Tampa Mayor Attempts to Trample Florida Carry

By Mark Chesnut, America's 1st Freedom Editor

When you receive this copy of America’s 1st Freedom, the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., will be only a week away. And thanks to Florida Gov. Rick Scott—who truly respects the people’s right to keep and bear arms—Tampa residents won’t be treated like simple criminals and disarmed by the government when visiting the downtown area during the convention.

Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn managed to get a long list of things banned from the convention area, including water guns, poles and pieces of wood, and he had requested that city authorities be able to ban all firearms—including those of law-abiding citizens licensed to carry concealed to protect themselves and their families—in the entire downtown area during the four-day event beginning Aug. 27.

“One noticeable item missing from the city’s temporary ordinance is firearms,” Buckhorn wrote. “In the potentially contentious environment surrounding the RNC, a firearm unnecessarily increases the threat of imminent harm and injury to the residents and visitors to the city.”

Because of a law passed last year, Tampa officials needed Gov. Scott’s permission to enact a ban, since it would be a gun ordinance stricter than state law. Gov. Scott, however, wasn’t having anything to do with it. In fact, he made a few statements of his own.

“It is unclear how disarming law-abiding citizens would better protect them from the dangers and threats posed by those who would flout the law,” Scott said in a letter.

Truer words were never spoken.

It’s a fact that Right-to-Carry permit holders are among the most law-abiding citizens in the United States, including those in Florida. They’ve undergone background checks to ensure they have no criminal history, they’ve performed training as required by law and they paid a fee in order to obtain a concealed-carry permit.

So how could disarming these law-abiding citizens be advantageous to anyone?

In reality, it couldn’t. Leaving law-abiding citizens disarmed in the face of dangerous criminals who never follow gun laws only benefits the criminals.

Thank goodness Gov. Scott understands that fact—even if Mayor Buckhorn seems to be a little fuzzy on the idea.