Jacob Ogles
Florida Senate candidate Tracie Davis routinely calls for stricter gun control. But as a state Representative, she supported legislation backed by the National Rifle Association.
During the 2017 Legislative Session, Davis supported a bill (HB 965) passed by the House. Had the bill become law, it would have cut taxes on fingerprint services required for background checks, making obtaining a concealed carry permit cheaper.
Conservatives Byron Donalds and Ray Rodrigues carried the bill; both are Republicans who served at the time in the House with Davis and went on to higher office on pro-gun platforms.
The NRA touted the vote as a “win for gun owners” when the House took up the measure.
“Five bills of great importance to Second Amendment supporters and gun owners were on the Special Order Calendar on the House floor for the purpose of answering questions and offering amendments,” wrote Marion Hammer in a memo to members about bills advancing in the Legislature at the time.
Expect votes like this to come up as David campaigns for an open seat in Senate District 5, where she has espoused support for gun control. “There is no excuse for our gun control laws to be the way they are,” Davis tweeted after the Uvalde shooting in May.
Davis faces Jacksonville City Councilman Reggie Gaffney in a Democratic Primary.
This particular legislation never made it into state statute, dying in the state Senate.
While it didn’t have the support to reach the floor in the upper chamber, the bill did earn the support of most members of the House, including many Democrats. But the list of those who voted against the bill shows the strongest voices for gun reforms had problems with the legislation.
Janet Cruz, then the House Democratic Leader and now a state Senator, voted no on the bill. So did Jared Moskowitz, the architect of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act gun safety package passed in the wake of the Parkland shooting.
Davis’ vote to cheapen the path to gun ownership took place before the deadly school shooting in Parkland but months after another mass shooting in Florida. The Pulse shooting in 2016, where a gunman killed 49 people with an AR-15 he bought days prior after a background check, took place months before Davis’ vote.
One comment
It's Complicated
July 15, 2022 at 3:36 pm
This sort of thing demonstrates the snobbish elitism of liberals. First, it didn’t “cheapen the path to gun ownership.” There is no license required to OWN a firearm in Florida. The bill was about reducing the cost of obtaining a “Concealed Weapon or Firearm License.” (the word “permit’ does not appear anywhere on the license, BTW). Reducing the financial burden for lower income individuals, simply levels the playing field for licensure – it shouldn’t be limited by affordability. Also, EVERY person, irrespective of who they are must pass a FBI criminal background check, so by definition, the license is only issued to law-abiding citizens. Which begs the question – WHY DO DEMOCRATS OBJECT TO THE NRA’S EFFORTS TO ENABLE LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS OF A LOWER SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS TO MORE READILY AFFORD THE LICENSE? Serious question.
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