FL Resident Call to Action
Fellow FL residents, this morning the Florida Senate PASSED HB-503 Guns-locked-in-cars-in parking-lots by a vote of 26-13 and sent it to the Governor.
HB-503 by Rep. Greg Evers (R-Milton) & Sen. Durell Peaden (R-Crestview) protects your right to keep a firearm locked, out of sight, in your private vehicles for lawful purposes in parking lots.
Please send emails to the governor asking him to sign this important piece of legislation. I've copy/pasted my email as a model:
To:
Charlie.Crist@myflorida.com,
Jeff.Kottkamp@myflorida.com
Bcc: Al Hammond <ahammond@nrahq.org>, "Donna Hammond [HDS] (E-mail)" <donna.hammond@hdsupply.com>
Dear Governor Crist:
I am writing as a private citizen of Gainesville, FL and a constituent of yours. Please sign HB-, the Guns locked up in your car bill.
No where in either the US Constitution or the Florida Constitution are businesses given right they claim they have to control everything on their property. No such right exists. And no where are businesses authorized to usurp constitutional rights of individuals.
Nor do businesses have the right to search private vehicles of customers or employees. Or to ban the lawful possession of firearms or any other legal property in a private vehicle simply because the vehicle is parked in a parking lot provided for customers, guests and employees.
Do law-abiding people have the right to carry and store firearms in their personal private vehicles for self-defense and other lawful purposes and keep those firearms locked in their vehicles in parking lots? The answer is YES.
The U.S. and the Florida Constitutions both give citizens the right to keep and bear arms and the right of self-defense. Further, F.S. 790.25 (5) specifically authorizes the carrying of firearms in private vehicles for lawful purposes.
Then, do business owners have a right to preempt constitutional and statutory rights? The answer is No. But they are doing it anyhow and this bill stops it.
Constitutional and statutory rights do not stop when a law-abiding person drives into a parking lot. Thank you for protecting the constitutional rights of the citizens of our fine state.
Respectfully submitted,
Michael Higgins