Attention Florida NRA Members! SB-206 Protect Possession of Firearms in Vehicles in Parking Lots

Every gun owner who lives in Florida or comes to Florida as a tourist or visitor or on business needs to join this fight to protect the right to have a firearm in vehicles for lawful purposes.  This right belongs to ALL gun owners everywhere -- not just those who live in Florida.  Please forward this email to others on your email list.  Spread the word.

URGENT-- MORE ACTION NEEDED*** /Possession/Guns/Private Vehicles

DATE:         March 3, 2006
TO:             USF & NRA Members and Friends
FROM:        Marion P. Hammer
                   NRA Past President
                   Executive Director Unified Sportsmen of Florida

SUBJECT: SB-206 Protect Possession of Firearms in Vehicles in Parking Lots

The Senate Criminal Justice Committee will hold another hearing on SB-206 by Senator Durell Peaden Wednesday, March 8, 2006. 

Some Florida businesses, lead by the Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation, are trying to ban guns in cars.  They are violating the constitutional rights of gun owners and Florida law. 

SB-206 protects your right to have a gun in your vehicle (car, truck, minivan, sports utility vehicle, motorcycle, motor home, RV, etc.) for lawful purposes. 

The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation have decided to trample privacy rights and the Second Amendment rights of Florida's 6 Million law-abiding firearms owners.

Urged into battle by Publix Super Markets, Disney World, and other big corporations, they have engaged in a campaign to try to kill the bill that protects your right to protect yourself and your family.

They want to ban guns by denying your right to have a firearm in your private vehicle when you park in a parking lot that accommodates the public and company employees.

Your right to have a gun in your car is GUTTED if you can never stop and park your car in a parking lot.

Big business is trying to claim their rights as parking lot owners supersede your constitutional right and legal right to carry firearms in your private vehicles for lawful purposes.  But they are wrong.

They have no constitutional or legal right to search your vehicle or tell you what legal personal private property you can have inside your private vehicle in their parking lot or anywhere else.

Our constitutional and legal rights DO NOT END when we drive into a parking lot. 

Carrying firearms in a vehicle 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 the dry cleaners, to the shoe store or anywhere else normal people travel.

THIS ISSUE is much bigger than parking lots.  The issue is carrying a firearm in your private vehicle for protection of yourself and your family when you are traveling to and from work, to and from shopping and to and from any place law-abiding citizens normally go in the course of daily routines.

The Florida Chamber of Commerce and the Florida Retail Federation along with the national antigun organization called the BRADY CAMPAIGN are emailing committee members urging them to vote against SB-206.

YOU NEED TO ACT NOW to counter this antigun attack on your Second Amendment and self-defense rights.

Please immediately send email to members of the Senate Criminal Justice Committee and URGE THEM TO SUPPORT SB-206 by Senator Peaden.

(Below is a list of the email addresses of those you need to contact)

IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF YOUR EMAIL PUT: 

SUPPORT SB-206 - Protect Possession of Firearms in Vehicles/Parking Lots

(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.)

SENATE CRIMINAL JUSTICE COMMITTEE MEMBERS AND SENATE LEADERS WHO NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU:

wise.stephen.web@flsenate.gov
smith.rod.web@flsenate.gov
crist.victor.web@flsenate.gov
haridopolos.mike.web@flsenate.gov
king.james.web@flsenate.gov
klein.ron.web@flsenate.gov
lynn.evelyn.web@flsenate.gov
wilson.frederica.web@flsenate.gov
lee.tom.web@flsenate.gov
peaden.durell.web@flsenate.gov
pruitt.ken.web@flsenate.gov
villalobos.alex.web@flsenate.gov
webster.daniel.web@flsenate.gov

PLEASE SEND EMAIL IMMEDIATELY AND URGE THEM TO SUPPORT SB-206 by Senator Durell Peaden

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

SB-206 Protects your right to have a firearm in your vehicle for lawful purposes and to park your vehicle in parking lots.

Think about the women, who work late hours at Disney World and don't get off until close to midnight. She needs her gun for protection when she is traveling late at night. 

But Disney will fire her if she exercises her right to have a gun in her vehicle for protection. 

The many women and Moms who work late at night as cashiers and stock personnel at Publix Super Markets will lose their jobs if they want to protect their lives.

What about the women AND men who work at all-night pharmacies, or Walmart stores or convenience stores, or what about nurses or lab technicians who work late shifts and have to drive to and from work through dangerous areas late at night?  Are their lives not important?

Think about a woman who is being stalked or who has to get a domestic violence injunction against an abuser.  Police often tell these women to get a gun for protection because police can't be there to protect them.

But her anti-gun employer tells her if she brings a gun to work in her car for protection she'll be fired. She must chose between her life or her job.

This violation of rights and the law MUST BE STOPPED.

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 the law, numerous businesses are violating the law and are banning firearms in their parking lots.  Their gun ban policies apply to customers and employees.

A business owner or manager has no more right to say you can't have a firearm in your private vehicle than they have a right to say you can't have a pair of sun glasses, an umbrella, a Bible or a baby seat.

Such an anti-gun political exercise is not good business sense. They want your money but don't respect your rights.

Businesses are not allowed to discriminate against employees and customers because of race, religion, political party, color of eyes, hair or weight.  And they certainly can't discriminate because of the exercise of lawful self-defense.  And, make no mistake, these gun ban policies are blatant discrimination against people who chose to exercise a constitutional right and take responsibility for their own safety.