Florida is an interesting state. We are a playground for the rich and famous and also the people that think they are rich and want to be famous. We also have a lot of poor and homeless. The differences of the haves and the have-nots are astounding. Also there is a huge gap in ages and that may be were a lot of Florida’s problems lie. We have a lot of old retires that live here that do not have the emotional ties. They will tell you that they are from Michigan or Indiana or Wisconsin plus almost all the other northern states. I come right out and say that I am from Wisconsin because that is where I grew up and worked and retired from. That is the place where a piece of my heart will always be. We all look at Florida and want a piece of it to be like back home. That also creates a large group of people that are not working for what is best for Florida because they do not have a big emotional stake in the success of the state. We are here just to escape the cold. Also the elderly are easy to scare and prey on.

We come down here with our northern politics thinking that a Republican in Wisconsin is the same as a Republican in the south. In reality they came from two actually different directions. My father was a faithful Wisconsin Republican so I grew up in a household that was not very racist and was in favor of civil rights. The Republican Party was born in Wisconsin as the anti slavery party so that would make sense. Most of the south was largely Democratic and very much opposed to desegregation and civil rights. These were the people that were beating the marchers at the bloddy bridge in Selma. When Johnson signed the civil rights bill in the 60s there was a mass exodus of white southern voters from the Democratic Party. The North did not see that exodus because it did not openly have the racial problems that the south had. Where did all those voters wind up? Well the Republican Party of course. I will tell you that the northern republican is not the racist the southern republican is but in Florida was have both so it is a mess.

In Florida we have had two very bad mass shootings. One was the Parkland School shooting and the other was Orlando Nightclub shooting. I don’t think that we have had zero meaningful gun legislation in this state. If anything, gun rights were expanded. I think that you can be on the no fly list but still be able to buy a gun. I guess they will say that the Constitution does not guarantee your right to fly but it does guarantee your right to buy a gun. At least that is what some will say. What I have said many times, the Second Amendment to the Constitution is the most twisted sentence then the entire Constitution. “A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a Free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”  It is one whole sentence and you must read it as a whole sentence. No one will ever be able to tell me that it is meant for what is happening today. All people say is that they have a right to bear arms and the sentence says a whole lot more than that. It was not meant that some kid could buy a gun and shoot up a school. It was not meant for a terrorist to be able to buy a gun and shoot up a night club. It is not meant for illegal militias being able to walk around terrorizing the public. The last time a state called up a local militia I believe was when the Aleutian Island were invaded by Japanese just before the Battle of Midway. I do not believe they saw any action.

Some may actually say that it may be the most racist sentence in the whole Constitution. When it was written, slavery was legal in all 13 colonies. I have seen it argued that it was put into the Constitution so the states could put down a slave rebellion. When I read that it made a lot of sense. A local militia was used to put down the Nat Turner slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831. If you read the racist history of gun control you will see that the suppression of gun ownership by freed blacks before and after the Civil War was common. As I always say the second amendment to the Constitution is the most twisted sentence in the whole document.

We talk about masks traumatizing our children and ignore that fact that those same children have to perform monthly active shooter training because we refuse to keep guns out of the wrong hand. I am sorry folks that is nuts and that is not why the second amendment was written.