Trying to fix what they call a glitch in a state gun law that went into effect in October, two Delray Beach Democrats are pushing a measure that would make it illegal to bring firearms into child care centers and public buildings.

Sen. Maria Sachs and Rep. Lori Berman filed bills that would change a new law approved by the legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott that went into effect in October. The new law, which includes civil penalties and removal from office for local officials who ignore it, forced state agencies, municipalities and counties such as Palm Beach to scrap hundreds of measures dealing with guns.

After the law went into effect, state police were also forced to reverse their policy and allow firearms to be brought into the Capitol although weapons are still barred from legislative committee meetings. The same law applies to local government meetings – guns are permitted in the building but not where officials are publicly gathered.

“The same rule should apply to the building where the meeting is taking place,” Berman said.

Under the new law, people are allowed to bring guns into child care centers but are still barred from bringing them into public schools or college and university campuses.

“If you’re not allowed to carry a gun into a school where children are five years old, I’m sure the law should extend to those who are four, or three or two,” Sachs, a former prosecutor, said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The Palm Beach County Commission, which unanimously voted to support the bills (SB 1340, HB 1087), last month filed a lawsuit against Scott and others over the law, arguing that it is unconstitutional and that the sanctions “are simply a form of political bullying that serves no governmental purpose” and have a “chilling effect.”

Commissioner Shelley Vana, a former state representative, stood beside Berman and Sachs at a press conference announcing the proposals this morning.

She said their effort will make Floridians, especially children, safer and called it “another major step in rectifying a tremendous wrong and helping local governments keep their citizens safe.”

The measures are unlikely to gain traction in the GOP-dominated legislature, especially in an election year. The National Rifle Association pushed the new law last year.

But Sachs said the issue is one of public safety, not partisanship.

“I know Palm Beach is a pretty progressive county…but I know that every other county will follow us,” she said.

The Florida Medical Association will represent doctors in administrative complaints involving a new law that limits what health care providers can ask patients about gun ownership.

But the association’s House of Delegates also voted late last month not to join a lawsuit challenging whether the new law is a violation of doctors’ freedom of speech.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and several doctors’ groups, including the Florida chapters of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Practitioners and the American College of Physicians, filed the lawsuit in June against Gov. Rick Scott and his administration seeking an injunction against what they call the “Physician Gag Law,” already in effect. The groups, later joined by the Palm Beach County Medical Society and the ACLU, also want a federal judge to strike down the law as unconstitutional.

Under the law, doctors and other health care professionals will face sanctions including fines and losing their licenses if they ask patients about guns in the home without a direct belief that the inquiry is relevant to the patient’s safety or health. Pediatricians say the law keeps them from doing their jobs.

FMA general counsel Jeff Scott said the FMA’s House of Delegates rejected a proposal to join the lawsuit but later agreed to a substitute resolution calling for the FMA to help out doctors facing complaints related to the new law.

“We made kind of a policy statement that the doctor-patient relationship is important and to guide us going forward,” Scott said.

National Rifle Association lobbyist Marion Hammer, who pushed the legislation passed this session, worked with the FMA and eased off sanctions in an early proposal that would have slapped doctors with up to $5,000 fines and prison time for probing into patients’ gun ownership. Florida is the first state to pass such a law, Hammer said.

Under the amendment approved by the delegates late in July, the FMA will “legally support, to the greatest degree possible, any FMA member subject to disciplinary action based on enforcement of the Florida gun law … if the affected physician was acting based on the medical necessity and safety of the patient or others.” The organization will also be required to “actively oppose an attempt to restrict physician questions to patients or require questions of patients.”

Scott said he doesn’t think the resolution will be an issue because he doesn’t anticipate doctors breaking the law or patient complaints.

“I don’t think this will come into play,” he said.

The Florida ACLU and Palm Beach County Medical Society are among a half-dozen organizations that Tuesday sought to join a lawsuit aimed at stopping a new state law restricting health care professionals from asking patients about firearms in their homes.

“The government is trying to play referee on conversations by ruling some topics out of bounds while other subjects or speakers are allowed,” said Howard Simon, the state ACLU’s executive director. “That’s why we have a Constitution – to make sure the government can’t use the power of law to restrict speech – especially on politically sensitive speech such as guns and ammunition.”

Under the law, doctors and other health care professionals will face sanctions including fines and losing their licenses if they ask patients about guns in the home without a direct belief that the inquiry is relevant to the patient’s safety or health. Pediatricians say the law keeps them from doing their jobs.

The National Rifle Association spearheaded the push for the legislation’s passage last spring. Supporters said the measure (HB 155) was designed to stop doctors from giving patients anti-gun lectures.

The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and three physician organizations sued the state in Miami federal court last month to block the law. Also looking to join the suit Tuesday are the University of Miami School of Law Children and Youth Clinic, Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty, Inc., the Early Childhood Initiative Foundation, Broward County Medical Association and the  Broward County Pediatric Society.

With NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer sitting in the front row of the public gallery, the Florida Senate easily approved three bills loosening gun laws, including a measure banning doctors from asking their patients about gun ownership.

Two other measures are now headed to Gov. Rick Scott, an NRA member and gun owner who has said he would sign them into law.

The “open carry” bill (HB 45), watered down yesterday, would protect concealed weapons permit owners from being prosecuted if their guns are accidentally exposed. Proponents of the measure say that current law could subject the inadvertent display of weapons to being charged with a felony.

The third (HB 155) would punish local officials with a fine for passing gun laws stricter than the state’s, already prohibited under state law.

Law enforcement officials opposed the open carry bill, saying it would make their jobs more dangerous.

And barring health care providers from asking safety questions about the presence of weapons in the household could endanger the lives of children and have a chilling effect on the doctor-patient relationship, pediatricians have argued.

Firearm injury is the leading cause of death for children and teens, said Senate Democratic Leader Nan Rich of Weston.

“Adolescents know about firearms. Children know about firearms and they know where they are. This Republican Party is a party of less government and this is the party that brings us more government intrusion that encroaches into the privacy of a doctor’s office and the doctor-patient relationship,” she said.

But Sen. Alan Hays, a retired dentist, said “it’s none of my business what kind of weapons if any” patients have in their homes.

“If it’s medically necessary you may inquire but otherwise stay out of the private business of your patient,” said Hays, R-Umatilla. The bill passed by a 27-10 vote.

Doctors would still be allowed to ask patients about guns under a compromise measure backed by the Florida Medical Association and the National Rifle Association.

The Senate Health Regulation Committee voted 8-4 to in favor of the measure (SB 432) that would allow health care providers to ask about gun ownership if they believe “this information is relevant to the patient’s medical care or safety.”

But opponents – including Sen. Mike Bennett, a Vietnam veteran – said the proposal doesn’t go far enough to protect the family members of the patients, especially in light of a growing number of veterans returning home from overseas wars with with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

“If you’re a product of it, you understand,” Bennett, R-Bradenton, said. “I’m just concerned about the wife at home the kids at home because I’ve been there, done that. I’m worried about the vet coming home with PTSD, the increases in domestic violence.”

Legislation allowing concealed weapons holders to openly carry their firearms sailed through a House panel Tuesday — nudged along by its sponsor, House Speaker-in-waiting, Chris Dorworth, R-Lake Mary.

The 10-3 vote in the Criminal Justice subcommittee came despite opposition from law enforcement, which also has been urging the Senate to shelve a similar measure, a favorite of the National Rifle Association and its state affiliate, Unified Sportsmen of Florida.

Hillsborough County sheriff’s officials Tuesday warned that allowing Floridians to openly wear a holstered sidearm would add a new level of uncertainty to many crime scenes. They said it might be tough for officers to separate the bad guys from a gun-toting civilian.

“In our business, the difference between living and dying on the job often is one moment of hesitation,” said Major Thomas Feeney.

Florida retailers and car dealers also are arguing against the legislation, saying they fear pistol-packing clients coming into their businesses.

Dorworth and supporters, though, say the legislation (HB 517) merely cuts some slack for permit-holders. It’s now possible, backers say, for those authorized to carry a weapon to be cited if the wind blows a jacket or shirt aside to expose their firearm.

Dorworth, like Senate sponsor, Sen. Greg Evers, R-Baker, has stripped from the bill a provision that would’ve allowed open-carry on college campuses. Supporters backed off following pleas from many campus police departments and the emotional testimony of the father of an Florida State University student accidently shot dead in January by another student.

The money gun owners pay to the state to process their concealed weapons permit applications won’t be used for anything else no matter how bad Florida’s budget crisis gets, thanks to GOP lawmakers and Gov. Charlie Crist who signed the bill (SB 1158) into law today as promised.

The concealed weapons trust fund is now the fifth of the state’s 400-plus similar funds that are off limits to legislators who grabbed $500 million from them last year to fill a $2.3 billion budget gap. Like the concealed weapons trust fund, money for the trust funds comes from fees related to their specific purpose.

Of all the trust fund raids that the legislature attempted last year, the $6 million raid on the gun permit fund was the only one Crist singled out for a veto.

Stopping the gun permit fund raid was one of NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer‘s election-year priorities this session. The Senate passed out the measure on the second of session.

Some Democrats complained that the money from the trust fund should be available like others to help cover critical health and human service needs for Floridians.

The tussle between a gun shop-owning senator and the former president of the National Rifle Association is heating up over a controversial driver license handbook.

And the prospect looks bleaker every day for the vendor who prints the driver license handbook for free in return for the exclusive ability to advertise his “National Safety Commission” driver education courses.

First, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles chief Julie Jones canceled Ken Underwood’s controversial contract with the state effective at the end of the year.

Then an effort by a seemingly unwitting Sen. Carey Baker that would have given Underwood a leg up on a new contract went nowhere after a senate committee balked at the proposal, saying it appeared to be aimed at rescuing the sole source vendor.

Enter ultra-powerful NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer.

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