Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo and state Rep. Shevrin Jones have introduced virtually identical bills in their respective legislative bodies for consideration. The bills would make it a misdemeanor offense for a minor to publish a picture of a firearm on social media.
Known as SB 1310 and HB 1165 respectively, the bills provide that “A minor who posts or publishes a picture of a firearm, a BB gun, an air or a gas-operated gun, or a device displayed to resemble a firearm to a social media page, post, profile, or account that is openly viewable to the public commits a misdemeanor of the first degree.”
Minors who violate the proposed law could be subject to doing community service work. The community service would have to be performed “in a manner involving a hospital emergency room or other medical environment that deals on a regular basis with trauma patients and gunshot wounds.”
In addition, any firearm that is possessed or used by a minor in violation of the bill “shall be promptly seized by a law enforcement officer and disposed of” according to law.
Parents could face criminal liability under the proposed legislation too. A parent can be charged with a misdemeanor of the second degree if the parent fails to properly store a firearm and a minor posts a picture of that firearm to social media.
SEE ALSO: Teachers Should Be Armed, Trained Says Florida Commission
Parents may also “be required to participate in classes on parent education” for a child’s first offense. For a second or subsequent offense, parents could be required to attend additional “parent education classes or render community service hours together with their child.”
If either of these bills become law, children will be unable to post pictures of themselves on social media even if they lawfully possess a firearm with proper supervision from their parents. If you take your child to the shooting range and he posts a picture containing a gun on social media, the child could be charged and the gun in the picture could be seized by law enforcement. You could face the same result if your child posts pictures of your latest lawful hunting trip and the pictures contain a firearm.
This is classic overreaching by the anti-gun crowd. Not only does it criminalize constitutionally protected firearm possession, but it also includes a mechanism for indoctrinating minors into an anti-gun way of thinking by requiring community service activities focused on gun-related violence.
Those of us that cherish our 2A rights cannot stand silent while anti-gunners introduce legislation such as this. We must stand our ground and let our voices be heard both individually and collectively through our membership in pro-gun organizations.
Both bills were recently introduced and have been assigned to legislative committees for debate and further consideration. At the time of this article, no scheduling information was available on upcoming events related to the bills.
This looks like a flagrant violation of the 1st Amendment.
Illegal to post a photo of entirely legal objects and activities?
Really? Sounds like Democrats still using the Constitutions, state and federal, as toilet paper.
Because that’s what Democrats believe in.
More and more our Country is becoming a Country that is no longer free. Where do we get these ignorant people in our Government who take an oath to protect and preserve our United States Constitution which includes the Bill of Rights? Any person who is voted in to our Government who violates his or her oath of office should be immediately fired from their position in our Government and punished for their crime against the Citizens of the United States of America. Will anything like this ever happen? No it won’t because once you are in it’s like you are in a club or a gang and you can break any law that you want without fear of punishment.
I totally agree with you. The biggest organized crime syndicate is our government. Once your in anything goes. I so wish Trump could change this for us. Anyone getting caught violating our constitution should be charged with treason and executed.
can’t they find any better way to waste money
First – they have a first amendment protection for their freedom of speech. Second, a kid showing an paintball marker or BB gun is NOT displaying a “gun” since they are NOT firearms, so arrest would bring MASIVWE lawsuit. Quit trying to make snow flakes out of our kids. Bet these two moved down from some northern state.
Believe it or not but when my son was in grade school and followed the teacher’ instruction to draw an activity he like to do, he drew a picture of him shooting a rooster pheasant flying in front of him. When he turned it in, the teacher tore the gun out of the picture and told him there was a zero tolerance policy regarding guns. He was devastated.
Needless to say, I went directly to the School Superintendent regarding this who happened to be from an avid hunting family. The teacher called me the next day and said I should have discussed this with her directly. Hopefully she got an ear full from the Superintendent but I am sure in her mind, she did the right thing.
They need to organize and post 100k pics on Facebook.
