You know, I would love to believe him:
Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday he is willing to look at “everything” in order to keep kids living in his state safe from another gun massacre like the one that occurred a day earlier at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
“Everything’s on the table. I’m going to look at every way that we can make sure our kids are safe,” he said during an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “I’m going to do whatever I can do to keep these kids safe, I’m going to talk about every issue to keep these kids safe.”
That includes looking at gun control policy in his state, Scott said, which has some of the loosest gun laws in the nation. The state doesn’t require a buyer to have a permit or a license in order to own a gun, for example.
“We’ve got to figure something out,” he said. “We cannot let this pass without making something happen that hopefully, and it’s my goal that this will never happen again in my state.”
But maybe the timing about this makes it hard to believe him:
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, in conversations with major Republican donors over the past week, has signaled that he is moving closer to challenging Sen. Bill Nelson and has mapped out financial and political plans that could guide his potential bid, according to three people familiar with the discussions.
Scott’s study of the race’s dynamics and his confidence that the veteran Democrat is vulnerable has led those donors to conclude that the governor is now leaning toward running, the people said, requesting anonymity to discuss private exchanges.
“He thinks Nelson isn’t ready for the velocity of a 2018 campaign,” according to one person who has spoken with Scott in recent days, describing the governor as a data-obsessed former businessman.
A potential Scott and Nelson race could be a nail-biter in a state President Trump narrowly won in 2016. Senate Republicans, who hold a razor-thin 51-49 majority, see Florida as a pickup opportunity as they look to boost their numbers in what could be a tough year for the president’s party.
Scott has spoken at length with donors about fundraising, the state’s media markets and the differences between running for Senate and governor, the person added.
Scott has told donors that his possible Senate campaign would likely need more than $100 million to succeed — a total close to the amount he has spent in each of his gubernatorial races, the people said. The multimillionaire, who has self-funded past campaigns, has also made clear that he would count on donors outside of Florida — not just his fortune and Florida donors — if he were to help the GOP by getting into a tough Senate race, they added.
Over the past week, Scott has met with Republican donors out West before quickly returning to Florida on Wednesday following the mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
Let’s not forget that back in 2016, Scott was singing a different tune when this massacre happened:
Following a 2016 shooting in an Orlando nightclub, Scott said that nobody on a terrorist watch list should have a gun, but "the Second Amendment didn't kill anybody."
"Let's remember, the Second Amendment has been around for over 200 years. It didn't, it didn't, you know, that's not what killed innocent people,"
Scott said in 2016. "Evil killed innocent people. There's gonna be a time to have a conversation about what we do to make our state or city, our country, safer again. But let's have a conversation about how we destroy ISIS. Where's that conversation?"
At least 17 people died and 14 others were hospitalized on Wednesday when a former student
opened fire at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, appeared in court Thursday, where he was denied bond.
Meanwhile. U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D. FL) has been consistent on his stance on gun control and continues to call for action:
Appearing in Parkland this morning, Sen. Bill Nelson made a plea for restrictions on assault weapons.
"I have hunted all my life. I still hunt with my son. But an AR-15 is not for hunting; it's for killing," the Florida Democrat said.
"It is is time for us to start a serious effort to try to wear down the opposition that is not letting us bring up common sense legislation," he added.
"Maybe this will be the turning point. Maybe these students speaking out so boldly as they have on national TV, maybe the parents crying out and speaking so boldly as they have … maybe this will be the turning point because, in fact, enough is enough."
Florida is going to be a big state this year electorally but it’s also a test to finally defeat the power the NRA has on the state:
In an entirely Republican-run state like Florida, the NRA has been able to get what it wants by keeping GOP lawmakers scared of challenges in the party primaries. “The real problem here is the Republican incumbent worried about getting primaried,” he said Thursday. “That’s the chokehold.”
He said the NRA’s power, long recognized in Congress, is perhaps even more entrenched in Tallahassee, meaning even the shooting deaths of 17 students and staff in a well-to-do Fort Lauderdale suburb will likely change nothing.
“It is unfortunate,” (Charlie) Crist said. “It breaks your heart.”
Rick Wilson, a longtime GOP consultant in Tallahassee and a gun enthusiast himself, said the state has a long history of protecting firearm ownership, with 1.3 million people currently holding concealed carry permits and more licensed gun dealers per capita than any other state.
“This is a state that made up its mind about guns a long time ago,” he said.
Wilson said the NRA has been effective at mobilizing that sentiment into votes, particularly in the more conservative areas north of Interstate 4, which stretches across Florida from Tampa to Daytona Beach. A Democrat who even mildly supports gun limitations of any type simply has no chance in that part of the state.
“It is the fastest way for Democrats to disqualify themselves, no matter what other attributes they have,” he said.
The practical effect of that in recent decades has been a series of NRA-written bills getting turned into laws by a pliant GOP state legislature.
Just minutes before news broke of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado, newly elected Gov. Jeb Bush handed (Marion) Hammer the pen he’d just used to sign a bill allowing out-of-state concealed permit holders to carry their guns in Florida, too.
A few years later came a bill to codify the common-law “castle doctrine” ― the idea that those confronted with intruders in their homes could use deadly force rather than retreat. Not much later came the expansion of castle doctrine to “stand your ground” regardless of the location ― which was key in the acquittal of the man who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in 2012.
How this will effect Scott’s Senate bid remains to be seen but we can’t allow him to dupe the voters that he’s had a change of heart. We have to be read to combat his lies. Click here to donate and get involved with Nelson’s re-election campaign.