Republicans have shot themselves in the foot.
In just a few days, GOP legislators in Tallahassee. by forcing a program that puts guns in public schools, have done more for the Florida Democratic Party than anyone since Al Gore.
When the Florida Senate voted Monday 20-18 to pass the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Student Safety Act, which should have been a seamless and beautiful piece of legislation, they closed one of the most disgusting political deals Ladra has ever seen. Not only did they fail repeatedly to support even a partial ban or moratorium on the sale of assault weapons, the only thing that will really make us safer, the GOP majority basically held four badly needed measures — mental health funding, school infrastructure hardening, a ban on bump stocks and raising the age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 — hostage to putting guns in schools.
You want those four things? Plus better background checks for all? And we’ll throw in a mechanism for law enforcement to take firearms away from people who may be a threat to themselves or others. You like that? Well, then, you gotta swallow guns in schools.
It’s extortion, at worst.  Disingenuous at best.
If our Republican legislators were sincere about making these changes, they would separate the items into independent bills. They would let the mental health funding and the hardening of schools stand on its own. The bump stocks ban and age limit could be paired in a separate bill. And the marshal program, cynically renamed the “Coach Aaron Feis Guardian Program” after one of the victims — because that makes it prettier and sound safer, right? — would fly solo.
Related: Lawmakers vote to leave assault rifles on the street and arm teachers instead
Instead we get a law named for the school where 17 were killed by one gunman with an AR 15 that puts more guns in schools.
Because these Republican lawmakers are not sincere. They have been trying to get guns in schools for years. This is not an organic, reactive response to the tragedy in Parkland on Feb. 14. This is a big break for them in a long and seemingly futile effort that has been shot down every year because it’s absolutely crazy. And it would not gain traction on its own this year either. They needed the political cover so that anyone voting against the guns in schools could be cast as voting against mental health funding.
¡Qué descarados!
And a few Dems fell for it. Most notably Sen. Lauren Book of Plantation, who choked up repeatedly, broke into tears and was handed tissue as she talked about touring MSD High the day after the massacre to justify her compromise vote.
“My community was rocked. School children were murdered in their classroom,” Book (photographed right) said. “I could not live with the choice to put party politics above an opportunity to get something done that inches us closer to the place I believe we should be as a state.”
But we were all rocked, Sen. Book, and it’s not about party politics. It’s about insane measures that do nothing to keep our kids and our communities safe.
Also voting with the bill Monday were the well-intentioned but misguided Democrat Sens. Kevin Rader of Delray Beach and Bill Montford of Tallahassee.
If just one of these three Dems had voted no, the bill would have failed and, Ladra is certain, a special session would have been scheduled to debate just how to respond to the school shooting in an appropriate way, at an appropriate pace. The busloads of students and teachers and parents would demand that they address it. The television cameras and pundits hammering on it 24/7 would pressure them to address it — the right way, without holding any part of the bill hostage.
Maybe they don’t want to have to go back to Tallahassee?
Sens. Bill Galvano and Rene Garcia hug and celebrate after they pass a bill to arm educators.
Now, the bill moves to the House where it is almost certain to pass. Then to Gov. Rick Scott, who has said he is against arming teachers and could exercise his veto power. But Ladra doubts he would veto the whole bill and piss off the powerful Sen. Bill Galvano, who sponsored the act, just as he is running for Senate. Especially now that our own Sen. Rene Garcia of Hialeah passed a feel-good amendment that makes it look like classroom teachers won’t have guns, giving Scott the political power to sign off on it.
Because Garcia’s last minute tweak doesn’t really keep the guns out of the hands of all teachers. Any teacher who is former military, or reserve law enforcement, or also a coach or has some auxiliary position like activities or athletic director may be able to participate in the gun-toting program. Up to 10 employees in each school — coaches, janitors, librarians, principals, APs, security monitors, counselors, support staff and lunch ladies — can still be armed on campus after passing background and psychological tests and 132 hours of training.
Which raises a question: If psychological tests are a good idea for teachers with guns, why aren’t they a good idea for everybody else?
Republican lawmakers were sure to repeat over and over again how this is voluntary. School districts and county police agencies have to opt in. But both of those bodies are impacted by political pressure. While Miami-Dade Schools Superintendent has strongly rejected the idea of guns in our schools, he is not going to be there forever. This opens the door to a slippery slope.
Students from MSD High who want an assault weapons ban and are opposed to guns in schools watch silently from the gallery above the Senate floor as our elected officials betray us.
And what matters also is the message that the Senate is sending. That despite the pleas of the public, the survivors and victims’ families from Parkland and school officials and the PTAs and parents and teachers across the state, despite a poll that shows that a majority of Floridians support an assault weapons ban and oppose guns in schools, they’re going to push their agenda.
Republicans, and specifically Galvano State Reps. Jose Oliva and Carlos Trujillo — who have pushed it in the House — have sent a message to us. They have told us that they don’t listen to their constituency.  They don’t represent us. They represent the gun industry and the National Rifle Association. They represent their pockets and their political action committees.
Related: Florida State Rep. Jose Oliva must go — before he becomes House speaker
But, albeit unknown to them, they also sent another message: Elect Democrats.
Let’s take them up on it. Now is the time for us to send a message right back — that we are not going to tolerate electeds who serve some special interest instead of their constituents. That we are not going to allow them to push their upside down agenda on us. That we are going to make them irrelevant.
This has become a wedge issue like no other Ladra has ever seen. Several voters have told me that they are going to base their votes in November on what happens in Tallahasee this week. One Homestead woman told me at the town hall held by Sen. Annette Taddeo and School Board Member Lubby Navarro — both against arming teachers — that she has voted for both Republican and Democrat candidates, but that she was going to vote straight down the D line if this passes.
While alt right lunatics on Facebook are boycotting the companies that have severed ties with the NRA, all over Florida, voters of all walks of life and all party affiliations are starting another boycott: Republican candidates.
Ladra is in that group. I’m a self-confessed deep purple, card-carrying NPA with Hillary issues — but not only am I voting Democrat just because of this, I pledge right here and now to help other good Democrats across the state get elected. Ladra has always been bipartisan — meaning that I distrust and disdain both parties equally — but we need to send a message back to these people:
If you won’t represent us, we will elect someone who will.

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