Rep. Deutch Statement on Meeting with President Trump on Gun Violence




 Following today's White House meeting on gun violence, Congressman Ted Deutch (FL-22), representing Parkland, Florida and Stoneman Douglas High School, issued the following statement:


"The President said we can't wait on comprehensive gun safety legislation, and he's right. We have to act now.

"We need to move forward on solutions that will earn a strong bipartisan majority of support in Congress, as they do among the American people. That means raising the minimum age for purchasing firearms, banning assault weapons, expanding background checks, closing the gun show loophole, requiring universal background checks, creating a gun violence restraining order system, and other sensible solutions to gun violence that the President has expressed support for. But proposals like arming teachers with guns or loosening concealed carry laws would only crush this bipartisan momentum toward action.

"It's going to take resolve to get this done; resolve to move quickly on this comprehensive plan, and resolve for the NRA-backed Members of Congress to put the lives of children ahead of their fear of the NRA."


Click the images below to watch the Congressman's conversation with President Trump during the meeting.


Florida voters support 62-to-33 percent a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons.

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In a poll taken less than two weeks after the deadly massacre of 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a Quinnipiac University Poll released Wednesday shows Florida voters oppose 56-to-40 percent allowing teachers and school officials to carry guns on school grounds. Voters with children under 18 years old in public schools oppose arming school personnel 53-to-43 percent. 
But 51 percent of voters say "increased security at school entrances" would do more to reduce gun violence in schools, compared to 32 percent who say stricter gun laws would do more and 12 percent who say armed teachers would do more to keep schools safe, the independent Q-Poll finds. 

Florida voters support 62-to-33 percent a nationwide ban on the sale of "assault weapons." 
In a separate question with different wording, voters support 53-to-42 percent a nationwide ban on the sale of all "semi-automatic rifles." 
Voters support 65-to-29 percent "stricter gun laws," with strong support for other gun control measures:
  • 96-to-3 percent for requiring background checks for all gun buyers;
  • 62-to-34 percent for a nationwide ban on the sale of high-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds;
  • 87-to-10 percent for a mandatory waiting period on all gun purchases;
  • 78-to-20 percent for requiring that all gun buyers be at least 21 years old;
  • 89-to-8 percent for allowing police or family members to petition a judge to remove guns from a person who may be at risk of violent behavior;
  • 92-to-6 percent for banning gun ownership by anyone who has had a restraining order for stalking, domestic abuse or other reasons.
"The notion that we are bitterly divided on political matters -- the case for past decades -- has found an exception to that rule. Florida voters -- be they young or old, white or black, man or woman -- have a common enemy," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll. 
"Floridians are strongly united that more needs to be done to reign in guns, especially the type of gun used this month to massacre 17 people in Parkland," Brown added. 
"Depending on how questions are asked, large majorities support efforts to restrict gun purchases; to require background checks for buyers and to ban certain types of guns. 
"These numbers show remarkable agreement across the electorate, the kind not seen very often these days,"  Brown said.
It is "too easy" to buy a gun in Florida today, 63 percent of voters say, while 28 percent say it is "about right" and 1 percent say it is "too difficult." 
Florida voters oppose 56-to-36 percent allowing local governments to adopt gun laws that are stricter than state law. 
If more people carried guns, Florida would be "less safe," 56 percent of voters say, while 34 percent say the state would be "safer."
Florida's state government must do more to reduce gun violence, 75 percent of voters say, while 18 percent say government is doing enough. 
Voters give Gov. Rick Scott a split 42-to-45 percent approval rating for his handling of the issue of gun violence. 
Voters disapprove 54-to-40 percent of President Donald Trump's handling of gun violence and disapprove 50-to-39 percent of the president's response to the Parkland school massacre. 
Voters disapprove 52-to-31 percent of Sen. Marco Rubio's handling of gun violence and give Sen. Bill Nelson a divided score as 36 percent approve and 37 percent disapprove. 
Voting Rights for Former Felons 
Florida voters support 67-to-27 percent restoring voting rights to convicted felons, other than those convicted of murder or sexual offences, who have completed their sentences. 
Every listed party, gender, education, age and racial group supports this idea, with support ranging from 50-to-42 percent among Republicans to 82-to-15 percent among Democrats. 
From Feb. 23-26, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,156 Florida voters with a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percentage points, including the design effect. Live interviewers call landlines and cell phones. 
The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts nationwide public opinion surveys, and statewide polls in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Iowa and Colorado as a public service and for research.
To see the methodology detail of this Q-Poll, click here.






























