Local Push for Gun Control

Todays News

A gun control resolution coming before the Sarasota City Commission today could be among the first of multiple messages being sent to state and national leaders in the wake of a mass shooting in Orlando. Soon, Sarasota civil rights leaders are expected to join a new coalition in Tallahassee pushing for measures limiting access to high-powered weapons. 

Today, City Manager Tim Barwin will present to commissioners the Safe Communities Initiative calling for limits on the availability of “military grade, high capacity” weapons to only law enforcement agencies. Barwin’s own background is in police work and he says the events like the one in Orlando show the deadly potential of assault weapons in citizens’ hands. “I used to think these everents were rare, and the chance of it happening in your community were very remote, but to see this happen very close to home, it shows we've reached a tipping point,” Barwin says. And while a local jurisdiction in Florida cannot implement its own restrictions on weapon access, the city can take a loud stance asking state and federal officials to take action.

Early June 12, FBI officials say Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old Fort Pierce man, brought an assault weapon into Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, and started shooting people. The event would become the deadliest mass shooting in US history with 50 people dead. Mateen was among the fatalities after he was killed by law enforcement. Among the victims was Edward "Top Hat Eddie" Sotomayor, a popular brand manager from Sarasota. 

Equality Florida co-chair Ken Shelin, a former Sarasota City Commissioner, expects Barwin’s proposal to pass unanimously, and says local leaders should continue pushing from there. He says Equality Florida and other organizations are forming a coalition to lobby leaders in Tallahassee on new gun control measures, including background checks and an assault weapons ban. “This crap about ‘it’s not the guns, it’s the people,’ if the guns weren’t available, the people wouldn’t be able to use them,” Shelin says. “It’s as simple as that.” 

But local gun rights supporters feel further regulations are a misguided approach. “This is both silly and incredibly dangerous," says Christian Ziegler, state committeeman for the Republican Party of Sarasota. "The Sarasota City Commission, with no jurisdiction over our state or federal gun laws, is overreaching their power to attack all of our Second Amendment rights in order to pander to their liberal base who put them in power by controlling the off-cycle, low turnout elections. I would suggest that the City Commission focus on fixing issues that they are responsible for such as finding out why businesses, jobs and events that benefit the local economy are shutting down and/or leaving the city limits."

The evening Sarasota City Commission meeting begins at 6pm.

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