Re: In Florida, NRA-ILA Concealed Handgun Laws Permit Criminals, Domestic Abusers and Killers To Have CCW Licenses

On Jan 29, 10:34 pm, The Lone Weasel <lonewea...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Investigation reveals criminal pasts of those toting guns

By Megan O'Matz and John Maines

South Florida Sun-Sentinel

January 28, 2007

Garth F. Bailey, of Pembroke Pines, pleaded no contest to manslaughter
in 1988 for shooting his girlfriend in the head while she cooked
breakfast. Eight years later, the state of Florida gave him a license
to carry a gun.

John P. Paxton Jr., then of Deerfield Beach, pleaded guilty to
aggravated child abuse in 1993 for grabbing his 4-year-old nephew by
the neck, choking and slapping him for flicking the lights on and off.
Eight years later, the state gave him a license to carry a gun.

John M. Corporal, of Lake Worth, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault
in 1998 for pulling a chrome revolver from his waistband and placing
it against his roommate's head during an argument. In 2002, he pleaded
guilty to grand theft. In February 2006, the state gave him a license
to carry a gun.

Florida has given concealed weapon licenses to hundreds of people who
wouldn't have a chance of getting them in most other states because of
their criminal histories. Courts have found them responsible for
assaults, burglaries, sexual battery, drug possession, child
molestation -- even homicide.

In an investigation of the state's concealed weapon system, the South
Florida Sun-Sentinel found those licensed to carry guns in the first
half of 2006 included:

More than 1,400 people who pleaded guilty or no contest to felonies
but qualified because of a loophole in the law.

216 people with outstanding warrants, including a Tampa pizza
deliveryman wanted since 2002 for fatally shooting a 15-year-old boy
over a stolen order of chicken wings.

128 people with active domestic violence injunctions against them,
including a Hallandale man who was ordered by a judge to stay away
from his former son-in-law after pulling a handgun out of his pocket
and telling the man: "I'll blow you away, you son of a b----."

Six registered sex offenders.

"I had no idea," said Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson, who sits on an
advisory panel for the state Division of Licensing, which issues
concealed weapon permits. "I think the system, somewhere down the
line, is broken. I guarantee you the ordinary person doesn't know
[that] ... and I'd venture to guess that 160 legislators in Florida
don't know that, either."

The National Rifle Association, the prime mover behind the state's
nearly 20-year-old concealed weapon law, says it's the court system
that is broken, not the gun -licensing system.

The problem rests with gaps within law enforcement and with "bleeding-
heart, criminal-coddling judges and prosecutors," said Marion P.
Hammer, Tallahassee lobbyist for the NRA and its affiliate, the
Unified Sportsmen of Florida.

"What you need to understand is the NRA and the sportsmen's group are
law-abiding people," she said. "We don't want bad guys to have guns."

But the Violence Policy Center, a national nonprofit group dedicated
to reducing gun violence, studied Florida's concealed weapon program
in 1995 and concluded that it "puts guns into the hands of criminals."

"The people who are intimately familiar with these laws, the people at
the NRA, they know exactly what's going on," said Kristen Rand, the
center's legislative director. Florida's gun lobby and the program's
administrators "know they're permitting some bad people, but they
don't want the general public to know that."

Last summer, the Legislature made it even harder for the public to
find out. It made the names of licensed gun carriers a secret.

Pistol Packin' Paradise

From the country's founding, the protection of house, home, life, land
and liberty has come at the point of a muzzle. Few other
constitutional rights are more cherished, or more controversial, than
the right to bear arms.

Nationwide, Florida has long been considered a gun enthusiast's
paradise -- a place where licensed gun dealers outnumber golf courses;
where gun ranges are protected from lawsuits for contaminating
groundwater with lead bullets; and where Hammer, the NRA lobbyist,
holds so much sway in Tallahassee lawmakers are, in the opinion of one
adversary: "scared to hell of her."

"If she says they're anti-gun, their political life is over," said
Arthur C. Hayhoe, executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop
Gun Violence.

In fact, Florida often is referred to as the Gunshine State.

The label dates back to 1987, when the state passed a law to "ensure
that no honest, law-abiding person who qualifies" for a license to
carry a gun would be denied the right. The legislation became the
model for so-called "shall-issue" concealed weapon laws nationwide.

The licenses enable people to carry handguns -- hidden usually under
clothing or in a purse or briefcase -- in most public places.

"We need to send a strong message to criminals in the state of Florida
that the next time you rob someone or rape them or try to kill them,
that they very well may be armed, and they very well may be able to
protect themselves," former state Rep. Ron Johnson, a Panama City
Democrat and sponsor of the bill, argued on the House floor nearly 20
years ago.

