PARKLAND, Fla. (WFLA) – Just hours after Florida Governor Rick Scott stood shoulder-to-shoulder with families of those killed in the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting and showcased the bipartisan school safety and gun control bill he and the legislature battled to put together – the National Rifle Association fired its first shot in its new legal battle over the law.
Missing from the new lawsuit filed by the NRA as a plaintiff? The governor himself.
Included in the lawsuit as those most discriminated by the new age restrictions on gun sales are women. In particular, women who are supposedly NRA members and are 18 to 21 years of age.
That suit, filed against Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) Commissioner Rick Swearinger, wants a judge to block the part of the law that raised the legal purchase age from 18 to 21.
According to the lawsuit, Bondi is sued in her official role as the state’s chief prosecutor when it comes to enforcement of the new law making it a third-degree felony for any licensed gun seller or manufacturer to facilitate the sale of a firearm to someone under the age of 21. Swearinger, as head of the FDLE, oversees the enforcement of that law, the NRA claims.
The lawsuit goes on to say the new age restriction violates the second amendment right to bear arms and the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause, discriminating against a specific group: 18 to 21-year-old people who are otherwise law-abiding citizens.
One takeaway is the focus on women in this age group.
The NRA cites the 2015 FBI Crime in the United States report, specifically Table 40[1], claiming that only 1.8 percent of violent crimes are committed by women ages 18 to 21. The NRA’s interpretation of those numbers will be up for debate in federal court, as the report shows violent crime among women in that age group ranged from 2.8 percent to 3.7 percent.
Regardless of their position on women as those that will be most affected by the new laws, it is still a narrow approach to a more general issue they have with the law – that it is an attack on the second amendment.
A Federal District Court Judge will expect responses from the attorney general’s office, FDLE and possibly the governor’s office as the case moves forward.
A CLOSER LOOK AT THE NEW LAW: ARMING TEACHERS
On Friday, Gov. Scott once again expressed his opposition to arming school personnel in favor of having armed law enforcement protecting students on campus.
The evolution of arming teachers in the classroom to the Guardian Program that was part of the new law is complex.
Under the new law, several things would have to happen.
Legal Lesson: Teachers and officials will NOT be forced to arm themselves in schools. Here’s why:
The law requires at least one
