Parkland student condemns Scott’s refusal to attend CNN Town Hall on gun safety
Pulse shooting survivor: “Scott’s playbook is tired and useless.”
Sun Sentinel’s Rosemary O’Hara: “Scott owns this massacre. He has blood on his hands. During his eight years in office, he has signed not one bill — or used his bully pulpit to push one measure — to address gun safety.”
More Floridians — including shooting survivors, Parkland students, editorials and columnists — are joining the chorus speaking out against Rick Scott, highlighting his long record of opposing common sense gun safety measures and why Scott can’t be trusted to look out for anyone but himself.
Here are the facts: Scott “signed a bill that barred doctors from asking patients whether they had access to guns;” “did not propose new gun laws or seek significant mental health funding increases after the Pulse nightclub massacre;” slashed millions in funding for school safety; ended $20 million in funding for mental health care despite Florida alreadyranking at the bottom of the nation for mental health funding; has “long resisted gun control efforts” including refusing to support expanded background checks and a ban on assault weapons; and under Scott Florida has “some of weakest gun laws in [the] nation.”
And here’s what they’re saying:
From the Miami Herald: “Gov. Rick Scott has become a favorite of the Florida gun lobby during the past seven years by lifting restrictions on guns, preventing doctors from asking patients about their weapons, opposing stricter background checks and cutting the cost of getting a concealed weapon license…Scott has consistently opposed longer waiting periods for gun purchases.”
From Pulse shooting survivor Brandon Wolf: “@FLGovScott ‘s playbook is tired and useless. We need new voices. And real change.”
From the Tampa Bay Times’ Daniel Ruth: “Scott will once more call for increased school security and better mental health programs. And then he will do nothing…In 2016, Scott and the Legislature had an opportunity to make Florida safer in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shootings […] So they did … nothing.”
From the Sun Sentinel’s Rosemary O’Hara: “Gov. Scott owns this massacre. He has blood on his hands. During his eight years in office, he has signed not one bill — or used his bully pulpit to push one measure — to address gun safety.”
From the Sun Sentinel Editorial: On public safety, Florida Republicans get an F: “Two months after a gunman with an AR-15 mowed down 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a West Palm Beach high school student asked Gov. Scott if he would support an assault weapons ban. The governor said he would “continue to defend the Second Amendment” while working with law enforcement to improve school safety. We see how well that worked.
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