League of Women Voters Targeting Florida Gun Shops
Russ Chastain 10.16.14
In a move they say is meant to make the world a safer place, the League of Women Voters (LOWV) has begun visiting gun shops throughout the state of Florida in hopes of finding violations of a Florida statute requiring retail gun sellers to post signs “at each purchase counter,” which reads like so:
IT IS UNLAWFUL TO STORE OR LEAVE A FIREARM IN ANY PLACE WITHIN THE REACH OR EASY ACCESS OF A MINOR UNDER 18 YEARS OF AGE OR TO KNOWINGLY SELL OR OTHERWISE TRANSFER OWNERSHIP OR POSSESSION OF A FIREARM TO A MINOR OR A PERSON OF UNSOUND MIND.
LOWV, an avowedly anti-gun organization despite claims to the contrary, is surely looking to gain publicity and support through this move. I hope they are instead outed as being anti-gun, and thus lose the support of freedom-loving Americans.
Patti Brigham chairs the LOWV’s Gun Safety Committee and has lobbied against sound suppressors for hunting and so-called “assault weapons.” Brigham claimed that fewer than 50% of the shops they’d checked had the required signs. Failure to post the sign is a second-degree misdemeanor.
Sign or not, gun owners and gun sellers know the law, and signs will not make Florida safer. If LOWV is truly interested in making children safer, they should support education initiative such as the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.
