Byron Donalds, Dane Eagle take potshots at one another over Parkland bill

Darren Aquino watches as Byron Donalds confronts Dane Eagle at a Cape Coral Republican Club forum. Image via Facebook.

Rep. Byron Donalds confronted House Republican Leader Dane Eagle over a controversial gun control law at a Cape Coral forum Thursday.

The question came after a moderator at the Cape Coral Republican Club asked candidates running in Florida’s 19^th Congressional District if they would back federal red flag laws. All six candidates present held up a placard saying no. But Donalds challenged Eagle on the matter.

“When we were in the Florida Legislature together, he did support red flag laws,” Donalds said, referencing the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act signed into law in 2018.

Eagle shook his head at the debate, visibly upset as Donalds cast himself as the top gun rights advocate in the race. He then suggested Donalds took an extreme position against a school safety bill that had the full support of President Donald Trump.

“What we did in Florida was exactly what President Trump asked for,” Eagle said.

The legislation passed in the weeks after 17 people, 14 of them students, were killed during a mass school shooting in Parkland.

The exchange at the debate shows how the Parkland bill has been used as a litmus test for candidates’ Second Amendment bona fides, though it may be until the Aug. 18 primary that the public’s taste on the issue gets put to the test.

Donalds has touted his opposition to the legislation, which among other things empowers law enforcement to take firearms away from those likely to harm themselves or others. Casting a vote against the legislation helped Donalds secure an endorsement from the National Rifle Association, which sued the state over the law. A vote in favor of the bill led the NRA to give Eagle a “C” grade.

“Frankly, with all the smear ads all over the place in this race, I thought it was important just to discuss an actual vote on something that matters,” Donalds told Florida Politics. “A vote in some respects provides a blueprint for voters on people running for office and what they would do in similar positions in the future.”

Eagle stands by the Parkland bill. And while the NRA as an organization may have opposed it, he said his own polling of constituents shows the legislation was highly popular, including among gun owners.

He said it’s more telling Donalds bucked the President in the face of a national tragedy.

“When President Trump called for every measure in the Parkland bill, he suggested anybody not willing to stand with him is afraid of the NRA,” Eagle said. “He pledged to drain the swamp and that includes anything coming out of Washington.”

Eagle said he’s a member of the NRA and agrees with them on a majority of issues.

But he also said it’s a mischaracterization to call the powers granted to law enforcement in the Parkland bill a parallel to red flag laws as proposed in Congress and passed in other states.

“It’s not a red flag law like we’ve seen that let a neighbor or a disgruntled ex-girlfriend call to take your weapon away,” he said. “We have a constitutional due process.”

Only a law enforcement officer through a warrant petition can move to confiscate a weapon, and Eagle believes the Parkland shooter could have been disarmed had Florida police had the power to act ahead of the shooting.

Donalds dismissed the suggestion Trump had embraced the Florida law. While he noted Trump mentioned such laws shortly after the Parkland shooting, he did not bring them up later after another shooting in Santa Fe. Eagle pointed to reports immediately after that event showing Trump maintained his position, as recently as a year ago.

Asked if he would support a red flag law if called for by Trump, Donalds brushed off the question.

“The President hasn’t acted on it or signed legislation,” he said. “You can’t hide behind President Trump. The President doesn’t support red flag laws and hasn’t pushed them in Washington. Maybe it could have gone forward, but he did not press it forward.”