81 RESOLUTION NO. -----
2
3 A Resolution of the City of South Miami calling for the Florida Legislature to
4 join other states in prohibiting the sale and possession of rapid fire and high
5 power "assault" weapons.
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7 WHEREAS, the drafters of the Second Amendment ("Amendment II") to the
8 United States Constitution never envisioned assault weapons when the right to bear anns
9 was first conceived; and
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11 WHEREAS, one of the principal goals of the United States Constitution set forth
12 in the preamble to the Constitution, is "to insure domestic Tranquility;" and
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14 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has held that longstanding
15 prohibitions and restrictions on firearms possession are consistent with the Second
16 Amendment notwithstanding the fact that the Second Amendment protects an individual's
1 7 right to possess a firearm, unconnected to service in a militia; and
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19 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court has further ruled that the Second
20 Amendment does not grant to the citizens of the United States the right to bear all arms
21 and that the states are authorized to limit the type of arms that a citizen is allowed to own.
22 See District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 128 S. Ct. 2783, 171 L. Ed. 2d
23 637 (2008). In Heller, while striking down several statutes in the District of Columbia
24 prohibiting the possession of handguns and requiring lawfully owned firearms to be kept
25 inoperable, the Supreme Court found that the Second Amendment only protects an
26 individual's right to possess firearms, at least for purposes of self-defense in the home. Id.
27 at 576, 636. The court made it clear that it was referring to those weapons "in common
28 use" and that the right did not extend to "those weapons not typically possessed by law-
29 abiding citizens for lawful purposes," [id. at 625, 627] and that "the right [is] not a right to
30 keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever
31 purpose" Id. at 626.
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33 WHEREAS, a ban on the ownership of machine guns has been held to be
34 constitutional. See United States v. One (1) Palmetto State Armory PA-15 Machinegun
35 Receiver/Frame, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 9050 (3d Cir. Pa. May 18,2016)
36
37 WHEREAS, legally acquired assault weapons were used by American citizens to
38 massacre innocent people in Columbine, Aurora, Newtown, San Bernadino, and now in
39 Orlando.
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41 WHEREAS, an assault weapon was recently used to kill and injure citizens of the
42 City of South Miami; and
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44 WHEREAS, the legal possession of assault weapons is a proven threat to law
45 enforcement and to the safety and tranquility of Florida's population as a whole; and
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47 WHEREAS, the federal government had an automatic weapons ban in force for
48 te~years until it expired in 2004; and
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WHEREAS, California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York have assault weapon bans in force at this time.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT. RESOLVED BY THE MAYOR AND CITY
COMMISSION OF THE CITY OF SOUTH MIAMI, FLORIDA, THAT:
Section 1. The City of South Miami, Florida, urges the Florida Legislature to
prohibit the sale and possession of assault weapons in the State of Florida. We further
request that all other municipalities and counties in Florida join us in letting the voices of
sanity and reason be heard and prevail in Tallahassee by prohibiting the possession and
sale of all assault weapons.
Section 2. The City Clerk is hereby directed to send a copy of this resolution
to the municipalities in Miami Dade County, members of the County Commission, the
Florida House, the Florida Senate, the Governor, and the Miami-Dade Congressional
Delegation.
Section 3. This resolution shall take effect immediately upon adoption.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this __ t_h day of _____ , 2016.
ATTEST:
CITY CLERK
READ AND APPROVED AS TO FORM,
LANGUAGE, LEGALITY,
AND EXECUTION THEREOF:
CITY ATTORNEY
Page 2 of2
APPROVED:
MAYOR
COMMISSION VOTE
Mayor Stoddard:
Vice Mayor Welsh:
Commissioner Edmond:
Commissioner Harris:
Commissioner Liebman:
Orlando shooting brings scrutiny to Florida gun control laws I Miami Herald 6/14/16,1:04 PM
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY JUNE 13,20168:44 PM
Orlando gunman's weapon of choice:
legal in Florida, banned in New York
HIGHLIGHTS .. ,,"'"''''''
Seven states ban the sale of semi-automatic rifles like the one that Omar
Mateen used
AR-15 also was covered by the expired federal "assault-weapons ban"
Clinton and Trump take opposite stands on gun control after the massacre
Ed Henson, owner of the Saint Lucie Shooting Center 01:49
f
< 1 of 2 >
Weapons purchased at the gun shop were used to massacre 49 people in an Orlando club
Sunday morning. The owner said the ATF confirmed the store was in compliance with gun
sales law and regulations. The owner spoke to the media on Mon., June 13, 2016. Charles
Trainor Jr. -ctrainor@miamiherald.com
BY DOUGLAS HANKS
dhanks@miamiherald.com
From a legal standpoint, Omar Mateen bought his deadliest
weapon at the right place and the right time.
Authorities believe the 29-year-old Florida resident and licensed
security guard shot most of his victims with an AR-15, a semi-
automatic rifle that he purchased legally in Port St. Lucie earlier in
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Orlando shooting brings scrutiny to Florida gun control laws I Miami Herald
the month.
New York, California, the District of Columbia and five other
states have laws banning the sale of that type of weapon. Eight
states and the District of Columbia also prohibit the sale of
ammunition magazines that can hold more than 10 bullets -a
crucial accessory for the sort of rapid -fire carnage that unfolded
early Sunday morning at the Pulse nightclub in downtown
Orlando.
