Florida closer to blue

John Morgan, the ambulance chasing personal injury attorney that made his fortune using his tagline “for the people,” has gathered signatures to put a constitutional amendment to the state constitution on the ballot. That amendment would raise Florida’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Since Disney has already taken this step, the biggest player in the state will likely back the measure in order to level the playing field.

Morgan appears to be making a play to run for public office in the future. You may remember that he was the force behind legalizing medical marijuana and decriminalizing recreational marijuana in the state.

A major hole

Nearly all assault weapons bans define assault weapons in terms of being semiautomatic. The proposed 2019 ban is no exception. It defines “assault weapon” like so:

The term `semiautomatic assault weapon’ means any of the
following, regardless of country of manufacture or caliber of
ammunition accepted:
            “(A) A semiautomatic rifle that has the capacity to accept
        a detachable magazine and any 1 of the following”

There is a huge hole that can be exploited.

Federal law defines semiautomatic rifle thusly:

 The term “semiautomatic rifle” means any repeating rifle which utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round, and which requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge. (emphasis added)

The same definition of semiautomatic applies to pistols and shotguns under that same AWB.

The weakness here is obvious. All you need to do is have something other than the energy of a firing cartridge eject and load the next, and the weapon is no longer subject to the AWB. It seems like Franklin Armory is trying to do just that

St Lucia

Here is an interesting article about crime in the island nation of St Lucia. The money quote:

Many people who are inclined to defend the tourism industry in St. Lucia may say things like “crime happens everywhere” or point to violent U.S. cities like Chicago.  But the fact is that St. Lucia as a country has a per capita murder rate in 2017 of over 33 homicides per 100,000 (up from around 20 per 100,000 in 2012) and around 24 homicides per 100,000 in 2018 whereas an admittedly deadly city like Chicago has a 2017 per capita homicide rate of around 24 per 100,000. The U.S. as a country has a per capita homicide rate of less than 5 per 100,000.

Breweries and the shutdown

Back on January 10, I had posted that breweries could not release any new brews during the government shutdown. It turns out that this is because the labels must be approved by ATF. The breweries, with the help of Alan Gura, have decided to sue ATF claiming that the restriction on new labels is a violation of the First Amendment rights of the brewery and stating that just because the government is shut down for lack of funding does not eliminate the rights of the citizens.

The complaint can be found here.

Bad Law

The family of Adrian Diaz, an 18 year old man, is pressing the state to prosecute people for not calling 911. It seems that the 18 year old illegally obtained alcohol, became heavily intoxicated, and went for a swim in a pond where he drowned. The man’s grandmother is blaming a witness who says that he saw Diaz lying in the grass near the pond, apparently drunk. No word on how much blame she places upon her grandson for illegally obtaining alcohol and getting drunk, nor is there word on the blame she places upon the “friend” who provided that alcohol.

State Representative Jon Cortes has filed House Bill 147, which will require bystanders render aid in an emergency. The text of that bill can be found here. If you read the text, I don’t think that this bill would have helped in Diaz’s case, but who knows how the state will look at it. This is a bad law.

Notwithstanding subsection (2), a person who is at the 16 scene of an emergency and who knows that another person is exposed to or has suffered serious bodily injury shall, to the extent that he or she can do so without causing danger or peril to oneself or others, provide reasonable assistance to the exposed or injured person. Reasonable assistance includes contacting, obtaining, or attempting to contact or obtain aid from law enforcement or medical personnel. For purposes of this subsection, the term “serious bodily injury” has the same meaning as provided in s. 790.155. A person who violates this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

What is reasonable? It says it includes calling for aid, but note that it does not say ONLY calling for aid. I am a paramedic. Will it be reasonable for me to render medical assistance? Do they really intend on making it a requirement to call 911 every time I see a drunk? I don’t like this at all.