Gov. Rick Scott was in our region last week when he visited the Honeywell Aerospace plant in Largo to promote proposed tax cuts for manufacturing plants and to bask in any new Honeywell orders that might have come in the last two years. Another day at the self-serving office.
But non-fawning media got off message and asked him about Florida’s gun laws. In response, Scott allowed that it would be proper to look at such laws during the upcoming legislative session. But, no, we shouldn’t expect any specific recommendations or a “call to action” for reform, explained his press secretary.
But there was an insightful reference by Scott in acknowledging support for a broad legislative review of this state’s gun laws. His motivation: the tourist economy. Imagine if visitors didn’t “feel safe” in the Gunshine State? This wasn’t just a matter of life and death–but a matter of dollars and cents. Now we’re talking.
Maybe there’s actually an upside, however perverse, to no limits on the number of guns a person can buy at one time in this state. Maybe there’s also an ironic upside to more than a million concealed-carry permits–as well as “Stand Your Ground” veneration.
Indeed, Second Amendment perversion and a heat-packing culture could wind up costing Florida business. So, yes, there’s hope on gun policy, however crassly motivated.