FLORIDA LEGISLATIVE ACTION ALERT!!!!
Subject: **ALERT**ALERT** "Guns-locked-up-in-your-car bill" ACTION NEEDED
HB-503 has been filed by Rep. Greg Evers (R-Milton).
Rep. Stan Mayfield, Chairman of the House Environment and Natural Resources Council, described the bill in a no-nonsense manner recently when speaking to the press. Chairman Mayfield said:
"Everyone keeps calling it the guns-to-work bill. The fact of the matter is it's the guns-locked-up-in-your-car bill."
The bill protects your right to have a firearm locked in your vehicle for self-defense and other lawful purposes when it is parked in a business parking lot.
HB-503 has been referred to Chairman Mayfield's Council where it can be scheduled for a hearing and vote at anytime after the 2008 Legislative Session begins on March 4th.
It is time to start sending email to members of the House Environment and Natural Resources Council to let them know how important this bill is to law-abiding gun owners who carry firearms in their vehicles for protection and other lawful purposes.
Please immediately send email to members of the Council and URGE THEM TO SUPPORT HB-503.
Below is a list of the email addresses of those you need to contact
IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL PUT:
PLEASE SUPPORT HB-503 the "Guns-locked-up-in-your-car bill"
(To send one email to all committee members at the same time, block or highlight the entire list and then copy and paste the block into the address section of the email.)
House Environment & Natural Resources Council
stan.mayfield@myfloridahouse.govbaxter.troutman@myfloridahouse.govmary.brandenburg@myfloridahouse.govdebbie.boyd@myfloridahouse.govfaye.culp@myfloridahouse.govrich.glorioso@myfloridahouse.govdenise.grimsley@myfloridahouse.govwill.kendrick@myfloridahouse.govpaige.kreegel@myfloridahouse.govrick.kriseman@myfloridahouse.govrichard.machek@myfloridahouse.govbryan.nelson@myfloridahouse.govralph.poppell@myfloridahouse.govsteve.precourt@myfloridahouse.govscott.randolph@myfloridahouse.govtrudi.williams@myfloridahouse.govBACKGROUND:
Click here for a copy of HB-503:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx...
Or go to this site:
http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Documents/loaddoc.aspx?FileName=_h0503__.xml&DocumentType=Bill&BillNumber=0503&Session=2008FURTHER, for more information on the issue, go to this link:
NRA-ILA: Articles
http://www.nraila.org/Issues/Articles/Read.aspx?id=244&issue=53The bill will stop business entities from searching private vehicles and violating the constitutional rights of customers and employees.
Your Second Amendment rights are at the very heart of this issue. In addition to prohibiting searches of private vehicles in parking lots. The bills also prevent businesses from asking customers or employees to disclose what personal private property is stored in a private vehicle and prevents action against customers and employees who refuse to divulge that private information. Further, it prohibits action against a customer or employee based on information provided by a third party.
Some Florida businesses are trying to ban guns in cars in parking lot used by customers and employees. They are discriminating against people who exercise their constitutional rights they are violating the constitutional rights of gun owners and Florida law.
Corporate giants have been trampling constitutional rights. Some are even attempting to coerce and intimidate gunowners into giving up constitutional rights as a condition of employment.
Your Rights are in Danger
(1) Your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms -- to have firearms in your vehicle for self-defense and other lawful purposes must be protected from antigun businesses;
(2) YOUR property and privacy rights against searches of your private vehicle in parking lots must be protected from antigun businesses;
(3) Your right to freedom from coercion, intimidation and termination of employment for exercising constitutional rights by antigun employers must be preserved.
(4) Your right to meaningful self-protection must be maintained regardless of where you park your car.
The bill protects your right have a firearm in your vehicle for lawful purposes and to park your vehicle in parking lots when shopping, working or transacting business.
Carrying firearms in a vehicle for hunting, target shooting or protection of yourself and your family obviously means you can leave that firearm locked in the vehicle in a parking lot when you go grocery shopping, to the doctor's office, to the movie, to visit a sick friend in the hospital, to rent a movie, to the shoe store or anywhere else normal people travel to conduct business.
Florida law, the U.S. Constitution, and the Florida Constitution clearly and unequivocally give law abiding citizens to have firearms in their vehicles for lawful purposes.
Since there are CURRENTLY NO PENALTIES for violating to law, numerous businesses are violating the law and are banning firearms in their parking lots. Some gun ban policies apply to customers and employees.