A Blog Posting by Thomas Linzey of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, from April 14, 2018.

A brief commentary by Community Rights US media team member Curt Hubatch: Allowing a few hands at the top to determine what our communities are going to look like for our children and grandchildren hasn’t worked well up to this point. Legal doctrines like state preemption and Dillon’s Rule stand in the way of democracy and community self-determination. Confronting and challenging those legal doctrines, and others like corporate personhood, are what the Community Rights movement is about. Educate yourself and others by reading and sharing blogs like this. It’s a good first step in walking away from the disempowered present and into an empowered future for generations to come.

Last week, ten South Florida cities sued the State of Florida in a legal challenge to the Joe Carlucci Uniform Firearms Act. Originally adopted in 1987 by state legislators, the law established state primacy over the regulation of firearms within the state. It declares that the state:

“occupies the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition, including the purchase, sale, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage, and transportation thereof, to the exclusion of all existing and future county, city, town, or municipal ordinances. . . Any such existing ordinances, rules, or regulations are hereby declared null and void.”

In June, 2011, in an effort backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and an open-carry advocacy group known as “Florida Carry,” the Act was amended by state legislators. They added new provisions that punish local elected officials who vote to adopt gun control laws. The law now provides that the Governor may “remove” from office any local elected official who “enacts or enforces” a local ordinance that is preempted; that a court can assess a “civil fine of up to $5,000 against the elected official,” which must be paid personally by the official; and that any “person or organization whose membership is adversely affected” by the municipal law may recover up to $100,000 against the municipality. MORE…