Uh Oh! Spaghetti Os! I think Lee Williams and Marion Hammer triggered the Streisand Effect last week when attacked me for taking Cord Boyd to task.

Dan Zimmerman over at TTAG wrote a great piece showing corruption.

Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson Illustrates the Problem With the Slow Progress of Gun Rights in The Sunshine State



In the upcoming November, 2022 elections, Floridians will be stuck between a rock and a hard place. Florida’s current Republican Senate President, Senator Wilton Simpson has officially entered the race for Commissioner of Agriculture & Consumer Services. In the Sunshine State, that’s the office that runs the state’s concealed weapons permit program.

The seat is currently held by Democrat Nikki Fried, who is no friend of gun rights or law-abiding citizens carrying firearms. See here, here and here for examples.

Why is Simpson’s candidacy problem? Because Wilton Simpson is also the senator who authored the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act (SB 7026), otherwise known as the Parkland gun control and “red flag” bill.

So Florida is likely to go from someone in the Ag Commissioner spot who’s an avowed opponent of gun rights to one who poses as a friend, but authored the worst gun control legislation to become law in the state in the last decade.

Senator Simpson doesn’t bother to hide the fact that he authored the Parkland gun control bill, either. In fact he proudly displays it on campaign mailers (though he’s very selective about the parts of the bill he talks about).



Simpson’s candidacy surprised no one in the state and he’s the favorite to win the seat. Fried announced that she’s running for governor in 2022, challenging Ron DeSantis. That will leave the Agriculture Commissioner job open.

Simpson got a big boost in his candidacy for the Ag Commissioner job when he secured the endorsement from former President and Florida resident Donald Trump.

“I hope he runs for Florida Agriculture Commissioner in 2022 — he will have my Complete and Total Endorsement!” Trump wrote. “Wilton has been a great supporter and worked hard to get many good Conservatives elected in Florida.”

While Florida’s farmers might benefit with Simpson in the Ag chair instead of Fried, Florida’s gun owners aren’t likely to. Back in 2018, then-President Trump congratulated Florida’s Republicans on their passage of Simpson’s gun control bill.

But wait…there’s more.

The gun control-supporting Senator Simpson is now working hard to persuade Pasco County gun owners that he’s really a big gun rights supporter…with the NRA’s help. The East Pasco Friends of the NRA have accepted a $5,000 donation from him for their event tomorrow.



Former NRA president and current Unified Sportsmen of Florida executive director Marion Hammer is pitching in, too. In recent communication under NRA-ILA heading, she called Senator Simpson one of the “true ‘Second Amendment Heroes’ of the 2021 Legislative Session.”



Hammer and the state Republicans celebrated the three gun rights bills they passed (and the anti-gun bills they defeated) in a legislature that is controlled by a GOP super-majority. Nothing passes — or fails to be considered — without their say-so.

Never mind the fact that the NRA is currently suing the State of Florida because of the same bill Senator Simpson authored. That bill, among other things, ended sales of firearms to adults under 21 years of age. Why is the NRA suing Florida over a gun control law on one hand and supporting the law’s author with the other?

Money and power.

The current chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, Senator Joe Gruters, made clear how all of this works after it was revealed that the Publix Supermarket chain resumed donating to Republicans after they announced that they’d stop donating to all politicians following the Parkland shooting.

Publix’s political contributions had resulted in protests inside some of their stores by anti-gunners looking to capitalize on the mass shooting and shame Publix into pulling its money from pro-gun politicians.

Gratified by the resumption of cash, Gruters declared Publix’s decision to resume the contributions a smart one . . .

“You can’t sit on the sidelines and think you’re going to be able to accomplish your legislative goals at the end of the year.”

Senator Gruters and Rep. Cord Byrd are counted among the “true Second Amendment Heroes” by Hammer and the NRA. Maybe that’s why TTAG contributor and the GOA’s Florida Director Luis Valdes was attacked by those with whom Hammer has influence when Valdes drew attention to what’s been going on in the state’s Republican-controlled legislature with regard to constitutional carry (and Rep. Byrd’s role in bottling it up).

What we have here are avid and skilled practitioners of the world’s second oldest profession — lawmakers using access-based lobbying as a tool to cultivate and control the way gun rights are “managed” in Florida’s GOP supermajority-controlled legislature. The NRA and USF provide cover for anti-gun Republicans who author gun control legislation and go on to kill pro-gun bills such as constitutional carry. In return they get support and donations.

Friends of the NRA events are “grassroots” campaign funding events. That’s where the local level members donate their hard-earned dollars to the NRA on the belief that the money will go to defend and extend their gun rights in the state.



The NRA and these politicians count on the average gun owner thinking that having an (R) after heir name along with NRA backing automatically means the legislator or candidate supports gun rights. That clearly isn’t always the case.