Source: SunShineStateNews

If you want to know how to stop school shootings, ask the Secret Service


If you want to know how to stop school shootings, ask the Secret Service

By Jeff Daniels, Professor of Counseling, West Virginia University. The U.S. Secret Service released a study of school shootings in 2002. David Stuart Productions/Shutterstock.com While President Donald Trump has not shied away from offering suggestions on how to prevent school shootings – including one controversial idea to arm teachers – what often gets overlooked in the conversation is research on the subject that has already been done.

Father of Parkland student admits to lying about son claimed CNN scripted gun town hall


Glenn Haab, the father of Colton Haab, admitted on Tuesday that he doctored emails between his son and CNN in an effort to convince people the network told the Marjory Stoneman High School junior what to say during a live town hall last week.
The family of a Parkland shooting survivor appears to have provided doctored emails to Fox and HuffPost in an attempt to support their claim that CNN "scripted" its Wednesday town hall. http://read.bi/2EQlKrv 
As the Associated Press reports, Glenn Haab ”acknowledges omitting some words from the email but says he didn’t do it on purpose.”

CNN last week denied claims by Haab that the network tried to feed him lines during a town hall on gun violence. The company later released email exchanges after doctored emails appeared to support Haab’s claim.




Source: RawStory.com

NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM COULD EXPAND IN SOUTH FLORIDA

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An effort to expand a needle-exchange program statewide was scrapped Tuesday by a House health care committee, which agreed to extend the Miami-Dade County program to two additional Southeast Florida counties.
“In the spirit of baby steps, I encourage you to support this,” Rep. Cary Pigman, R-Avon Park, told members of the House Health & Human Services Committee.
The bill (HB 579) initially called for expanding statewide a pilot needle-exchange program run by the University of Miami in Miami Dade County. The initial version of the bill also would have changed current law to authorize any hospital, clinic, substance abuse program or medical school to operate a program where free, clean unused needles and hypodermic syringes could be swapped for used needles and hypodermic syringes. Backers of such exchange programs say they prevent the transmission of HIV, AIDS, viral hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases among intravenous drug users.…

New Poll Bill Nelson Leading Rick Scott



Bill Nelson and Rick Scott
As he runs for a fourth term in the U.S. Senate, Florida Democrat Bill Nelson has a lead over Gov. Rick Scott, a new poll shows.
Scott takes 49 percent of white voters while 40 percent of them prefer Nelson. Nelson is ahead with voters of other races as blacks break his way 74 percent to 15 percent and he is up with Hispanics 46 percent to 37 percent. There’s also a gender gap. Men prefer Scott 49 percent to 38 percent but women go for Nelson 53 percent to 35 percent.
Both Scott and Nelson are in solid shape with Florida voters. Scott gets the approval of 49 percent of those surveyed while 40 percent disapprove of him. Nelson has the approval of 48 percent while 34 percent disapprove of him and 18 percent are still not sure despite his many decades in Florida politics.  
Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, offered his thoughts on the poll on Tuesday.
"Florida's Senate race features probably the two best-known politicians in the Sunshine State,” Brown said. “A race between two-term Gov. Rick Scott and four-term incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson makes this unusual in that most voters probably already have made up their minds.
"The race is close, but Nelson's double-digit-lead with independents puts him in slightly better shape eight months from Election Day,” Brown added. “This election is likely to be decided by turnout."
Despite carrying Florida in 2016, President Donald Trump is upside down in the Sunshine State with 42 percent approving of him and 54 percent disapproving of him. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio is in even worse shape, according to the poll with 53 percent disapproving of him and 38 percent approving of him.
The poll of 1,156 Florida voters was taken from Feb. 23 through Feb. 26 and had a margin of error of +/- 3.6 percent.

