Adoption Agencies Banned From Asking Parents About Guns
Adoption Agencies Banned From Asking Parents About Guns
by Mallory Creveling (Subscribe to Mallory Creveling's posts) Mar 19th 2010 6:36PM
Categories: Adoption, In The News
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A new bill, passed by the Florida Legislature and awaiting the governor's signature, bans adoption agencies from inquiring about potential parents' gun possessions, The Miami Herald reports.
Only two lawmakers voted against the bill in the Senate: Frederica Wilson (D-Miami), a longtime gun opponent, and Ted Deutch (D-Boca Raton), who discussed the state's discrimination against gay couples' rights to adopt.
This is just one of many recent victories for the National Rifle Association (NRA) in improving the right to own firearms in Florida. The group also backed a bill that would stop legislators from raiding a special trust fund that pays for concealed weapons permit regulations, which the governor plans to approve.
The adoption bill resulted from a mixup at the Children's Home Society in Central Florida, according to the newspaper. The nonprofit adoption agency, under the Department of Children and Families (DCF), was using an old form that asked about prospective parents' gun ownership. When the NRA brought it up to lawmakers, the DCF ordered all adoption agencies to avoid asking questions about firearms, the Herald reports.
Marion Hammer, the NRA's Florida lobbyist, says that the adoption issue illustrates that government groups like adoption agencies could keep a list of firearm owners, which is prohibited in Florida. Hammer urged the gun list prohibition law to be written years ago, as well as a ban on law-enforcement agencies from keeping a list of gun purchases at pawn shops.
Hammer tells the newspaper her next step toward gun ownership freedom may be to stop pediatricians from asking children about guns in their home. She says some think this could end up in the child's file, which could end up in the hands of the health insurance company, who could pass it over to a homeowner insurance company, who could then deny the family coverage because they own a firearm.
When the Herald asked Sen. Carey Baker, a Republican and gun-store owner, if there were more gun-rights bills to be passed, he joked: "I think we're almost out of them. That's why I'm leaving the Legislature soon.''
Related: Little League Rejects Gun Sponsor
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