GAYS AGAINST GUNS CALLS FOR FLORIDA MEMBERSHIP AFTER LATEST MASS SHOOTING
Gays Against Guns mourns the death of Sean Archilles, 14, and Stef'an Strawder, 18, (and the injury of a dozen more) at a mass shooting at a Ft. Myers, Florida, club hosting "teen night" last weekend--the fifth such mass shooting in that county in 10 months.
Our hearts are with the families and friends of these two victims who had their whole lives before them. But amid grief, Gays Against Guns calls out to the LGBTQ people of Florida to join and help power our newly formed chapter out of Orlando by emailing gagorlando@gmail.com.
Florida chapters of GAG are badly needed. Florida received an "F" rating on the 2015 Gun Law Scorecard and its governor, Rick Scott, is beloved by the NRA for passing a bushel of pro-gun laws in the state. Florida is the home of the notorious "Stand Your Ground" law that played a role in the 2012 shooting death of unarmed teen Trayvon Martin, as well as a dangerous 2015 law allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a license "during a state of emergency." It also doesn't require background checks on private gun sales and forbids doctors from discussing gun ownership with patients as a potential health risk.
Clearly the state is in the pocket of the NRA, making it a free-for-all gun climate ripe for tragic shootings like those in Orlando and Ft. Myers. GAG saw the recent sit-in in the lobby of the office of Sen. Marco Rubio protesting his NRA puppetry...we KNOW there is the angry queer energy in Florida to fight back hard against the state's gun-free-for-all legislative environment. GAG urges LGBTQ Floridians to reach out to gagorlando@gmail.com so it can start to NAME, SHAME AND BLAME Gov. Scott and incumbent Reps. Carlos Curbelo and John Mica for their NRA "A" rated gun lobby puppetry.
GAG Orlando will connect people writing from the same city (Miami, Jacksonville) so they can start their own chapters there. We want to help you do this. If you are reading this and not from Florida, please share this with LGBTQ friends there.
