Did the League of Women Voters pay fake protesters to show up to oppose a Stand Your Ground bill?
That’s what the National Rifle Association says happened at Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee meeting, casting doubt on the legitimacy of a group opposed to a bill shifting the Burden of Proof in Florida Stand Your Ground cases.
Around a dozen women posted up at Tuesday’s meeting to oppose SB 128, wearing fiery red shirts emblazoned with the “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America” logo on the front. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “Everytown” gun-safety group’s logo was plastered on the back. Many of the protesters also wore League of Women Voter pins on their firetruck red shirts.
Moms Demand Action and Everytown are both notorious for railing against pro-gun legislation. The two groups work in tandem to push state legislatures to crack down on background checks and promote firearm restrictions to curb gun violence in the U.S.
The women sat silently during the meeting. Only two of the activists spoke on the bill, which would shift the burden of proof in Stand Your Ground cases.
The plot thickened, however, after the meeting was over.
It was then when Florida Carry attorney Eric Friday told Sunshine State News he saw the group of women take off their red shirts, turn them in and place them in a plastic Rubbermaid-type container. Friday thought it was strange -- and it made him think.
“I don’t know if these people were paid to be there wearing the shirts,” Friday told SSN. “I have never seen somebody outside [any] chambers collecting t-shirts.”
The National Rifle Association pounced on the story, questioning whether or not the activists were really there for the right reasons or if they had actually been paid to be there by anti-gun groups.
NRA lobbyist and past president Marion Hammer called the activists “shameful” and said the women had no clue what was going on in the meeting, evidenced by trying to sit in the front row, unaware that section is reserved solely for state lawmakers testifying on bills.
“Never in 40 years have I seen a group of women come in as a group who apparently didn’t know why they were there or what they were doing,” she told Sunshine State News Friday. “I’ve never seen it before and I hope I never see it again because that’s fake activism, as far as I’m concerned.”
Moms Demand Action Florida chapter leader Michelle Gajda scoffed at the NRA’s claims.
"I left my house at 4:30 in the morning to drive to the hearing,” she told SSN, noting other protesters had stopped by on their lunch hours. “Is the NRA really attacking people for voicing their concerns on their lunch break? These are concerned Floridians.”
Gajda said the reason why activists gave the shirts back was because of budgetary issues.
“We don’t have the money to just print out thousands of shirts, so sometimes people borrow stuff,” she said.
Gadja said the NRA is out of touch with what voters feel is important.
“It’s a real shame [the NRA] didn’t pay better attention to details,” she said. “They don’t know a lot about what real voters want.”
Hammer disagreed.
“This activist said the NRA is out of touch? I think the elections showed who’s really out of touch,” she told SSN. “The people of Florida love their freedoms. They love their Constitution and the NRA represents the entity fighting to protect that freedom and Constitution. We work hard to elect people who will come to Tallahassee who will support constitutional rights...who will look beyond emotional argument and rhetoric.”
Sunshine State News attempted to contact the League of Women Voters but had not received a comment at the time of this article’s release.
Reach reporter Allison Nielsen by email at allison@sunshinestatenews.com or follow her on Twitter: @AllisonNielsen.
