Thursday, February 7, 2008

Criminalize a lawful act..

Is what is being pushed in FL. Firearm dealers would be held liable for criminals using false identities to purchase weapons. Even if the semantics of wording is argued, the dealer will still have to prove they didn't "willfully and knowingly" sell the firearm to a prohibited person. The Sen. who introduced it clearly stated that the intention of this bill is the former:

'I don't think that they're really duped,'' Margolis said. ''What's happening is the gun sellers are not necessarily enforcing the laws that we have in this state, and we've never made them responsible for the enforcement.''

Translation: "We're going to make you a criminal even if you followed the law because guns are scary and we don't like them."

The House rep Evan Jenne who introduced it is a member of the "PostSecondary Education Committee". That's a scary thought.

But I'm sure that this is just a "no-brainer" bill that will never get out of committee and that we should trust our legislators never to pass a law that can be expanded on or abused. Right Gman?

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