Intellectual consistency or simple honesty are not hallmarks of contemporary woke liberalism. Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried helps illustrate that point.
Last month, Fried, a Democrat who seeks to oust incumbent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, fired off an angry op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel calling for gun control. The impetus was the sixth anniversary of the massacre at the Pulse, a predominantly gay nightclub in Orlando.
In her piece, Fried noted the recent mass shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa, and asserted, “Unfortunately, here in Florida, we know all too well the pain and trauma these mass shootings cause.” She mentioned the Pulse shooting as well as the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
She then denounced DeSantis for a state law that prohibits local governments from implementing gun-control measures.
“The bottom line is that the state of Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis aims to prohibit and punish communities and local officials for trying to take action to keep their residents safe after enduring horrifying acts of gun violence. It’s petty, it’s nonsensical, and worst of all, it makes our state less safe,” Fried wrote.
“I’m proud to fight alongside our cities, counties, local officials, and gun violence prevention advocates against this ridiculous and spiteful law,” she added. She then ripped DeSantis for “pushing a deranged permitless open carry policy allowing anyone to take a gun with them anywhere at any time.”
Fried then claimed she’s a gun owner, and possesses a concealed-carry permit. “I believe that there are reasonable steps we can take to make our communities safer that don’t infringe on the constitutional rights of responsible gun owners, like expanding background checks and red-flag laws, closing loopholes, background checks for ammunition purchases, and banning large capacity magazines, and keeping assault weapons off our streets. The courts need to strike down this dangerous preemption law, and we need to take action at the state and federal level to prevent any more lives lost to senseless gun violence.”
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That was then. This is now.
Last week, Fried turned against the Biden administration – for enforcing gun-control laws.
According to the CBS affiliate in Miami, Fried updated a previous lawsuit she had filed against the Department of Justice over “federal regulations that make it illegal for medical marijuana patients to buy guns.”
Ironically, Fried cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down a New York law allowing the state to reject concealed-weapons permits if people failed to present a convincing case for wanting to carry a gun.
Fried, a former medical marijuana lobbyist, argued that federal laws preventing “state-law-abiding medical marijuana patients” from owning guns is unconstitutional, especially in light of the court’s most recent decision.
Fried’s objection was based on a provision in the federal background-check form that must be completed by potential gun buyers. It reminds applicants that the “use or possession of marijuana remains unlawful under Federal law regardless of whether it has been legalized or decriminalized for medicinal or recreational purposes in the state where you reside.”
“The defendants can offer no rational explanation for why federal law would expressly protect programs that essentially turn otherwise law-abiding citizens into criminals with no self-control,” Fried’s lawsuit said, sounding almost like it was written by the NRA.
“Such a contradictory position would fall far outside of any comparable, historical regulation in this area.”
“Quite simply, there is no historical tradition of denying individuals their Second Amendment rights based solely (or even partially) on the use of marijuana,” Fried’s lawsuit continued.
“In fact, historical evidence shows that marijuana was considered a legitimate and legal form of medicine in England, America, and other western countries through the mid-Nineteenth and early-Twentieth Centuries.”
“The defendants’ enforcement of the challenged sections and challenged regulations against medical marijuana patients who comply with state law punishes them for what is legally permitted and protected conduct,” Fried argued in court records.
So to recap, based on her recent writings, Fried would be fine with allowing cities in Florida to mandate California-style gun control measures, so long as they didn’t impose them on medical marijuana patients. Makes perfect sense.
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