VIDEO: Commissioner Nikki Fried, State & Local Leaders Call on Florida Supreme Court to Hear Gun Preemption Case

Tallahassee, Fla. – Today, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried was joined by state and local leaders in calling on the Florida Supreme Court to hear the legal case on Florida’s firearm preemption law. Florida’s state gun preemption law is considered one of the nation’s most extreme, portions of which were previously found unconstitutional. Commissioner Fried's predecessor was a defendant in the case; in 2019, Fried directed the Attorney General to remove the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) from the state’s appeal and became a plaintiff in the case, filing a brief in December 2019 supporting the right of local cities and counties to pass local gun safety ordinances free from state interference.

Commissioner Fried was joined at today’s virtual press conference by State Representative Dan Daley (HD-97), Coconut Creek Mayor Becky Tooley, Coral Springs Mayor Scott Brook, Coral Springs Vice Mayor Joshua Simmons, Lauderhill Commissioner Melissa P. Dunn, Coral Springs Commissioner Joy Carter, Hallandale Beach Commissioner Sabrina Javellana, Parkland Commissioner Ken Cutler, Coconut Creek Commissioner Jackie Railey, Coral Springs Commissioner Nancy Metayer, activist and parent Fred Guttenberg, and Nancy Fry of Moms Demand Action.

VIDEO: A livestream of today’s press conference may be viewed here.

“Last year was the deadliest gun violence year in our country in at least two decades, and the outlook for 2021 is even worse. What we need in the face of what is clearly a public health crisis is for local leaders to be able to institute common-sense ordinances that fit their community’s needs and values,” said Commissioner Fried. “Instead, our local leaders are being threatened with extreme punishments for doing their jobs. It is wrong. It is undemocratic. And we hope that our Florida Supreme Court agrees to hear this case and upholds the circuit court ruling that it is also unconstitutional. Florida has unfortunately seen gun violence up close and personal. Enough is enough. We need common-sense action like background checks, which we’ve done at my department, and it’s something we can easily work on together. It is time for the state to let local leaders do their jobs to keep our communities safe so we can stop this bleeding together.”

“Thank you Commissioner so much for your leadership on this issue – not only are you on the right side of this issue, but you’re on the right side of history, on the right side of Florida,” said State Representative Dan Daley. “There is no preemption like this in state law, and it’s one of the most egregious and dangerous laws on the books in this state – and any state for that matter. That’s why I helped lead the charge to originally bring the underlying lawsuit and filed the bill in the Florida House the last two years to repeal this section of statute. This is a matter of great public importance and one that the court should take up immediately. To the justices of the Florida Supreme Court: do it for the 49 victims of the Pulse shooting. Do it for the 17 victims of the shooting at my alma mater Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And do it for the hundreds of men, women, and children who are gunned down in the streets across Florida every week – too many to name. You have the opportunity to right one of the biggest wrongs of the last 40 years. Please do so, because there are lives depending on it.”

“Shortly after the tragic events at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, our city joined 29 other municipalities in three Florida counties to challenge the state preemption of firearm regulations. I am proud of our city’s decision to work towards striking a balance on gun laws. They knew that this was a fight they had to jump into, because it’s meant to save lives,” said Coral Springs Vice Mayor Joshua Simmons. “Let me be clear: the purpose of all of this is not to take away anyone’s guns, or infringe on anyone’s rights – but as an elected official, it’s for me to have the ability to advocate for common-sense gun laws. This is to reduce gun violence and injuries of mass trauma, which sadly, in our community, we are all too familiar with. This isn’t a partisan issue. This is an issue to save everyone’s lives, to prevent more tragedies from breaking the hearts of families throughout our state.”

“Shortly after the Parkland shooting, I was just a dad on a mission. I didn’t know much about what gun violence is and what we can do about it – it didn’t happen in our community. But the mayors, the commissioners, everyone else who’s closest to what’s actually happening, are prevented from doing anything about it. Let me be clear: gun violence is not partisan. This issue shouldn’t be partisan. The notion of doing more to save a life shouldn’t be partisan. But somehow saving lives in Florida has become partisan,” said Fred Guttenberg. “And so again from the bottom of my heart, to all of you who are putting yourselves out there right now to fight this fight to simply save lives, thank you. And future families, they may never know what you did for them because nobody in their family died from gun violence – but we’ll know, and that’s why this matters.”

“As a gun violence prevention activist, it would normally be these elected officials that my colleagues and I would talk to about making our communities safer and stopping this gun violence epidemic. My mayor is on this call. My parents’ mayor is on this call. But because of preemption, their hands are tied, and they can’t do their jobs of creating laws and ordinances for the benefit of their cities. That makes us reliant on an apathetic at best legislature, in which more legislators than not have demonstrated an unwillingness to protect the people of Florida,” said Nancy Fry, an activist with Moms Demand Action. “The purpose of this preemption isn’t to protect people from unconstitutional overreach, because there’s already a remedy for that: the courts. This statute is written so harshly that it is meant to stop those commissioners and councilmembers that dare try to fight back for their communities, to make them personally liable so that we don’t even get to debate this in the courtroom.  That’s why on behalf of the over 1,000 active Moms Demand Action volunteers in Florida, and even more supporters, I am calling on the Florida Supreme Court to hear this case, restore our local elected officials’ First Amendment rights, and bring back home rule to Florida.”

Background: Florida’s state firearm preemption law’s punitive provisions threaten local mayors and commissioners with fines, lawsuits, and removal from office for even considering local firearm safety measures. These provisions were found unconstitutional in July 2019, and have been called “severe.” Commissioner Fried had previously called the case’s appeal “not only a waste of taxpayer money and time, but the wrong direction for our state.” 44 states have some form of state preemption of local firearms ordinances, with Florida, Arizona, Kentucky, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas also having[ ] punitive preemption laws.

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