Please note it was proven during the 2016 Quinnipiac was caught over polling Republicans  

The NRA just got some really bad news

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From: MoveOn .org



The roof is caving in on the NRA.
Last week, in less than three days, 16 major corporations broke their ties to the NRA. United Airlines. Delta. Enterprise Rent-a-Car. MetLife Insurance. North American Van Lines. Simplisafe Home Security. They all said "enough" and canceled their deals with the NRA.1
Some Republican governors and members of Congress are finally standing up to the NRA as well, with new supporters coming out in favor of everything from an assault weapons ban to universal background checks and raising the age limit on gun purchases.2,3
The backlash against the NRA is growing, and the next big moment to turn up the pressure is the wave of student-led marches and walkouts scheduled for this March and April. MoveOn is committed to helping make these events as big as possible by mobilizing our millions of members nationwide, promoting the marches to our social media audience, elevating the voices of the student leaders at the marches, and more—while continuing to exert direct pressure on companies and investing in community organizations fighting against gun violence.
Will you chip in $3 to our campaign to support the student-led protests, challenge the NRA, and fight the epidemic of gun violence?
The true impact of all the corporations abandoning the NRA isn't just a public relations embarrassment for the gun lobby. It goes to the heart of their ability to recruit and retain members, and it’s why they lashed out at their former corporate partners this weekend, accusing them of "political and civic cowardice."4
Right on the organization’s own website, the #2 reason why they say people should join the NRA is for member discounts on everything from hotels to insurance.5 So much for that.
The #BoycottTheNRA movement isn’t finished either. There are another three dozen companies that still have direct financial relationships with the organization. And because of the sustained pressure, Wall Street firms and pension funds are now looking at divestment from the gun industry.6 Pressure is rising on online services like Amazon to stop streaming NRATV.
The brave high school students in Parkland—joining a tradition of young people organizing to end gun violence in their communities—sparked the backlash that’s helping catalyze actions for gun control in boardrooms and state capitols all over the country. 
Now it's up to all of us to keep it going. Over the coming weeks, marches and walkouts are being held in Washington, D.C., and at high schools and in communities all over the country.
MoveOn members have a history of confronting the NRA with grassroots activism—and winning. In 2015, after the massacre in Oregon, we organized tens of thousands of "gun owners for gun control" and brought a cohort of this group to D.C. to meet with the president and lawmakers. Several of these MoveOn members were on stage with President Obama a few months later when he signed his most significant executive action against gun violence. After the Las Vegas massacre, we helped pressure the Democratic Party to officially reject funds from gun manufacturers and their lobbyists. And after the violence in Virginia, we endorsed a slate of candidates who supported sensible gun laws—and who beat NRA-backed candidates up and down the ballot.
The myth of NRA invincibility is just that—a myth. And if we can prove that members of Congress and other elected officials can stand up to the NRA and gain political support, it will be the beginning of the end of the gun lobby’s chokehold on American politics.

Sources:
1. "A List of the Companies Cutting Ties With the NRA," The New York Times, February 24, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/34293?t=4&akid=200032%2E7252522%2Eny9B_O
2. "NRA battles Florida Republicans over gun crackdown," Politico, February 26, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/34294?t=6&akid=200032%2E7252522%2Eny9B_O
3. "I'm Republican. I Appreciate Assault Weapons. And I Support a Ban." The New York Times, February 23, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/34295?t=8&akid=200032%2E7252522%2Eny9B_O
4. "NRA lashes out at boycott movement as United, Delta and other corporations cut ties," The Washington Post, February 25, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/34296?t=10&akid=200032%2E7252522%2Eny9B_O
5. "Five Reasons You (And Your Friends) Should Join the NRA Today," NRA Family, May 4, 2016
https://act.moveon.org/go/34297?t=12&akid=200032%2E7252522%2Eny9B_O
6. "Wall Street May Be Rethinking Their Relationship With Guns," Bloomberg, February 22, 2018
https://act.moveon.org/go/34298?t=14&akid=200032%2E7252522%2Eny9B_O

Florida: “THE NRA IS KILLING OUR KIDS. These 24 state legislators are running unopposed this November




The ad reads, “THE NRA IS KILLING OUR KIDS. These 24 state legislators are running unopposed this November — and they’re complicit in the gun violence in our community. Hold them accountable. Run against them. We will help you.”

Be afraid, Florida Republicans, be very afraid

According to their website, 50% of the candidates that Run For Something endorsed in 2017 won, “In 2017, we endorsed about 100 first and second-time candidates. Of those who had elections in November, about 50% of them won!”

