This article is being shared from Naked Politics via the Miami Heeald. Let’s remind ourselves to be vigilant about conversations involving our young people and conversations about violence and lobbying attached to violence and our youth.
http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2015/03/testimony-from-campus-police-chiefs-riles-nra-lobbyist.html
After university police chiefs testified against the so-called campus carry bill (HB 4005/SB 176) earlier this week, the National Rifle Association’s Florida lobbyist Marion Hammer sent an alert to NRA members and friends.
“State university campus police are using your tax dollars to lobby against the Second Amendment rights of Florida citizens,” she wrote.
Hammer said two Democratic lawmakers who oppose the bill had asked the chiefs to testify before the Senate Higher Education Committee on Monday and the House Higher Education and Workforce Subcommittee on Wednesday.
“All of these chiefs filled out appearance cards and said, in writing, that they are AGAINST SB 176,” Hammer wrote to her members. “That clearly is lobbying -– they were there to influence the votes of legislators.”
What’s more, she said, the police chiefs were on the clock when they spoke.
Hammer urged NRA members to write House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, R-Merritt Island, and Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, to oppose “state funds — your tax dollars — being used to lobby against your constitutional rights.”
But Andy Pelosi, president of the Campaign to Keep Guns off Campus, called the move hypocritical.
“It’s interesting to note that when law enforcement [officers] like sheriffs, for example, testify in opposition to a gun violence prevention bill, that’s okay with the gun lobby,” he said.
