A judge today rejected a request from the National Rifle Association (NRA) to keep secret the identity of a potential plaintiff and a witness in a lawsuit against the new Florida gun law.
According to the local channel of the CBS network, the NRA sought to incorporate a 19-year-old girl in the lawsuit filed on March 9 but did not include her identity, so, she argued, avoid the possibility of being harassed and the same thing she wanted to do. with another person, also 19 years old, who was going to present as a witness.
The NRA alleged that a board of directors of that association in Florida had been harassed on the Internet and wanted to avoid something similar to them happening to them.
But District Judge Mark Walker, based on judicial precedents, denied the possibility that the girl could be an anonymous plaintiff and that someone could testify in the same way.
The NRA’s lawsuit against the State of Florida is in rejection of the new state law that raises from 18 to 21 years the minimum age to buy weapons and imposes in the case of long weapons a waiting period of three days for the delivery, among other measures.
The new legislation prompted by Gov. Rick Scott was the response to the 17-person massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, by a 19-year-old armed with a semi-automatic rifle on February 14.
The NRA states that raising the minimum age for access to firearms in Florida violates the rights of responsible and adult citizens and, therefore, is invalid in light of the second and fourth amendments to the Constitution.
On March 9, when the lawsuit was filed in the federal court of the Northern District of Florida, the NRA noted that the new gun law is “particularly offensive” for young women, since those who are between 18 and 21 years old present ” much less likely to participate in violent crimes than older members of the general population who are not affected by the ban. ”
The executive director of the NRA Legislative Action Institute, Chris Cox, said that “fast action is needed to prevent young adults in Florida from being treated as second-class citizens when it comes to the right to bear and bear arms.” . efe