The end result is a shady relationship whereby each side benefits financially through donations to one another and in the end, little or nothing happens in the legislature to further the cause of Second Amendment freedom (think open carry and constitutional carry). And sometimes, those freedoms are even rolled back, as they were to resounding applause in 2018.

Wat?

Oooh, it keeps getting better.

No mention of who is opposing him in a primary, or even from the Dem side.  Lesser of two evils may be a really tricky choice with this slimeball as one of the choices.

This lessor of two evils business has to stop.  A person either deserves your vote or they don't.  Frankly, I'd rather have a democrat that I know is anti gun, then a Republican who claims to be pro-gun that really isn't.  Liars are scum.

@miami_jbt any thought on Diaz Ballart after this latest vote?

He's been flipped by Giffords a while back. He voted in support of UBC.

Many here said we had to support Rick Scott even though he is a anti-gun shitbag because he was "better" than Bill Nelson and that having Rick Scott in the Senate would help Trump (another anti-gun guy) do things.

Looks like I'm seriously considering not voting in that race than.

Some digging information is on the slate now ...

FWS... He's an asshat RINO.

If Simpson gets kicked to the side to be Ag Commissioner (where he can't do much damage), who's lined up to be the next Senate President?  Someone better?  Worse?  Or to be determined?

Here in Texas, Constitution Carry was stymied for a number of years by weak leadership from various Speakers of the House.  Till this session, when we now have a great pro-gun Speaker, who helped push through CC and a host of other gun rights bills.

Sometimes all it takes is to swap out one person and things start breaking your way.  

I would still recommend the path of Open Carry then Campus Carry then CC.  Open carry should be the easiest to get done, and get some good gun rights wins in Florida.  Then build on that later with campus carry.  Texas can be a good guide for what will happen - and it won't be the Sky is Falling!!! doom and gloom hysteria that the gun grabbers will claim.

Simpson vs whatever dem in the Ag office overseeing CCW.

Simpson will win due to his background as a farmer. Nikki will be gone but she didn’t do much damage.

The new presidents of the house and senate will determine our course. DeSantis isn’t going to stick his neck out for us

Sorry friend, open carry in FL is a damned sure no-go for the foreseeable future.
We had people in Miami Beach open carry while pier fishing which is perfectly legal, get arrested by Miami Beach cops.
FL and its Legislature is controlled by the tourism industry and disney. Actually more like a stranglehold.
You think they would allow their cash cow to disappear because of "some hick inbred gun nuts" who want to open carry big scary guns and frighten the stupid snowflake tourists away?
If anything that might get to squeak by, would be constitutional carry, and even that is nowhere near certain either.
Even with a republican controlled .gov, it does not look good for Florida AT ALL.

46 States have Open Carry and folks from those 46 states visit Florida. I'm in the process of having those 46 other states put pressure on the Governor and Legislature by basically saying "Well, TX has Open Carry and Constitutional Carry. Plus theme parks, beaches, canyons, etc... we're taking our vacation money there because they respect the 2A. K, thnx, bye!"

From your lips, to God's ears, Luis.
That is good to know.
I so fucking hope it happens.

Cord Byrd is running again. He originally wanted to run for the open senate seat in LERP (Jacksonville) but when the RPOF leadership endorsed his rival even after he did their bidding. He suddenly had to file for reelection instead for his current seat.

Right now, through coordination with other like minded folks. We have a few of the leadership on record backing Constitutional Carry. This is a long fight. But we will win. Now since we have them on record, we can hold them accountable.

If you don't recall, the anti-gun/you must all be victims crew tried this with the stand your ground law, with the (still continuing) help of the media. I still remember they put up billboards trying to warn people away from the state over SYG.

There is hope; because the other side is wrong - what they want directly causes people to be victims.

I was one of those, and I was 100% right.  

Rick Scott in the Senate is a massive improvement over Nelson, and is making it much harden for Biden to get stuff passed.  It also makes it easier to flip the Senate in 2022.  

The Dems will spend a lot of money in 2024 to unseat Scott.  They will fail, unless a lot of loser so-called conservatives "vote against Scott to teach him a lesson".  But the state is trending red, so I think he wins easily.  He will however, cause the Dems to spend a ton of $$$$ here, which won't get spend elsewhere, which increases the GOP chances of flipping other Senate seats.

Control of the Senate will be critical in 2024 to confirm (hopefully) President DeSantis' nominees.

I wish some of you guys would spend as much time trying to defeat Dems as you do criticizing Republicans....

Agreed.  Term limits, redistricting, and political refugees moving here all works in our favor.  We will probably have CC and OC by the end of this decade.

I wish you'd spend as much time putting anti-gun politicians in their place instead of kiss their butt.

