Home > Political Insider > Archives > 2007 > April > 18 > Entry
The NRA loses the same fight in Florida; and Cagle tells critics to put on their ‘big-boy’ pants
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The National Rifle Association’s week didn’t get any better on Wednesday.
One day after our state Senate refused to take up its guns-in-parking-lots bill, a House committee in Florida killed that state’s version of the same measure.
Seven Republicans were key to the 10 to 4 vote. “NRA will not forget these anti-gun, anti-freedom, anti-constitution representatives,” says the alert put out by the gun group.
Meanwhile, back in Georgia, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle declared the NRA bill dead for the session. But Cagle denied that he had placed his Republican caucus in a difficult position by pushing too hard to bring the issue to a vote.
“No I don’t think that’s a fair characterization at all. Listen, this is a big-boy process down here. No one likes to take difficult votes. I did not allow a vote to take place the first time it was on the floor, because there was dissension,” the lieutenant governor told our colleague Carlos Campos.
“Was I pushing both sides to the table? Yes. That’s part of the process, to find common ground,” Cagle said. “And at the end of the day, I have no desire to bring a bill to the floor that is going to be this divisive if there’s not sufficient votes. And clearly both sides could not come to an agreement, and the votes were not there to pass the bill.
“It’s my job to make sure we don’t harm the members of the body, and that we do what’s in the best interest of all Georgia citizens. In the end, I was not comfortable that [the legislation] met that test,” Cagle said.



DEL.ICIO.US


Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By MrLiberty
April 18, 2007 9:12 PM | Link to this
Does the Georgia legislature have all the security they need, paid for with our hard-earned income? You bet they do. So why should they care if we can’t feel safe at work?
They were supposed to be our servants, not the other way around.