Ballot Initiative Banning ‘Assault Weapons’ Falls Short in Florida

EL PASO, TEXAS - AUGUST 07: A 'Ban Assault Weapons Now' sign is displayed near a voter reg
Mario Tama/Getty

The attempt to ban “assault weapons” in Florida via a ballot initiative has fallen short and will not appear on the 2020 ballot as gun control groups hoped.

On November 27, 2018, Breitbart News reported the launch of the initiative to ban “assault weapons” in the Sunshine State. Out-of-state involvement marked the effort from the start, with Fox 35 reporting in 2018 that the gun ban proponents were working with a “California-based company” for petitions in order to get the necessary signatures to get the initiative on the ballot for 2020.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that the initiative would have banned semiautomatic rifles and shotguns holding more than ten rounds, but it failed because supporters only collected 145,000 of the 766,200 signatures required to get the measure on the ballot.

Second Amendment Foundation founder and executive director Alan Gottlieb spoke to Breitbart News about the initiative’s failure, saying, “Even the Bloomberg machine financed by its tens of millions of dollars could not get this on the ballot.”

He added, “They will be back to try again in 2022 to destroy Second Amendment rights, and we will be ready for them.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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