Seventeen days after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the Florida state legislature voted 71-36 — along party lines — against a measure to consider a ban on semi-automatic weapons, effectively killing the measure for this session. Students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School were in the gallery to watch the vote.
But the Florida legislature did declare pornography to be public health risk. Voting for gun control has a political risk to the legislator at least for now whereas voting to ban pornography entails no such risk.
Don’t count young people out yet. An organization called March For Our Lives
“was created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar.”
March For Our Lives is planning a march to Washington on March 24th to demand change from lawmakers.
President Trump did signal support for a ban on “bump stocks” and a stronger background check system. It is not coincidental, however, that these actions are also backed by the NRA, but such support would allow Trump to say he's taking action. You will notice, however, that Trump did not signal support for an assault rifle ban.
An after thought: Perhaps it is time to designate gun violence — like pornography — as a public health risk. Consider that there have been 300 school shootings since 2013. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization already consider violence a public health threat, whether a firearm is involved or not. And the American College of Physicians has been calling gun violence an epidemic since 1995.