As Americans are battling with the issue of gun violence, legislators have continued their long streak of refusing to pass the gun control bill which has been tabled in Congress on several occasions.
Many were outraged by the Florida House of Representatives’ decision on Tuesday to drop the House Bill 219 which prohibits the sale of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.
The gun control bill, submitted in the House since October last year, also requires “certificates of possession” for lawfully-possessed firearms among others. They voted 36-71 against passing the bill in three minutes.
However, the legislators turned to a more pressing bill: The HR 157 bill which regulates pornography. The bill was argued and passed due to its “public health risk”.
This ironically presents pornography as a more dangerous material that guns that have killed nearly a thousand people in the United States in 2018 alone. The most recent being the killing of 17 people at a Parkland, Florida school where a former student went on a shooting spree with an AR-15 assault rifle.
Surviving students bussed themselves to the Florida congress house where they sat in the gallery in support of the gun control bill. The legislators were not moved by the presence of the students who grieved over the inaction of the elected officials.
The disappointment was felt across the country and on social media where the over a decade-old debate continued about gun control and how the legislators failed to end the crisis. A similar bill tabled in the Senate in January was also ignored.
Below are some reactions to the inaction of the legislators who have disappointed many Americans and shooting survivors, while satisfying the dictates of the few powerful groups like the National Rifle Association (NRA) who want unadulterated access to firearms.
Today the Florida House voted against a bill to outlaw the semiautomatic rifle that killed high school students as Parkland survivors watched from the gallery. But they did vote for a resolution to protect Florida teens from pornography. ????#ThrowThemOut https://t.co/PKI2cBkYVp pic.twitter.com/LsFWOWEVOP
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) February 21, 2018
“If there is another mass shooting here in Florida, it’s going to be their fault. … They had a chance to stop it and they threw that chance away,” says Stoneman Douglas High School student about Florida lawmakers’ vote against taking up a bill to ban assault weapons pic.twitter.com/qhBHy44SRG
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) February 21, 2018
17 pp in Parkland were just murdered w/an AR-15, + the FL House just passed @RossSpano‘s HR 157 declaring PORN as a public heath risk. No, GUN VIOLENCE is a public health crisis + Spano blocked HB 219 banning assault weapons in his committee for 2 yrs. #GOPpriorities #Sayfie
— Rep. Carlos G Smith (@CarlosGSmith) February 20, 2018
On Tuesday, in the Florida House of Representatives, right after voting down a motion to DEBATE a bill on banning assault weapons, the Florida House voted in favor of declaring pornography a public health risk.
Last I checked, Porn hasn’t killed anyone in Florida EVER!
— Ed Krassenstein (@EdKrassen) February 21, 2018
Rubio: “We are monitoring the horrible unfolding situation in Broward County, Florida. Today is that terrible day you pray never comes.”
Also Rubio received $3,298,000 from NRA in 2016 election
Also Rubio voted “nay” on a bill to ban assault weapons #guncontrol
— Luisa Haynes (@wokeluisa) February 15, 2018
