Your Action Needed Today Supporting Florida “Guns-Locked-Up-In-Your-Car-Bill”

**URGENT NEW ALERT** 

Date:      March 21, 2008
TO:        USF & NRA Member and Friends
FROM:   Marion P. Hammer
               USF Executive Director
               NRA Past President

Senate Bill 1130 by Senator Durell Peaden (R-Crestview) will protect your right to have a firearm in your car or truck for self-defense and other lawful purposes.

SB-1130 has been scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee next Tuesday, March 25th at 12:45 pm.

It is now time to start sending emails to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee 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 Committee and URGE THEM TO REMOVE  THE AMENDMENT THAT WAS ATTACHED IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE AND SUPPORT SB-1130 by Senator Peaden

The amendment was a so-called "compromise" to accommodate the business groups -- we never agreed to this language.

Some lawyers say it is so broad it even gives immunity from tort liability to employers, even when employers are careless and negligent, including when they knew something criminal was about to happen and did nothing.

Following the so-called "compromise" for the business groups, their lobbyists stood up and supported the amendment and then continued to oppose the bill.

We must remove that amendment and then pass the bill.

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

IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL PUT:

PLEASE SUPPORT SB-1130 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.  A colon or semi-colon could be needed after each name depending upon the email system you are using.)

SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

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

BACKGROUND:

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 business parking lot.

The bill never has been a "guns-to-work" bill.  That is a phrase made up by anti-gun opponents of the bill, to confuse people and legislators.

For a copy of SB-1130, 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 and numerous businesses are violating the law and are banning firearms in their parking lots.  Some gun ban policies apply to customers and employees.