The Republican Party is not merely refusing to act to stop mass murders by passing common sense gun law reforms; it is doubling down on its refusal. Without taking a pause, after two weeks of multiple mass shooters from California to El Paso to Brooklyn, the Florida Republican Party is going to set up shop at a southern Florida gun show. The Tampa Bay Times reports that party officials emailed supporters about their registration efforts this weekend, saying, “This is a great opportunity to engage the community and promote the values that make this country strong, prosperous, safe and great!”
Worse still, the Pembroke Pines Gun Show is taking place at the Charles Dodge City Center, which is located next to city hall and is publicly owned. The Pembroke Pines city commissioners don’t even want the event. Residents and even city commissioners don’t want the show, but they fear legal repercussions if they cancel it. From CBS 4 Miami:
“The City Center Pembroke Pines should never be the place for a gun show that sells weapons of war,” said Lourdes Diaa, a Pembroke Pines resident and Director of the League of Women Voters.
“Now is the time for courage,” said Katy Syed, President of the League of Women Voters. “You are afraid of lawsuits from gun show promoters. But I submit to you that there is more to fear from voters who have had enough.”
Commissioners said they don’t want the gun show here but said their attorney is advising them that they have a signed contract and that if they cancelled the show they could possibly run afoul of a state law that prohibits elected officials from making regulations on guns.
How sick are we as a society? The Florida Republican Party is calling it a “great opportunity” to register gun shoppers in the immediate aftermath of numerous massacres? The funerals haven’t even happened yet. According to the Tampa Bay Times, party officials didn’t even consider cancelling it. “Republican Party chairman Joe Gruters said they didn’t consider cancelling or postponing the voter registration drive because ‘we can’t let a sick, deranged individual like that shooter impact the normal democratic process.’”
You’d think that party officials from a state where some of the most heinous and lethal mass shootings to date have happened would be a little more sensitive to the optics and morality of this action.
Pembroke Pines Commissioner Angelo Castillo told CBS4 that a third-party vendor books events at the city-owned facility and that gun shows will not be booked in the future.
