Anne Geggis
A House debate over a bill banning assault weapons triggered a verbal exchange between two members of the Florida delegation Wednesday, with both invoking a trial happening 1,000 miles away.
Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch took aim at Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz’s contention that gun-free zones were to blame for attacks on soft targets like the one that left 17 people dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018. A jury is currently considering whether the shooter should face life imprisonment or execution for the carnage.
“That this defense could possibly be used on this day — when the families of murdered children in my district are sitting in court — makes my blood boil,” Deutch said Wednesday, captured in a clip he shared on his YouTube channel. “Was a gun-free zone responsible for their deaths? No. It was a murderer with access to a weapon of war.”
But Gaetz said even the School Board “in deep-blue Broward” County has rejected Deutch’s argument with its decision to participate in the Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program, named after an MSD football coach who died in the shooting as he shielded students. The program allows highly trained personnel to carry guns at school.
“The reality is that even in your own community, your arguments are being rejected and you have no answer,” Gaetz said.
“It worked well in Uvalde, didn’t it?” Deutch snapped back. “All those good guys with guns.”
The seven-minute exchange became heated enough with the two politicians talking over one another that House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler pounded the gavel for order.
Gaetz said Uvalde happened because of “cops who didn’t go to work.” The Republican then pointed to how a good guy with a gun was able to stop a shooter at an Indiana mall after he killed three people.
“I would suggest the path forward may be what your own School Board members have adopted, which is allowing more guns in the hands of responsible people,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz said that the assault weapon ban under discussion Wednesday would take away the weapon that stopped the shooting in Indiana. But news reports say a handgun was used to stop the shooter.
Incidents in which an armed person is able to stop a shooting are statistically rare, according to research.
“The facts, Mr. Gaetz, are that time and time and time again, people are gunned down by assault weapons, not gun-free zones,” Deutch said.
8 comments
Joe Corsin
July 21, 2022 at 2:10 pm
They can ban assault weapons and still make them available to police…
George Rutledge
July 22, 2022 at 8:25 am
You will ban nothing.
Tjb
July 21, 2022 at 2:46 pm
Matt’s friends are Greene,, Boebert and Madison Cawthorn…enough said.
Don’t Look Up
July 21, 2022 at 7:23 pm
REPUBLICANS ARE AMERICA’S GUN PROBLEM. FOR DECADES REPUBLICANS HAVE AND STILL ARE COLLECTING FUNDS FROM THE GUN LOBBY ….. THERE IS ONLY ONE WAY TO HAVE A FUTURE OF REASONABLE GUN LEGISLATION, SAFER SCHOOLS, SAFER SHOPPING MALLS, SAFER MOVIE THEATERS AND SAFER LARGE GATHERINGS…..
AMERICANS AND ALL FLORIDIANS NEED TO VOTE ALL REPUBLICANS OUT OF OFFICE. REPUBLICANS ARE THE PROBLEM.
George Rutledge
July 22, 2022 at 8:24 am
Stop screaming, Fascist gun control pusher!
marylou
July 23, 2022 at 9:59 am
James Madison twice introduced state legislation in Virginia that would impose penalties on any individual who “bear[s] a gun out of his inclosed ground, unless whilst performing military duty.”
Deathsantis is well educated–he knows this. To him, it’s okay if kids get shot in school, as long as he gets votes.
George Rutledge
July 22, 2022 at 8:27 am
Since it’s obvious the blue cultists didn’t get the memo:
The supreme court has spoken. Your gun control is unconstitutional and will be shot down in court.
marylou
July 23, 2022 at 10:21 am
“ORIGINALISTs” on SCOTUS know that the “original meaning at the time written” of the Constitution doesn’t include AR-15s. SCOTUS knows it means what was available at the time the Constitution was written. They are political hacks.
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