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STATE REP. CARLOS GUILLERMO SMITH, PULSE SURVIVORS AND GUN REFORM ADVOCATES SPEAK OUT, JAN. 5 | PHOTOS BY MONIVETTE CORDEIRO
Orlando Democrats and gun reform advocates push for a ban on assault weapons as Republican lawmakers plan gun law expansions
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BY MON IVETTE COR D EI R O
More than anything, Santiago-León says she wants Florida legislators to know she believes “Dani” was killed partly because of the state’s minimal restrictions on gun purchases. “I will not let my cousin’s memory fade away,” she says. “He died because of irresponsibility with our legislation. He died because of a violent act that shouldn’t have happened. You can argue to pieces about whether it was this type of gun or that type of gun, but I don’t care. I’m not going to let him have died without people knowing why.” Santiago-León and others directly affected by the Pulse massacre plan to testify at the Florida State Capitol in the coming months in support of a measure that would ban the sale and possession of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. The bill includes a long list of specific assault-rifle models, including the Sig Sauer MCX rifle, which Omar Mateen used to kill 49 people and injure more than 53 at Pulse about seven months ago. State Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith and Sen. Linda Stewart, both Orlando
iclaly Santiago-León wants lawmakers in Tallahassee to know about the worst day of her life. She wants them to know how she almost got arrested on June 12 as she tried to push past police officers to look for her cousin Luis Daniel Wilson-León and his partner, Jean Carlos Méndez Pérez, inside the gay nightclub Pulse. If given the opportunity, she’d describe to them the desperation she felt as she waited with other families in a room near the hospital to hear updates on who survived the mass shooting; the anguished screams when they realized 49 of their loved ones, including Wilson-León and his partner, would not come home. And she’d tell them what it feels like to miss someone forever. “I know he’s gone, but I can’t believe it happened. I can’t,” she says. “I still take it day by day, but the holidays were just so awful. I don’t want anybody else to suffer or hurt the way we have, ever.” 8
ORLANDO WEEKLY ● JAN. 11-17, 2017
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orlandoweekly.com
Democrats, filed their respective proposals in a Florida Legislature where it stands little chance of success. In this Legislature, the dominant Republican majority is more interested in bills to allow concealed-weapons licensees to openly carry handguns in public and to allow people to be armed on college campuses, in airport passenger terminals, and at government meetings and elementary and secondary schools. State Sen. Greg Steube, the proponent of the measure to allow concealed carry in airports, stood by his bill even after another gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last week, killing five people and wounding six others in the baggage claim area. The shooter, 26-year-old Esteban Santiago, was an Iraq war veteran who in November had walked into an Alaska FBI office and told them the U.S. government was making him watch ISIS videos. Officials took his gun but less than a month later they returned it to him. Steube tells the Miami New Times the airport shooting reinforces his point that “people should have the ability to defend themselves.” Orlando Weekly reached out to Steube for a comment but did not hear back by press time. Smith and Stewart acknowledge their
bills are a long shot. But after Pulse, gun reform advocates say they’re done playing defense against outlandish proposals backed by the gun lobby. They want to go on the offense. Patti Brigham, chair of the gun safety committee of the League of Women Voters of Florida, says the major difference between this upcoming session and past sessions is gun reform advocates’ sheer force in numbers. Within days of the Pulse incident, the worst mass shooting in modern American history, Brigham and the state League started the Florida Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence. The nonpartisan coalition currently teams more than 100 participating organizations across the state and nation. “They’re people from all walks of life, not just gun-safety organizations,” she says. “We’ve got the Hispanic community, the LGBTQ community, the African-American community, and the education and faithbased community. We’ve got more motor power this year.” Brigham says the coalition has made a commitment to Pulse families, survivors and everyone affected by the tragedy to bring sensible gun-safety legislation to Florida, no matter how long it takes. “I like to say it’s not a 5K race, it’s a mara-