Florida congressmen get flak for declaring porn a health risk while blocking weapons ban
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The Florida House of Representatives reached a resolution on Tuesday, Feb. 20, regarding pornography and the consideration of a weapons ban.
Porn was declared a public health risk and should be regulated; meanwhile, the proposal to ban assault weapons such as AR-15 semi-automatic rifles, the type used to murder 17 innocent high school students in a local school, was rejected.
Rep. Ross Spano sponsored the resolution on pornography, according to the Associated Press in Feb. 20. The resolution stated there’s research showing a connection between pornography use and mental and physical illnesses, thus the need for policy changes to protect Florida citizens from the dangers of porn.
Meanwhile, the Florida House on the same day rejected to consider a ban on semi-automatic guns and magazines despite widespread calls for a reconsideration, after the deadly shooting in Marjory Stone Douglas High School last Feb. 14. This decision did not sit too well among a lot of journalists.
Time and Los Angeles Times journalist Jamil Smith was one of them. “Porn isn’t killing students and teachers where they stand during a school day,” wrote Smith on his Twitter page today. “It isn’t responsible for mass murder. Whether or not you think that porn is bad, @FLGOMajority declared it a health risk on the same day they refused to do the same for AR-15s.”
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Image: Twitter/@JamilSmith
TechCrunch columnist Scott Santens wrote that what the Florida House did is straight out of satire news organization, The Onion.
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Image: Twitter/@scottsantens
Cliff Schecter from The Daily Beast, on the other hand, says the Florida House declaration just proves how utterly useless the modern GOP (Grand Old Party/The Republican Party) is in solving problems.
Image: Twitter/@cliffschecter
Journalist Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post and The New York Times also tweeted that Florida legislators are suggesting rifles used to murder high school students are not a risk to teens’ health.
Image: Twitter/@crampell
Despite the rejection to consider the weapons ban, there is no stopping the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida who are taking matters into their own hands.
Days after the deadly shooting in their school, the teenagers have walked out of classes, protested in social media and made appeals and speeches calling out the government for its inability to act. JB
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