Anne Geggis
Senate Democratic Leader Lauren Book estimates there have been three dozen gun control bills she and her Democratic colleagues have proposed over the last few years — only to see them die without a single hearing.
But Book says she’s not giving up — no matter how many Saturdays she must spend marching for changes to gun laws as she plans to be doing this Saturday.
Book is going to be part of a new round of youth-led marches for gun control springing up nationwide this Saturday.
“Every time somebody dies from a firearm, it continues to make me want to push harder,” Book said, recounting when she watched the footage after the 2018 shooting rampage through Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. When that shooting happened, Book said, “it shook my whole world.”
Book will be joined by Democratic U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democratic Sen. Tina Polsky of Boca Raton and Rep. Dan Daley of Sunrise at a Parkland March for Our Lives.
The 10:30 a.m. event at Pine Trails Amphitheater, 10555 Trails End, is one of more than 450 marches planned throughout the country, 26 of them slated for locations in Florida.
Book says she’s willing to give up every other day of the week fighting against gun violence, so she never has to go to another funeral like Alyssa Alhadeff’s. The 14-year victim of the 2018 Parkland shooting was buried on the same day as her twins’ first birthday.
“When you’re sitting in a funeral for another mom’s little child who died on the floor of her classroom, bleeding to death, your life is different,” Book said, her voice shaking with emotion.
March for Our Lives is the youth-led movement that was galvanized in the wake of the Parkland trauma and has spread nationally. Florida changed its laws so that assault rifles could not be bought by anyone younger than 21 — a huge change.
The movement’s mammoth Washington march in 2018 faded without any significant changes to federal gun laws.
A new set of bullets flying in a Buffalo supermarket, a Uvalde, Texas school, and numerous other places has awakened a new round of activism, however.
Book said it’s a critical moment that could produce a tipping point — or could also go the other way. Gov. Ron DeSantis reaffirmed last month he would sign legislation that would allow carrying a gun without a permit.
“I will continue to fight until I have no breath left in my body so that moms don’t have to be afraid to let their kids go outside and play or go to school, or go to temple, a mosque or a church,” Book said. “We can do better.”
Debbi Hixon, a former teacher who ran for Broward School Board after her husband, Chris Hixon, was killed at MSD, is going to be at the Parkland event. And Polsky, whose four gun bills this year died without a hearing, also plans to attend.
Sixteen-year-old Zoe Weissman, the President of March for Our Lives Parkland, is the organizer of Saturday’s event, fitting it in with studying for her sophomore year final exams.
For her, the trauma of being a 12-year-old on the MSD campus when the lockdown happened four years ago never goes away.
Weissman was a student at neighboring West Glades Middle School at the time of the shooting. She had gone to MSD to work on a project. After that, though, she was unable to start high school on that campus because of what she continues to feel.
“It’s always going to be in the foreground to follow our lives,” she said. “We have to live with it.
“Four years after our original marches, we are marching yet again and that’s proof we won’t be quiet until our lawmakers listen to us,” she added.
2 comments
Oh what the puck!
June 11, 2022 at 7:23 am
“Florida gun safety activists take to the streets. . . ” wearing knit caps, gloves and fir collars like the photo shows? Come on FLAPOL, if you are fighting for credibility quit making own goals like that.
CCHGN
June 19, 2022 at 3:12 pm
LOOK, I understand the anguish of the tragedy. I have 3 kids and FULLY understand the concern.
HOWEVER, if you REALLY want to solve that problem, you HAVE to get REAL about what is causing it and accept that MORE gun laws is NOT the solution, FYI, the current gun laws are not working and it’s NOT law abiding gun owners fault, so why punish us? WE ARE NOT THE PROBLEM! Guns are NOT the problem! Millions of guns, in the hands of law abiding gun owners, did NOT hurt anyone, every day, for decades. Once a year, a gun in the hands of a deranged lunatic, kills innocent Americans, so it’s the deranged lunatic that is the problem.
Which brings me to the REAL problem: Studies, research entities and experts who study this, will testify that those deranged people show signs LONG before they go out and kill people. IMO, they SHOULD and CAN be stopped then.
For instance, the Parkland , Fl. shooter, Cruz, was a troubled kid all his life: He was expelled from school (the reason for his rampage) for being a trouble maker- fighting, disrupting class, stealing, breaking into lockers, etc., So THEY knew about him; then, he was in trouble with the local PD, for petty theft, shoplifting, breaking into cars and house, etc, so THEY knew about him; Then, Florida Family Services was in the home for abuse and domestic violence, so THEY knew about him; Finally, the FBI investigated him!!! YES, the FBI! So, THEY knew about him. YET, NOT ONE OF THOSE AUTHORITIES FLAGGED HIM TO NICS ( GUN CONTROL LAW), SO, he walked into a gun shop, passed a back ground check (another gun control law), bought an AR and went to the Stoneman HS and killed 17 school folks and wounded 17 more. Had any ONE of those authorities flagged him to NICS, he would NOT have been able to buy a gun from a gun shop.
FOLKS, that SAME thing happened in the last 20 mass shootings!! The Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Fl; NAS Pensacola, Fl.; Las Vegas, Nv.; Dayton, Oh.; Aurora, Co.; Denver, Co.; San Antonio , Tx.; Dallas, Tx.; Uvalde, Tx.; Virginia, Beach, Va.; Virginia, Tech, Va.; and on and on!
SO, I suggest a law that makes those authorities, that have the responsibility to flag and intervene those deranged people, but FAIL to do so, accountable. If they FAIL to flag a deranged person and they go out and kill people, the authorities are charged for each an every death AND the victim’s family can sue.
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