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Two Florida Lawmakers Calling For New Gun Control Laws

Not Apologizing For Politicizing the Issue
Posted at 3:12 PM, Oct 04, 2017
and last updated 2017-10-04 17:13:30-04

New research from USF and Nielsen reveals the older you are in Florida, the more likely you are to favor a ban on semi-automatic assault weapons.

In fact, there is 60 percent favor for a ban from those above the age of 80.

And nationwide, 89 percent of gun owners and non-gun owners think the mentally ill should not be allowed to buy a gun. But this is essentially where the common ground ends and the division begins.

Three days after the Vegas massacre there were renewed calls for gun control laws from Orlando, the scene of the previous worst mass shooting in American history just one year ago.

State Senator Linda Stewart and Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith proposed a bill that would ban the sale of semi-automatic weapon and high-capacity magazines in Florida. It also called for comprehensive universal background checks on gun purchases.

"We can send our thoughts and we can send our prayers to Las Vegas, but we can send this bill to Tallahassee," says Guillermo Smith.

But it may fall on deaf ears, like it did last year, when the same two lawmakers filled the same bills last year and they were never even heard by committees.

Even after Vegas, the window for both sides to understand each other may last only as long as the news cycle.

"People become very worried and very angry at the same time and it is a time that they are more attentive to it, but will it become partisan very quickly...it already has," says USF Political Science Professor Susan MacManus.