Miami Herald by Mary Ellen Klas
March 12, 2018
TALLAHASSEE – In a long-shot bid to get an amendment on the November ballot to ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, a member of the Constitution Revision Commission is asking the panel to adopt his proposal to prohibit the sale and transfer of the semiautomatic weapons.
The proposal by former Senate Democratic Leader Chris Smith was filed with the CRC on Monday. It is the second gun control measure filed since the Feb. 14 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland that killed 17 and injured 17 others.
The first was filed on Friday by Miami attorney Roberto Martinez, which would put into the constitution the gun control limits signed into law last week by Gov. Rick Scott. That measure, SB 7026, bans the sale of any firearm in Florida to anyone under the age of 21, imposes a three-day waiting period on all handgun purchases, and bans bump stocks.
Martinez’s amendment would fortify the existing law against legal challenges from the gun lobby by placing the language directly into the constitution. It does not include the most controversial part of the law that arms school employees.[READ MORE]