The way this law would work is…….An AMERICAN MINOR’S use of his FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHT TO REFER TO AN OBJECT PROTECTED BY THE SECOND ADMENDMENT OF OUR CONSTITUTION IS NOW UNLAWFUL ? I don,t really think this LAW would hold up in court . Althought Minors don’t enjoy the right to vote , they are still entitled to most all other rights . This law plainly shows where the aurthor’s line of thought comes from , ANTI AMERICAN, ANTI GUN, ANTI FREEDOM OF SPEECH! WHAT about those minors who are avid hunters , collectors , target shooters who would like to show off their prized possessions ? KNIVES AND BOWS NEXT ?? What will be the NEXT “BOGIE-MAN ITEM to be useed to strike FEAR IN THE HEARTS OF THESE WEAK MINDED MORONS ? We already have laws that prohibit threats of violence..but those pertain to actual words and NOT RANDON IMAGES . SOME PEOPLE ARE AFFRAID OF THEIR OWN SHADOW BUT STILL GO OUT AT NIGHT ! IF they don’t want to see pictures of guns ….TURN OFF THE TELEVISION OR LOOK THE OTHER WAY ….BECAUSE THAT IS THE ONLY RIGHT YOU HAVE….NO RIGHTS OVER THE THOUGHTS AND FREE SPEECH OF OTHERS ! No doubt this issue will wind up in the Supreme Court where NINE PEOPLE WILL DECIDE WHATS GOOD FOR EVERYONE . It is time that LOWER COURT JUDGES WHO FRIVOLOUSLY RULE AGAINST THE CONSTITION OF THE UNITED STATES BE PERMANENTLY DISBARRED FROM LOCAL, STATE, OR FERDERAL JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS …FOR LIFE since they cannot be held LIABLE for VIOLATION OF INDIVIDUAL CIVIL RIGHTS BY WRONGFUL VERDICT. THIS LAW IS CLEARLY IN VIOLATION OF THE FIRST ADMENDMENT AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN THROWN OUT DIRECTLY REGARDLESS OF THE JUDGES” PERSONAL OPINION”.
well said
Money talks. Don’t hunt vacation or buy anything from Florida and let them know why you object to their anti freedom laws. I understand wild boars are plentiful in Florida and it hunters don’t help keep them under control taxes will be raised to pay for professional control. They already pay for professional snake control and I don’t think that is working out as well as they hoped for Yes I realise some farmers and fruit growers will suffer but remember a politician can always raise taxes to cover the losses that result from the politicians stupidity. Florida use to be a state nice state to visit but not anymore.
I’ve always said there will come a time when the sheer number of NA Z1 liberals moved to FL from the Northeast and would start this Anti-Freedom Anti-2nd Amendment lunacy….
Damn, does it also include pop tarts gnawed into the shape of a pistol?
This is a lead balloon because it is unconstitutional and a violation of the 1A and 2A. If they pass this law, it will not stand in a court challenge, specially in Federal court. They are counting on fear and lack of funds to mount a challenge from those affect but it could become class action law suit. It seems Pizzo and Jones have never read the US Constitution. Just another pair of would be little tyrants that were fascists in disguise until they became legislators. Lets have a couple of thousand post on social media and see the bureaucratic train wreck trying to enforce this nonsense just like California is not able to enforce state law to confiscate firearms from those deem as “unfit” to possess them (for any bureaucratic reason they up come with) without these owners not presenting any threat to the general public.
Are these some of the minors that Democrats want to allow to vote?
IF THEY ARE THAT STUPID THEN THEY SHOULD DO THE SAME WITH CARS, PEOPLE, ISIS/MUSLIM FLAGS, KORAN, MOSQUES, DEMOCRATS, CLINTONS, OSOMA OBAMA…
Because personhood does not begin until adulthood, teens are not people and therefore not afforded rights under the Bill of Rights?
Because rights afforded to “the people” in the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 9th and 10th amendments are collective rights, not individual rights?
Nope, Those don’t work because 1A does not recognize or establish a right to free speech. Instead, it bars Congress from interfering with that right, which the Constitution presumes to exist independently of any foundation in the Constitution. And the 14th Amendment extends that protection to interference by state legislatures: “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.”
It’s looks like a typical go nowhere bill designed to gin up the base. Let’s see the fundraising letters the sponsors write bragging about their wasted effort.
This is the height of lunacy. They refuse to admit that the existing gun laws are ineffective. The reason for that is because at present, gun laws only serve to harass legitimate gun owners and do nothing to curb gun violence. Apparently they haven’t received the memo that criminals don’t obey gun laws, or most any other laws. That’s why we refer to those people as “criminals”. If lawmakers targeted criminal behavior-the use of a gun to commit a crime, like a mandatory add-on sentence of 10 years (no parole), that might convince people not to criminally use a firearm. There is no need to harass legitimate gun owners. They are not and never have been a threat to society. And now they want to criminalize the posting of a picture of a gun on social media? They certainly are desperate.
OMG!
Can we please have another stupid new anti-gun law suggestion? We don’t have NEARLY enough.
We have a Junior Rifle program at our club. They go to Camp Perry and compete. So, FLA is saying they cannot show off their skills and awards? At the same time it is OK for them to post pics of their bodies, and broadcast their left leaning agenda after being brainwashed by their government employee teachers? The influx of retired liberals from left dominated states is swiftly taking over another Southern State. Trump needs to build a wall on the Mason-Dixon line too.
Go figure, both are Democrats!
