{"id":7912,"date":"2018-02-23T11:37:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T19:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=7912"},"modified":"2018-02-23T11:37:15","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T19:37:15","slug":"cowardly-students-present-florida-gop-votes-motion-consider-assault-rifle-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/02\/23\/cowardly-students-present-florida-gop-votes-motion-consider-assault-rifle-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Cowardly’: With Students Present, Florida GOP Votes Down Motion to Consider Assault Rifle Ban"},"content":{"rendered":"
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February 21, 2018\u00a0<\/span><\/span>by Common Dreams<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Clearly revealing their warped priorities, Republicans voted on the same day to declare porn a “public health risk.”<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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by\u00a0Jake Johnson, staff writer<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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“Most people would probably be ashamed to basically kill a gun control bill with teenage survivors in the room with them,” wrote\u00a0GQ’s Luke Darby. (Photo: AP)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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With survivors of last week’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting watching from the gallery, the GOP-controlled Florida House on Tuesday\u00a0voted overwhelmingly<\/a>\u00a0against a motion to consider legislation that would “ban assault rifles and large capacity magazines”\u2014a move critics quickly denounced as “cowardly<\/a>” and further evidence that Republican lawmakers are beholden to the interests of the National Rifle Association (NRA).<\/p>\n

“Most people would probably be ashamed to basically kill a gun control bill with teenage survivors in the room with them.”
\n\u2014Luke Darby,\u00a0GQ<\/em><\/p>\n

“It was just so heartbreaking to see how many names were up there,” Sheryl Acquaroli, a junior from Stoneman Douglas,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0CNN<\/em>\u00a0following the 36-71 party-line vote. “It seemed almost heartless how they immediately pushed the button to say no.”<\/p>\n

According to<\/a>\u00a0Democratic State Rep. Kionne McGhee, the bill\u2014which had been assigned to committees but not scheduled for a hearing\u2014is now effectively dead, “unless the House vote[s] to remove it from the committees.”<\/p>\n

Here is a list of the 71 representatives who voted down the motion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Most people would probably be ashamed to basically kill a gun control bill with teenage survivors in the room with them,”\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0GQ<\/em>‘s Luke Darby. “But shame isn’t enough of an incentive to get a legislator to flip on such a lucrative and politically useful issue. Unfortunately for them, these students are organized, angry, and soon to be voting age.”<\/p>\n

The Florida House’s vote came as hundreds of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School arrived in Tallahassee after\u00a0traveling hundreds of miles by bus<\/a>\u00a0to pressure lawmakers to pass stricter gun control measures, including a ban on assault rifles.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, students and parent activists held a candlelight vigil remembering the victims of last week’s shooting.<\/p>\n

“We’re fighting for the friends we lost. We’re fighting for the future kids that we’re going to have, and that’s why we’re marching and that’s why we’re here talking to our senators and our representatives,” Sofie Whitney, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas,\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0a crowd of her fellow students late Tuesday.<\/p>\n

While Florida Republicans declined to even allow debate on an assault rifle ban, they did come together\u2014on the same day\u2014to officially declare pornography “a public health threat.”<\/p>\n

“Basically, what they have determined is that these are the Republican priorities in 2018,”\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0Democratic Florida State Rep. Carlos Guillermo-Smith in an interview with\u00a0The Independent<\/em>. “Wasting our time with debate and legislation that declares porn as a health threat, meanwhile we can’t even get a single debate, vote, or hearing on anything related to assault weapons. That’s really sad.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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