Florida: Call To Action!

“Guns-Locked-Up-In-Your-Car-Bill” Needs Your Help!

Email The House Environment & Natural Resources Council Today!

Date:       February 28, 2008
TO:         USF & NRA Member and Friends
FROM:   Marion P. Hammer
               USF Executive Director
               NRA Past President

House Bill 503 has been filed by Representative Greg Evers (R-Milton). 

Representative Stan Mayfield, Chairman of the House Environment and Natural Resources Council, described the bill in a no-nonsense manner recently when speaking to the press.  Chairman Mayfield said:

"Everyone keeps calling it the guns-to-work bill.  The fact of the matter is it's the guns-locked-up-in-your-car bill."

The bill protects your right to have a firearm locked in your vehicle for self-defense and other lawful purposes when it is parked in a public accessible business parking lot.

HB-503 has been referred to Chairman Mayfield's Council where it can be scheduled for a hearing and vote at anytime after the 2008 Legislative Session begins on March 4th.

It is time to start sending email to members of the House Environment and Natural Resources Council to let them know how important this bill is to law-abiding gun owners who carry firearms in their vehicles for protection and other lawful purposes.

Please immediately send emails to members of the Council and URGE THEM TO SUPPORT HB-503.

Below is a list of the email addresses of those you need to contact.

IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL PUT:

PLEASE SUPPORT HB-503 the "Guns-locked-up-in-your-car bill."

(To send one email to all committee members at the same time, block or highlight the entire list and then copy and paste the block into the address section of the email.)

House Environment & Natural Resources Council

[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]

Click here for a copy of HB-503, please click here.

For more information on the issue, please click here.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

This bill will stop business entities from searching private vehicles and violating the constitutional rights of customers and employees.

Your Second Amendment rights are at the very heart of this issue.  In addition to prohibiting searches of private vehicles in parking lots, the bill will also prevent businesses from asking customers or employees to disclose what personal private property is stored in a private vehicle and prevents action against customers and employees who refuse to divulge that private information.  Further, it prohibits action against a customer or employee based on information provided by a third party.

Some Florida businesses are trying to ban guns in cars in parking lot used by customers and employees.  They are discriminating against people who exercise their constitutional rights – they are violating the constitutional rights of gun owners and Florida law.

Corporate giants have been trampling constitutional rights. Some are even attempting to coerce and intimidate gun owners into giving up constitutional rights as a condition of employment. 

Your Rights are in Danger!

(1) YOUR Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms - to have firearms in your vehicle for self-defense and other lawful purposes must be protected from anti-gun businesses;

(2) YOUR property and privacy rights - against searches of your private vehicle in parking lots must be protected from anti-gun businesses;

(3) YOUR right to freedom - from coercion, intimidation and termination of employment for exercising constitutional rights by anti-gun employers must be preserved; and

(4) YOUR right to meaningful self-protection - must be maintained regardless of where you park your car.

This bill protects your right have a firearm in your locked vehicle for lawful purposes and to park your vehicle in parking lots when shopping, working or transacting business.

Carrying firearms in a vehicle for hunting, target shooting or protection of yourself and your family obviously means you can leave that firearm locked in the vehicle in a parking lot when you go grocery shopping, to the doctor's office, to the movie theater, to visit a sick friend in the hospital, to rent a movie, to the shoe store or anywhere else normal people travel to conduct business.

Florida law, the U.S. Constitution, and the Florida Constitution clearly and unequivocally give law-abiding citizens the right to have firearms in their vehicles for lawful purposes.

Since there are CURRENTLY NO PENALTIES for this law, numerous businesses are violating the law and are banning firearms in their parking lots.  Some gun ban policies apply to customers and employees.

Please continue to check www.NRAILA.org for updates on House Bill 503.