Ban all Social-ist media VERY NOW !!!
Clearly the drafters hadn’t thought this through… That, OR they are deliberately looking for all-inclusive, far reaching laws against Gun – well, gun anything.
How could that be?, you ask. Why would they do that? you ask. CONFISCATION, Leading to stamping out Free Speech, leading to Illegal Search & Seizure & Heavy Punishment for simple infractions of Illegal Laws, Leading to ANY Expectation of Privacy In Person & In Deeds, Leading to Negating the 10th A, where the OVERSTEP or lapse of of Federal Law is supposed to give power to THE People, LEADING TO ONE WORLD ORDER (GLOBALISM) where a few World “Leaders”, Politicians, & EXCESSIVELY RICH people (Soros, Mercer, Bloomberg, Clinton, Obama, Styer, Et Al) and On & On, Ad Infinitim, LEADING TO A COMMUNIST CHINA, RUSSIA, SOCIALIST VENEZUELA… You know the History!
A little dramatic? Yes. A little excessive? Yes. But that’s how it happens – A Little Chip At The Constitution Here And There, over time, Leads to extremely Negative Changes. FACTOR World Conditions, AND the “NEW Direction” is Globalism, or another Ruinous Form Of Government that TOTALLY SUPRESSES Society.
OR We could just “nip it in the bud”, address each & every constitutional attack, each introduction of foreign law, each immigration, financial, economic, human rights, leadership lapse and infraction, & any and all stupid left Wing, DemoLib, Socialist attacks AS THEY COME! Edmond Burke was RIGHT: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”
Think About It!
Where’s the ACLU? Now the First Amendment doesn’t apply either!
Floriduh! Strikes again; utterly embarrassing.
It is now a crime to express yourself in America.
Wake up to the threat.
I can’t wait for the first selfie that is retweeted by everyone in a class with a cop in a classroom to land every one of them in this. It says nothing about the weapon being holstered. So even better, if some cop is walking in the background as they take a selfie at some amusement park. I mean, if you are going to make a law, you should enforce it right? The law is for everyone it is written for, not just gun owners. And social media isn’t very well described, does it include twitch and youtube? So if they are playing some video game and are streaming it, are they going to get picked up? It says device displayed to resemble a firearm, so I think that applies. If anti-gunners actually enforced all their own laws the way they are written, they would have a lot more interesting lives, most of them behind bars.
This proposed law is stupidity on the highest level, the people proposing it should be removed ( voted out of office ) ASAP.
No, not voted out… They want to infringe on rights? Then they don’t get a vote. They should be arrested and hung for treason. No due process necessary. That’s how they like it right?
These Democrats would want to make it illegal for parents to teach their kids responsibility in handling firearms. They are trying like hell to condition a future voter base.
And community service in an emergency room? Sure, they want to use trauma as means to push their anti gun agenda.. that’s not only cruel and unusual punishment, that’s fucking terrorism by definition.
This can not stand.
This has zero chance to pass in FL. Grandstanding by liberals.
SO if a kid posted a picture from a gun store showing numerous firearms would all the firearms shown in the photo be confiscated from that store?
Sounds like a clear violation of 1st Amendment rights to me. More over reach from abusive government officials.
With this proposal, they are not only crapping on the Second Amendment, but the First and the Fourth, as well. In one fell swoop, they would be shredding three basic Constitutional rights.
That’s their (communists) main idea !
Remove U.S. Constitution once and forever.
Entire Constitution – not just 2A …
Also, each Florida legislator takes the oath, “I do solemnly swear (or affirm] that I will support, protect, and defend the Constitution…”. By proposing these laws, they make their oath null and void, hence, they should be removed from office. The same applies to the federal level, as well.
I would say that is a violation of their right to free speech.
…so, a public picture of a student learning to safely use a firearm from a certified instructor could get someone in trouble? Fucking morons
So minors in FL eill now be stripped of their first amendment rights?
This will only stop when we make these seditious traitors pay with blood. Our forefathers would have long since been stacking bodies by this point. No more being civil. If all we ever do ia bitch about it amongst ourselves, and continue our pacifism, we will loose all trace of freedom this country once had.
As has been predicted, once the Second Amendment is attacked so will the First Amendment. This law will cost millions once the courts overturn it.
You assume that the one of the Establishment’s Ivy Leaguer-infested ‘courts’ will overturn it, but history has shown that US ‘courts’ are actually run by the enemy.
Something stupid this way comes, and not surprisingly, it is from Florida legislators again.
If it passes then they need to make fortnite and PUBG illegal to stream as well.
Simply astonishing. I’d like to say it has no chance.
They can’t post a picture, but they’ll be able to vote in elections? I’m sure they’ll be able to figure a way to make it cost millions as well.