Agreed. Florida is a mess for gun rights. With everything you stated and all the Yankees moving to FL every day it’s only going to be downhill from here.

Time to take advantage of the hot housing market and leave.

If you think having Bill Nelson in the Senate instead of Rick Scott helps the RKBA, you are nuts.

Having both suck... but rewarding Scott after betraying gun owners sends a loud message to the RPOF that gun control is fine as long as the RPOF pushes it.

It is foolish to look at is as "rewarding Scott".  You need to look at the big picture.  Thankfully enough conservatives voted for Scott and enough moderates voted for DeSantis.  So both won because the wings of the party were not fighting.  The conservatives and moderates decided to fight each other in Virginia, and look at the mess over the last decade there.  Maybe Youngkin can dig them out of that hole.  We will know in a couple of days.

I'm not worried about gun rights here in Florida.  The state is trending conservative, big time.  Trump won by 100,000 in 2016 and 400,000 in 2020.  And there will be more registered Republicans here than Dems by the 2022 midterms if the current trend continues.  That, coupled with the influx of conservative political refugees, redistricting, and a 6-1 majority on the state supreme court (thanks DeSantis) puts us in a great position.

The achilles heel is the ballot initiative that allows the constitution to be changed with only 60% of the vote.  A strong case can be made for fixing that before open carry, constitutional carry, etc.

"Big picture" at the federal level is this: basically we are in a post-Constitutional nation where the Executive wields tremendous power with *some* checks from the judicial branch.  The legislature is pretty useless except for the Senate, which is necessary to confirm executive nominees and judicial nominees.

Barring a once-in-a-century political upheaval, we are looking at anywhere from a 48R-52D Senate to 55R-45D Senate in 2024.  The more Republicans in the Senate, the better chance there is to confirm the nominees of a Republican president.  Rick Scott and Mark Rubio are important pieces to that puzzle, and they voted for 99% of Trump's nominees.  And by having them in the Senate forces the Dems to spend $$$$$$ to try to defeat them.  By spending resources here in Florida, they have less in other states, which increases the odds of conservatives winning those Senate seats.

So when the next compromise on our 2A issues happen under Republicans like Rick Scott and Marco Rubio. What will be your statement then? Thank God it wasn't the Democrats?

You keep having faith in the RPOF is why we're where we are at. Again, Republican Supermajority and we don't even have permitted open carry. Our entire leadership is either dead silent for 2A issues or openly against it.

Republican does not equal pro-gun.

It was Republicans in NY that passed gun control. Same in California.

You chicken littles have been predicting imminent subjugation of our rights for years.  It hasn't happened.  McConnel was going to "screw us" after Parkland.  The "red flag" stuff that passed in Florida would be a model for other states, etc...

Quite the contrary, we have made substantial progress in the last quarter century, and will probably get a big win next year at the Supreme Court.

Should we ALL work to ensure strong pro-RKBA candidates run and win?  Yes.  

Should we work to make sure these Republicans are not lying just to get elected?  Yes

Should we vote for a Republican who isn't so great on the RKBA instead of a Dem?  Yes since that helps with redistricting, and many other things such as giving strong pro-RKBA Republicans a better voice in the Senate and House.

And go where? You don't think South Carolina will flip at some point? Look at what happened to Arizona, Colorado and Virginia (pre-Tuesday).  There's nowhere to hide.  Liberalism is a huge cancer that spreads from its infected organs in San Francisco, D.C. and New York City, and eventually kills the whole host.

Miami ...

you're doing it again ...

You guys are insufferable.  Folks here have bitched about how Florida was "going blue" for 20 years.  Yet voter registration here is now majority GOP for the first time ever.  I think the Dems were up by 250K just a few years ago.  

The state is getting MORE conservative not less.

If the GOP margins from Tuesday were applied to the 2022 midterms, the GOP would win 50 House seats and 5 Senate seats (including Arizona and Colorado).  And that is not including redistricting gains, from the same RINOs you guys hate on, which is conservatively estimated to be 5 seats.

You clowns hate Rick Scott.  You hate Rubio.  You want to primary them.  You want to primary this GOP politician.  You want to primary that GOP politician.    

Yet I rarely see a thread about how important it is to defeat a Democrat in Florida, or how much they suck.  Why is that?

It is all "woe is me, the sky is falling"

Conservative does not equal pro-gun/freedom.

The worst people were the ones that tried to "teach Scott a lesson" during his tight Governor race, idiots. If he would of lost then Miami-Dade elections office would of went unchecked...boxes of late ballots would of been the norm every election afterwards.

LOL... I wasn't Miami Dade, it was Broward. And Rick Scott never removed the Supervisor of Elections, even though she had a history of ballot tampering. It was Ron DeSantis that removed her.