Anti-gun advocates spent a year gathering signatures across the Sunshine State to ban most semi-auto rifles but fell well short of the mark.
The group, Ban Assault Weapons Now, was active throughout 2019 in canvassing from Key West to Pensacola and needed to turn in 766,200 signatures of registered voters to have a shot at making it to this Fall’s general election ballot. In the end, they only gathered 147,304.
Anti-gun advocates needed to get 760,000 signatures for a ballot initiative to ban most semi-auto rifles and shotguns in Florida but paid California-based petition gatherers only came up with 140,000. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)
Opposing the initiative was Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, who asked the state Supreme Court for a judicial opinion on the move, as well as the National Rifle Association and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, who argued the court against the initiative. Oral arguments were heard on the proposed initiative on Tuesday, which could determine how the group proceeds with their efforts to try again for the 2022 ballot.