Scott Maxwell: Florida lawmakers cower in gun-free zones with bulletproof glass while criticizing ‘safe places’ for others

Some Florida lawmakers are furious that businesses in Mount Dora may soon start putting stickers on their doors to let LGBTQ residents know they can find shelter inside if they’re ever being threatened.

Yes, we’re talking about grown men triggered by rainbow stickers.

So triggered, in fact, that the Republican legislators are threatening legal action against the city to prevent the stickers from ever being stuck.

The story might almost be funny — little men throwing big tantrums — except for the dangerous division-stoking involved.

Just last weekend, another group of Floridians were slaughtered in what appears to be a crime of bigotry — Black residents gunned down in Jacksonville by a guy who had swastikas etched on his rifle.

Yet Florida politicians are fuming about private businesses voluntarily offering to help protect others who might also feel threatened.

Keep in mind: The same politicians who loathe safe spaces for others enjoy special gun-free zones whenever and wherever they meet — and are currently spending more than $60 million on bulletproof windows in the state Capitol.

So these guys can have Floridians arrested for brining a firearm into a room with them. But they want to stop private businesses from voluntarily offering shelter to citizens who don’t enjoy the same protection.

There are characters in Dante’s Inferno who’d be impressed by the hypocrisy here.

But seeing as how shame is an increasingly rare emotion in politics, the four GOP members of Lake County‘s legislative delegation sent a letter threatening to block Mount Dora’s “Safe Place Initiative.”

The letter was signed by Sen. Dennis Baxley, who has a long history of pushing anti-gay measures in this state. A sponsor of the so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law, Baxley was also one of the last Florida politicians still fighting gay adoption, arguing kids were better off with no parents than two, loving same-sex ones. He once compared gay parents to alcoholics and abusers.

This time, Baxley was joined in his anti-rainbow crusade by State Reps. Keith Truenow, Taylor Yarkosky and Stan McClain. The four men signed a letter threatening to use “all legislative, legal and executive options” against Mount Dora and citing the Bible as part of their justification for doing so.

The Sentinel’s long-time Lake County columnist, Lauren Ritchie, used to argue that Lake’s legislative delegation was the “laughing stock” of the entire state. But it’s hard to laugh right now.

After this past weekend’s shootings, Gov. Ron DeSantis scurried to Jacksonville to announce that he wanted to give $1 million to a historically Black college there for better security.

Think about that for a moment.

So we’ll spend $1 million after people are murdered. But we’re opposed to voluntary programs meant to stop people from ever becoming victims in the first place.

What is wrong with these people?

These politicians don’t even listen to the cops who they normally claim to respect. The police chief in Mount Dora, for instance, said he backs the safe-place initiative as a way to both enhance public safety and build trust.

In fact, I invite you to read these two simple paragraphs from the Sentinel’s story last week:

“Such Safe Place programs are common throughout Central Florida, including ones facilitated by the Orlando Police Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Office and Osceola County Sheriff’s Office.

The programs task participating businesses with posting the sticker, allowing crime victims to enter their establishment and stay there until law enforcement arrives, and assisting them in calling authorities, the agenda item shows.”

I’m sorry, but if those two paragraphs trigger you, you need help.

In their letter threatening Mount Dora, the Lake County legislators offered up a bunch of nonsensical catch phrases that wouldn’t make any more sense if you put them in a blender.

They basically whined about everything from Bud Light to “virtue signaling” and complained about government “picking winners and losers.” (In their minds, it appears the “winners” are the businesses that offer to call the cops if a crime is reported. That’s somehow a bad thing.)

Read the letter for yourself. See if you can make sense of it.

But don’t stop there. Try to make sense of these guys’ safety priorities in general.

They pass laws easing gun restrictions — while spending your tax dollars on bulletproof glass to protect themselves.

They push to allow guns in classrooms — while making sure they get to work in gun-free zones. (Statute 790.06 makes it a crime for any Floridian to carry a firearm into “any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof.”)

And they spent the better part of the past three years demonizing and dehumanizing LGBTQ residents. Yet now, amidst reports of threats and vandalism, they want to stop the businesses that have offered help.

This is twisted stuff.

Mount Dora’s website offers this simple explanation of its Safe Place initiative: “Anyone who seeks solace in a Safe Place location can be assured that if they are the victim of a crime, police will promptly be called.”

It’s disturbing to think such a statement enrages some politicians.

But even more so when you consider these tough-talking politicians who say they want more guns and fewer safe spaces pass their bills from within the safety of their own little gun-free zones … which will soon enjoy the added protection of new bulletproof windows.

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