| Today, the Tampa City Council will vote on ordinances related to what can and cannot be brought to the GOP convention, to a Clean Zone for protests near the convention, and around the city during the convention time period. Water guns? No. Bicycle locks? No. String? No. Guns? Yup, for most places. For a complete list of what not to bring (including water bottles) click here. The thing about guns is that the state of Florida prohibits local governments from denying people with permits the ability to carry their guns around. Fines range up to $100,000 to the municipality, plus jail time and fines of up to $5,000 against the local officials who pass said legislation. (Not joking: Florida Statutes 790.33 - Field of regulation of firearms and ammunition preempted.) Guns will not be allowed in the convention itself, as that is the turf of the Secret Service. The Secret Service will set up their perimeter, which will likely include the facility itself, and some of the hotels and venues around it. There's a huge opportunity for snark here, like putting the word "sadly" at the beginning of one of the sentences. But it's really not funny: there are people who like to carry guns around and people who don't. Not a discussion point of whether one should be allowed to keep a gun in his home, or have the right to protect himself, but people who don't even go to the mall, or church, or on a picnic at a local park without packing heat. The Florida statute, as applied in Tampa during the convention, is a recipe for disaster. It's protesters and other innocents who will be shot, or at least threatened. And as we've seen, lots of Florida just shrugs and says the innocent shouldn't have been carrying Skittles. |
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