City Council’s Public Safety committee approved a bill aimed at closing a so-called “Florida Loophole” which enables Pennsylvanians to easily get a permit to carry a gun with approval from Florida’s Department of Agriculture.
Though legal challenges are seemingly inevitable, it allows reciprocity agreements — carry here with a permit from there — with states provided they have similar firearms laws. Florida doesn’t meet that requirement; Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Montana, North Dakota and Utah do.
“It flies in the face of all rationale, particularly in the African-American community [where the number of] men committing homicide on one another surpasses all the lynchings the Ku Klux Klan did since its inception,” said City Councilman Curtis Jones. “We shouldn’t be looking for more reasons to bring guns in. We should be looking for reasons to keep them out.”
The bill will be listed for first reading at tomorrow’s full Council meeting.