At the time, counties had differing rules for who could or could not
get a license to carry a gun.

Under the 1987 law, the rules became uniform statewide. People who
wanted to carry a gun didn't need a reason other than basic self-
protection.

The numbers skyrocketed. Before the law took effect, 25 people in
Broward County had concealed weapon licenses. As of Dec. 31, there
were 35,884.

"That's an alarming increase," said Coral Springs Police Chief Duncan
Foster. "I don't view that as a positive trend. I view that as a
negative. The more guns on the street, the more prone people are to
violence."

During the same time, in Palm Beach County, the number of licenses
went from 1,400 to 28,478; and in Miami-Dade, from 2,200 to 42,521.
The numbers grew statewide from fewer than 25,000 to more than 410,000
today.

When the system changed in 1987, authors of the law promised that the
state would give gun licenses only to "law-abiding citizens."

It hasn't worked out that way.

The Sun-Sentinel found that people who violate the law do get -- and
at times keep -- licenses to carry guns. It happens because of
loopholes in the law, bureaucratic errors, poor communication with
cops and courts, and a loose suspension process.

As of July 1, the Legislature ended access to records of the licensees
without a court order. Lawmakers made the change after an Orlando
television station, in 2005, published the identities of Central
Florida licensees on the Internet, infuriating some who were named.

The Sun-Sentinel obtained the state's database of licensees twice,
once in March and again in late June, in 2006, before the new privacy
law took effect.

The records provide a last public look at who is sanctioned to carry a
gun in Florida.

And they are not all the "law-abiding" citizens the state promised.

One man, 22 arrests

Robert E. Rodriguez, a 71-year-old retired Tampa bar owner, was
arrested 22 times between 1960 and 1998, according to the Florida
Department of Law Enforcement.

In four cases, he pleaded guilty or no contest and received probation
or fines but judges "withheld" formal convictions: in 1982 for
trafficking 10,000 pounds of marijuana; in 1983 for aggravated
assault, and in 2000 for aggravated assault and for firing a weapon
into an unoccupied building.

As of late June, he had a valid license to carry a gun.

Numerous other states, including South Dakota, Texas and Maryland,
likely would not permit Rodriguez to carry a gun given his rap ***.

Rodriguez acknowledged that he has a long arrest record but told the
Sun-Sentinel: "I've never been convicted of anything."

Convicted felons cannot get gun licenses under state and federal law.

But a loophole in Florida law allows people charged with felonies to
obtain licenses to carry guns three years after they complete their
sentences so long as a judge "withholds adjudication."

In a sort of legal no man's land, the defendants plead guilty or no
contest. They serve probation, complete community service, obtain
counseling, pay fines or fulfill other requirements. When they
successfully complete the terms, they have no criminal record.

The break often is given to first- or second-time offenders in
instances in which the state's case is weak, and a plea deal appears
to be the best option for defendants without the money to mount a
strong defense, legal experts said. But it also has aided people
accused of violent felonies, sometimes repeatedly.

The Sun-Sentinel found more than 1,400 people, such as Rodriguez, with
gun licenses who had felony convictions "withheld" from their records.

"That's incredible," said state Sen. Gwen Margolis, D-Aventura. "I
just can't believe it. It's outrageous."

"We should not have loopholes for these things," said state Sen. Nan
Rich, D-Weston. "It's too dangerous. I think the Legislature should
look at that."

"If we need to plug up those holes, let's have that debate and let's
plug up those holes," said state Rep. Ellyn Bogdanoff, R-Fort
Lauderdale.

But Hammer, the NRA lobbyist, says the courts, not the gun law, should
change.

"What you're talking about is taking away the rights of people who
have not been convicted and punished for crimes because the court
decided to give them a pass," she said. "How can a state agency take
rights away from people when a court refuses to?"

Broward Chief Judge Dale Ross said the NRA's stance is inconsistent.

"The NRA is mad at judges because more people are able to own guns?"
he said. "I thought they were advocates of gun usage. They want less
people to have guns?"

The judge said he was unaware that Florida's gun law permitted people
who have had formal convictions withheld to later obtain licenses to
carry guns.

The Sun-Sentinel found ...

read more »

Isn't this just like the Liberals?

THEIR Bleeding Heart Liberal Judges FAIL to PUNISH criminals
adequitly, thereby PROVIDING the Loophole to Circumvent the Law, and
THEY BLAME THE NRA!

Why doen't this surprise me?

Rider

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