NRA sues the state of Florida

Taking the saying “the best defense is a good offense” to an extreme, the NRA just sued the state of Florida after Governor Rick Scott
signed the first gun control legislation enacted in the state after the February 14th massacre at the Parkland school.

Florida’s new legislation changes the minimum age to purchase a firearm to 21 from 18, the same age it takes to purchase alcohol.
The NRA, which has become a behemoth organization, claims that the new law “punishes law-abiding gun owners for the criminal
acts of a deranged individual.” The suit claims that the new law is violative of Second and Fourteenth Amendments of the US
Constitution because it limits the purchase of guns by age. The NRA argues people who are 18 years old are considered adults
“for almost all purposes and certainly for the purposes of the exercise of fundamental constitutional rights.”

This suit goes into the “are you kidding me” category! While we can debate whether the framers of the Constitution ever considered
semi-automatic rifles that can kill dozens of teenagers in seconds (which is, in and of itself, a ridiculous debate!), where does the
Constitution place an age limitation on anything?

Is it not persuasive enough that, yet again, our own children were massacred when they should have been at the safest place to be
during the day? Did they not realize that the deranged killer was a 19-year-old child with a semi-automatic military-style rifle
who opened fire in the halls of a building that housed innocent 14 year olds?

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a defendant, said it best: “This bill is not perfect, and sadly it will not bring back the 17 lives
lost in the horrific school shooting, but the safety of our children is not a political issue, it’s simply the right thing to do,” she said.

And the law has motivated the amazing Stoneman Douglas students who saw bloodshed at their doors. “We are happy and ready to
keep working!!,” wrote junior Connor Dietrich.

What the NRA – and many in their camp – must understand is that this is not a political issue. Nor can this be the fault of only mentally
unstable children. Perhaps the NRA should stand down and recognize that anything to prevent bloodshed in our schools is beneficial
to our country.