Word: florida
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...FLORIDA Lawmakers withdraw a conceal-carry bill; Governor Jeb Bush hails law stiffening sentences of those who use guns in crimes...
...Advocates usually point to Britain, Australia and Japan as their models, where guns are restricted and crime is reduced. They do not point to Switzerland, where there is a gun in every home and crime is practically nonexistent. Nor do they cite as sources criminology professor Gary Kleck of Florida State University, whose studies have shown that gun ownership reduces crime when gun owners defend themselves, or Professor John R. Lott Jr. of the University of Chicago Law School, whose research has indicated that gun regulation actually encourages crime...
...Connerly's plan is the fact that Florida's Governor, Jeb Bush, happens to be the younger brother of Republican presidential front runner George W. Bush. If organizers get the signatures they need, the referendum will be on the ballot in November 2000--when George W.'s name could be there as the Republican choice for President. "What better place than the backyard of the prospective nominee--his brother's state?" asks Connerly. "It's guaranteed to catapult the issue...
...another agenda. He's trying to force the Republican Party and its elected officials to join his anti-affirmative-action crusade. In California and Washington his referendums won handily--54% and 58%, respectively--but Connerly had to do it with little institutional support. That pattern is being repeated in Florida. According to a recent poll, 83% of Florida's potential voters want to end racial preferences. But both Florida's Republican and Democratic political establishments have made it clear that they wish Connerly and his petitioners would just go away...
...Bush repudiated the referendum after meeting with Connerly in January. "He wants a war," Bush said. "I'm a lover." Florida Republican Party chairman Al Cardenas, a Cuban American, calls the referendum "offensive." And while George W. says he supports "the spirit of no quotas, no preferences," he has declined to back Connerly's cause. Connerly says the party is betraying its core principles. "The Democratic Party is built around these hyphenated groups, but the Republican Party prides itself on supporting individual rights...