An NPR story this morning quoted the killer's gun shop as having waited the "five-day waiting period" for his AR-15's purchase, so something does agree here. Either Florida does have a longer period, or perhaps a local ordnance, or maybe just this shop's policy.
The
Florida law does not require a waiting period for long guns but it contains the following statement:
Individual counties, cities and municipalities have the ability to pass laws that add or lengthen the waiting period for any type of firearm. Please consult your local County Commission for more detailed information.
Based on that, I did a little looking- knowing that Broward County is very progressive on issues, and I found the
Broward statute that requires a 5 day waiting period on gun purchases:
§ 18-96. Waiting period; prohibition
There shall be a mandatory five-day waiting period, which shall be five days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, in connection with the sale of firearms occurring within Broward County when the sale is a transfer of money or other valuable consideration, and any part of the sale transaction is conducted on property to which the public
The gun was purchased at a local gun store in Coral Springs in Broward County. According to the gun store owner's attorney, they did follow all laws- Cruz passed a background check, the store followed the County's 5 day waiting period, they sold him only the magazine that came with the gun. Cruz said "no" to the questions about mental illness. Cruz had been expelled 3 days before he purchased the gun on 11-Feb-2017 . He had been undergoing psychological treatment at a local mental heath center, however there was nothing on his background check that would have prevented the purchase, in spite of his history of mental illness and his multiple interactions with local law enforcement.
In all likelihood, Governor Rick "The Cryptkeeper" Scott and Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi can be expected to blame everyone
except the State of Florida and their lax gun laws. It's their usual pattern.
cityboy-stl said:
What I don't understand is why you and Kara seem to contradict that republicans whole-heartedly support the NRA cause. That is why the NRA is able to pay off people like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and the like.
Not exactly. My point is that the problem that we have with politics and money is not a matter of one party accepting money from noble donors and the other party accepting money from unethical donors.
The problem is the money, regardless of who is on the take.
There's nothing noble about the big fund of millions of dollars that Paul Ryan, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell or Chuck Schumer uses to buy off members of their party. That money is not coming from nuns and widows; they all have big corporate donors and billionaires who are buying influence. The NRA is just one of the players and they find that their money gets them more when they give it to Republicans.
There's been allegations that about 60-70% of a US Congressperson's time is spent on fundraising:
