Less than one week after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland Fla., and with students from the school present in the chamber, Florida lawmakers rejected a motion to consider a bill that would ban assault rifles.
The danger, though, they agreed, lies instead with pornography, and passed a resolution declaring it a public health risk.
No, that is not a typo.
Not only did the Florida House of Representatives reject the motion to consider the assault rifle ban bill by 36-71; they did so in only three minutes.
State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith (D) asked state Rep. Ross Spano, the GOP lawmaker who presented the pornography bill, if pornography ever killed anyone or drove first responders to counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder like mass shootings do.
To The Associated Press, he stated:
“[Spano] was saying porn as a health risk was more important to address here in the Florida Legislature than the epidemic of gun violence. These are their priorities. I don’t understand the politics, to be honest, if I’m being honest. I’m not aware there’s a base of voters who are losing sleep every night over the epidemic of pornography as a public health crisis.”
“It was just so heartbreaking to see how many names were up there, especially after it was my school. It seemed almost heartless how they immediately pushed the button to say ‘no.’”
Fellow student Kai Koerber said:
“We’re all here because we need to strive for change, and the legislation needs to change, because we’ve fallen victim to lazy legislation for far too long.”
At the of this writing, students across Florida are staging walk-outs from their schools.
Image credit: Hindustan Times
