Florida Lawmaker Tries to Rationalize Her Mandatory Car Storage Bill

The state of Florida has sometimes been called “The Gunshine State.” It’s a pretty pro-gun state, all things considered, with a strong and active group of gun rights advocates fighting to not just fend off gun control, but to restore rights that were previously stripped from citizens.

But they also have way too many laws that did the stripping, and not all of them in ancient history.

Gains have been made, but not like they should be in a state with a GOP supermajority. Still, they’ve made a little bit of headway in the legislature and more headway in the courts.

Despite that, one lawmaker there is trying to rationalize why the state needs a mandatory vehicle storage law.

State Sen. Lori Berman (D-Boca Raton) says there have been tragic incidents involving children who’ve gotten their hands on a gun in a vehicle and shot someone.

The bill, she says, would also reduce the number of incidents where a criminal can break into a car and steal a gun.

“The bill basically says that if you’re going to have a gun or ammunition in your car, that it needs to be kept in a place where it’s locked, so that can be in a lock box, that can be in your trunk, that can be in your glove compartment, or anywhere where people can’t get immediate access to it,” Sen. Berman said.

In other words, it needs to be somewhere you won’t have immediate access to it.

Realistically, no one is going to keep switching a gun from the glove box to the center console or wherever they plan on keeping it for access. They’ll put it there and leave it, figuring that it’s the only rational response.

However, let’s understand that people who leave guns unsecured in a vehicle with children are someone who is probably not going to pay much attention to the law in the first place. They figure they’ll be in and out pretty quickly and that nothing will happen. They’ll figure their kids won’t go plundering around the car. They figure a lot of things that they only realize are wrong after the fact.

As for break-ins and stealing guns, let’s keep in mind that most of these vehicular burglaries happen near gun-free zones. People are leaving guns in their cars because they can’t take them into certain places.

Remove that, and remove the possibilty of those guns being stolen. It’s as simple as that.

And don’t start on the glove box thing. Those aren’t particularly secure. It’ll keep kids from messing with a gun, sure, but a thief? They often try to get into the glove box, especially if it’s locked, because they figure that’s where anything valuable will be.

When that becomes common via the media’s reporting, which they will most definitely report and report loudly, that’ll be taken off the table. Then, gun owners would be forced to buy a vehicle lock box just to transport their guns, which increases the cost of gun ownership to the point that many won’t even consider it.

So no, I’m sorry, this is nonsense. Berman can make all the cries she wants, but this is nothing but another infringement on the right to keep and bear arms. Her claims are nothing but her trying to rationalize it as something else, and no one is buying it.

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