the 2017 session will be held in December. The House goes first the week of Dec. 5. The first Senate committee meetings will be held the following week.

The Legislature will convene its spring session March 7. If the past two sessions are any indication, the debate over campus carry will continue until the scheduled adjournment on May 5.

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

Eight new Senators with a finger on the trigger. The following members, and Travis Hudson who won a special election in 2015 had voted to loosen gun regulations while serving in the Florida House.

Frank Artiles Republican District 40, Miami-Dade

Dennis Baxley Republican District 12, Marion, Sumter, Lake Counties

Travis Hudson Republican District 6, Flager, St. Johns, Volusia

Debbie Mayfield Republican District 17, Indian River

Kathleen Passidomo Republican District 28, Collier, Hendry and Lee

Keith Perry Republican District 8, Alachua Putnam Marion

Greg Steube Republican District 23, Sarasota and Charlotte

Dana Young Republican District 18, Hillsborough