Democrats’ call for a special session on gun reform failed. Now what?
Despite a failed push by Florida House Democrats to hold a special session on gun reform, five members of the Miami-area delegation say they plan on continuing their efforts by filing legislation to address gun violence in the state.
The group of lawmakers joined activists from Moms Demand Action and Mothers Fighting for Justice for a press conference at the Belafonte TACOLCY community center in Liberty City on Tuesday morning, where they expressed their disappointment in Republicans who thwarted the effort.
Early last week, 40 House Democrats sent letters to Secretary of State Laurel Lee calling for a special session, triggering a poll of the entire Legislature to decide whether they would convene ahead of this year’s committee weeks, which begin Sept. 16.
While the lawmakers technically had until 5 p.m. Tuesday to vote, the effort was rendered essentially dead last week, when numbers released by Lee showed 56 members of the Florida House of Representatives voted “no.” The state requires 60% of both the House and Senate to approve a special session, so it only takes 49 no votes from the House or 17 from the Senate to kill the request.
South Miami Rep. Javier Fernández, who spearheaded the Democrats’ pitch, said Democrats plan to file bills to address what they hoped would be covered in a special session, including universal background checks, safe gun storage, a ban on high-capacity magazines and the creation of a task force in urban areas to address day-to-day gun violence
“Last year, nine proposals were filed. ... Not one was given a hearing at any level,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting.”
Publicly, Floridians seem to support the effort. A June Quinnipiac poll showed that 72% of Florida voters want the state to do more to address gun violence and 57% support a ban on the sale of assault weapons.
But in Tallahassee, the numbers aren’t in the Democrats’ favor. Republicans outnumber Democrats in the House 73-47, and in the state Senate 23-17. The Senate President and the Speaker of the House also have the power to convene the Legislature in special session, but it’s unlikely that will happen.
Senate President Bill Galvano instructed a key committee to “review and better understand the various factors involved in mass shootings” like white nationalism, but said through a spokesperson last week that he “does not support calling a special session.”
Miami Beach Sen. Jason Pizzo said he respects Galvano for paying attention to the issue, especially last year after the Parkland shooting, but that his promise “doesn’t go far enough.”
Speaker José Oliva, of Miami Lakes, also came out in opposition of convening before the official committee weeks began.
Rep. Cindy Polo, also of Miami Lakes, said she was particularly “frustrated and disappointed” in the “no” votes from members like Oliva, of the Miami-Dade delegation.
“This isn’t serious enough? Are we not facing a crisis?” she said, citing day-to-day gun violence in Miami. “Will not one bill be heard? Our children are dying. ... Your thoughts and prayers are not what we elected you to do.”
Standing behind the elected officials were about two dozen activists, including MJ Wright, who lost her son Jerry in the Pulse nightclub shooting, Romania Dukes, whose son De’Michael was shot and killed outside their Cutler Bay home, and Debbie Hixon, whose husband, Chris, was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
The women pleaded for lawmakers to remember South Florida and gun violence in Miami when they go back to Tallahassee for session.
“We plead again. We beg again. Please do more to protect our children,” Wright said. “If these deaths are not enough for a special session, will you at least remember where you’re from?”
The recent push wasn’t the first time Democrats have demanded a poll for a special session on gun control. In 2018, they unsuccessfully tried to convene a special session to amend or repeal Florida’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law, which allows people to use deadly force if they believe they are in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm. A similar push to change the law failed after Trayvon Martin’s death in 2013.
When 49 people were killed at Pulse nightclub in Orlando in 2016, another effort was made, but the votes fell far short and the effort fizzled.
A similar press conference will be held Thursday at Coral Springs city hall, where Democratic members of Congress Ted Deutch and Donna Shalala will stand by activists and survivors of gun violence to demand U.S. Senate action on legislation requiring background checks on all gun sales and a strong federal “Red Flag” law.
This story was originally published August 27, 2019 at 3:47 PM.