The political climate in Florida has been rocked by the Parkland shooting. Republicans are getting desperate. They are trying to get Gov. Rick Scott to remove the Broward County sheriff because they are trying to distract from their own role in making Florida one of the states where it is easiest to purchase a weapon of mass killing.
The 24 state legislators in who are running unopposed should have opposition. The people of Florida deserve a legislature that will enact the popular will. From Pulse to Parkland, Floridians have had too much first-hand experience with the consequences of the NRA making the state’s firearms policy. The people are angry after Stoneman Douglas, and they are getting organized to hold NRA owned Republican legislators accountable.
The candidates are coming, and half-measures aren’t going to be enough to protect NRA owned Florida incumbents from being challenged in November.

Join The Rally In Washington March For Our Lives Bus From Broward County


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We can't ignore the issues of gun control that this tragedy raises. And so, I'm asking -- no, demanding -- we take action now.

Cameron Kasky / Read Full Article

On March 24, the kids and families of March For Our Lives will take to the streets of Washington DC to demand that their lives and safety become a priority and that we end gun violence and mass shootings in our schools today.
March with us in Washington DC or march in your own community. On March 24, the collective voices of the March For Our Lives movement will be heard. 

Join Us in a Great Adventure and Get You Activist on and Meet other passionate activists
Join Us On The Bus To Wahington D.C. to Rally for #MarchForOurLives 

If the Bus is full the price will be $100.00 Round Trip you card will not be charged until Confirmed 



Trump privately talks up executing big drug dealers



In Singapore, the death penalty is mandatory for drug trafficking offenses. And President Trump loves it. He’s been telling friends for months that the country’s policy to execute drug traffickers is the reason its drug consumption rates are so low.
  • "He says that a lot," said a source who's spoken to Trump at length about the subject. "He says, 'When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] 'No. Death penalty'."
" He often jokes about killing drug dealers... He’ll say, 'You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them.'"
— A senior administration official to Axios
  • But the president doesn't just joke about it. According to five sources who've spoken with Trump about the subject, he often leaps into a passionate speech about how drug dealers are as bad as serial killers and should all get the death penalty.
  • Trump tells confidants a softer approach to drug reform — the kind where you show sympathy to the offenders and give them more lenient sentences — will never work.
  • He tells friends and associates the government has got to teach children that they'll die if they take drugs and they've got to make drug dealers fear for their lives.
  • Trump has said he would love to have a law to execute all drug dealers here in America, though he's privately admitted it would probably be impossible to get a law this harsh passed under the American system.
  • Kellyanne Conway, who leads the White House's anti-drug efforts, argues Trump's position is more nuanced, saying he the president about high-volume dealers who are killing thousands of people. The point he's making, she says, is that some states execute criminals for killing one person but a dealer who brings a tiny quantity of fentanyl into a community can cause mass death in just one weekend, often with impunity.
The substance: Trump may back legislation requiring a five-year mandatory minimum sentence for traffickers who deal as little as two grams of fentanyl. Currently, you have to deal forty grams to trigger the mandatory five-year sentence. (The DEA estimates that as little as two milligrams is enough to kill people.)
  • Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, and much of it is manufactured in Chinese labs. It can be lethal in extremely small doses. Of the 64,000 people who died of drug overdoses in 2016, more than 20,000 overdosed on synthetic opioids like fentanyl, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse.
Between the lines: Conway told me this kind of policy would have widespread support. “There is an appetite among many law enforcement, health professionals and grieving families that we must toughen up our criminal and sentencing statutes to match the new reality of drugs like fentanyl, which are so lethal in such small doses,” she said.
  • "The president makes a distinction between those that are languishing in prison for low-level drug offenses and the kingpins hauling thousands of lethal doses of fentanyl into communities, that are responsible for many casualties in a single weekend."
What's next: Trump wants to get tough on drug traffickers and pharmaceutical companies. Stay tuned for policy announcements in the not-too-distant future.
  • Trump and some of his advisers are discussing whether they might adopt other aspects of Singapore's "zero tolerance" drug policies, like bringing more anti-drug education into schools.
  • Both Conway and the First Lady Melania Trump, who has taken a strong interest in the administration's anti-drug policies, support getting better drug education and prevention into schools.








Source: Axios.com