"It's a minority of states that have these type of laws in place,"
said Ari Freilich, staff attorney for the Law Center to Prevent Gun
Violence in San Francisco. "The evidence is they do help."
f -<
Seddique Mateen, the father of the Pulse
nightclub shooter, says, "I don't forgive him"
Seddique Mateen, the father of Pulse nightclub shooter Omar Mateen, speaks
with the media from his home on Mon., June 13, 2016 about Sunday's
massacre.
Lance Dixon -ldixon@miamiherald.com
While Florida doesn't have barriers to purchasing the kind of
military-style rifle Mateen used, a short-lived federal law
regulating that kind of weapon could have complicated his
purchase. Enacted in 1994, the so-called "assault weapons ban"
targeted the same type of rifle Mateen purchased, and gun-control
advocates are using Sunday's massacre as a rallying call to revive
the law.
ONE OF THE MANY PROBLEMS WITH THE GUN CONTROL IS THAT
THE BAD GUYS WILL HAVE THE GUNS. THE GOOD GUYS WON'T.
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Orlando shooting brings scrutiny to Florida gun control laws I Miami Herald
Donald Trump
"Florida's doesn't regulate assault weapons, or 50-caliber rifles, or
large-capacity ammunition magazines," presumptive Democratic
nominee Hillary Clinton told CNN on Monday morning, rattling
off a string of protections she sees lacking in Florida's gun-control
laws. "Now, you know, that's a lot of nots. And I believe strongly
that common sense gun-safety reform across our country would
make a difference."
Her Republican rival, Donald Trump, characterized more gun laws
as hindering chances of preventing another Orlando massacre,
saying armed civilians could have saved lives by shooting back at
Mateen.
"If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place,
if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn't have had the
tragedy that you had," Trump said during his own CNN interview.
Later, he told radio host Howie Carr: "One of the many problems
with the gun control is that the bad guys will have the guns. The
good guys won't."
A day after Orlando became home to the deadliest mass shooting
in the nation's history, Florida's gun-control laws came under
national scrutiny amid a larger debate over whether legislation can
ever offer much protection against armed assailants.
Mateen underwent a federal background check to purchase the
AR-15 and a handgun at the St. Lucie Shooting Center, and was
cleared for a concealed-weapons permit by state regulators,
according to officials and media reports.
f -:::
Omar Mateen was last seen at his mosque
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Friday night
Islamic Center of Fort Pierce spokesman Adel Nefzi last saw Mateen at the
mosque Friday night. Omar Mateen killed 49 people in an Orlando club Sunday
moming ..
Charles Trainor Jr .. ctrainor@miamiherald.com
I BELIEVE STRONGLY THAT COMMON SENSE GUN-SAFETY REFORM
ACROSS OUR COUNTRY WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE
Hillary Clinton
"He was fingerprinted, he successfully cotr:J.pleted the application,
had a criminal background check," Florida Agriculture
Commissioner Adam Putnam said Monday. "There is nothing in
that record that would have disqualified this individual, who was a
u.s. citizen, who had a clean criminal record, who underwent a
background check and mental health screening, from receiving
those licenses."
Some notorious mass shootings have an AR-15 as their common
denominator: The rifle was used in the 2012 Sandy Hook
elementary school shooting, where 26 children and staff were
killed; in last year's San Bernardino shooting, where 14 were
killed; and in Aurora, Colorado where 12 were killed. New York
enacted its AR-15 ban in the wake of Sandy Hook, though
modifications to the rifles can allow sellers to evade the
restrictions.
Democrats point to stalled federal legislation that would ban the
sale of AR-15s nationwide. But experts note loopholes from the
last time Washington tried to clamp down on the sale of guns
capable of firing dozens of bullets in a minute's time.
Gary Kleck, a criminology professor at Florida State University,
said the federal ban, which expired in 2004, would not have
made much of a difference in Mateen's gun-shopping choices.
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f <
Victims remembered at makeshift memorial
A memorial on the lawn of the Seneff Art Plaza in downtown Orlando was
growing throughout the day on Monday, June 13, 2016, as people came to pay
their respects to the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Emily Michot. -emichot@miamiherald.com
''Although the AR-15 itself was banned, the shooter still would
have been able to buy an AR-1S-type rifle," Kleck wrote in an
email, "since copy-cat versions of the AR-15 continued to be
available for sale as long as they were not identical to the AR-15."
As a semi-automatic rifle, the AR-15 fires one bullet with every
pull of the trigger -a process that typically means 45 rounds of
ammunition per minute. Mateen's rampage has been blamed on
49 shooting deaths and roughly as many wounded victims, though
the circumstances of the killings have not been fully explained by
law-enforcement authorities.
Florida requires a three-day waiting period for purchasing
handguns, but not for so-called "long guns" like the AR-15 and
other rifles. State law also requires permits to conceal handguns,
but permits aren't needed for rifles like an AR-15.
"We have consistently ranked Florida at or near the very bottom
in terms of how easy it is for a dangerous person to gain access to
a firearm," said Brian Maite, national policy director for the Brady
Campaign and Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "The threshold
for permits is very low."
Miami Herald staff writer Amy Sherman contributed to this
report.
This post was updated to change the AR-1S's rate offire from
rounds per second to rounds per minute) which is the more typical
way to describe the weapon)
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