Most politicians are opportunists, but Florida Governor Rick Scott took it to a new low.\u00a0 In the aftermath of the horrific slaughter in Parkland, Florida, we learned that FBI procedures failed, and the information provided by concerned citizens did not make it to the Miami Field Office for action.\u00a0 The FBI certainly needs to review what happened and fix it to prevent any future such failure.\u00a0 No question.\u00a0 However, Governor Scott immediately called for FBI Director Christopher Wray to resign, in a not so veiled and clearly political stunt.\u00a0 Rick Scott is planning to challenge Senator Bill Nelson this year and he wants plenty of NRA funding for his campaign.<\/p>\n
It is possible, but highly unlikely, that FBI action would have prevented this.\u00a0 As abhorrent as was Nikolas Cruz\u2019s behavior, unfortunately there was little of record that was a sufficient violation to support action against him.\u00a0 In fact, Cruz was investigated for the very same concerns by state (Gov. Scott\u2019s state) and local agencies and they found no sufficient basis for action.\u00a0 Personally, I disagree that his actions had some protection under the law, but that is part of a much larger debate concerning free speech, mental health, and other issues.<\/p>\n
The critical point here is that Cruz lawfully purchased the AR 15 under Florida law.\u00a0 Incredibly lax gun laws (federal and state) allowed this to happen.\u00a0 Florida law does not have a waiting period to buy assault weapons such as the AR 15, nor does Florida law have permit requirements.\u00a0 There is merely a cursory background check for handguns.\u00a0 Cruz lawfully purchased his AR 15 at age 18 and he did so despite state and local officials having knowledge and concerns about his affinity for guns and violence, knowledge and concerns about his white supremacy, and concerns about his mental health.\u00a0 There is Parkland blood on the hands of Rick Scott and the Florida Legislature.\u00a0 What more will it take for you to fix these ineffective gun safety laws that significantly risk public safety?\u00a0 How much NRA money do you receive?\u00a0 Is your quest for political power more important than school children\u2019s lives?\u00a0 If Christopher Wray should resign, by that same analysis so should Governor Scott.\u00a0 More importantly, this is the time to show real leadership and lead the effort to make Florida gun laws more effective.\u00a0 But you won\u2019t.\u00a0 You are already playing politics.\u00a0 Shame on you, Rick Scott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Most politicians are opportunists, but Florida Governor Rick Scott took it to a new low.\u00a0 In the aftermath of the horrific slaughter in Parkland, Florida, we learned that FBI procedures […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[110,128,209,213],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-florida-governor-rick-scott","tag-gun-safety","tag-nra","tag-parkland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}