This Week In South Florida: Jared Moskowitz

good morning and welcome we begin with the forever connection South Florida will have to every school where a mass shooter is able to get in and leave ruins in his wake in the day since that happened in Winder Georgia this week a split screen moment likely no one in South Florida watch The Terror at appalache high school unfold without thinking of The Terror at marjerie Stoneman Douglas unfolding 6 and a half years ago that catastrophe led to unprecedented steps toward gun safety in a very conservative Florida state government likely because the profound pain and outrage was right there in Tallahassee firsthand it was a Democrat state representative and Stoneman Douglas Alum Jared moscowitz who led the way and ended a gut-wrenching floor speech on his gun Bill like this you don't need to stand with me I don't need you to stand with me I need you to stand with the families push the green button thank thank you and they did Jared moscowitz is now a congressman representing South Florida's District 23 heading back to DC this week with the standing to be the lead on any gun safety debate Congressman MTZ great to have you on the program this morning thanks for having me all right so I we wanted to start with a little bit of breaking news um the Broward School District BSO has arrested someone for making a social media threat to a very specific Broward School uh this morning and I I don't know if you know much about that but in light of the week's events and the conversation we're about to have I just I wanted to hear you weigh in on that yeah well look I don't know the veracity of the threats but nowadays you cannot go ahead on on social media and make threats against the school because we no longer treat that as a joke that gets treated as if in every case uh it is serious uh because it is based on what's going on uh not just around the country but what literally happened in our County at my hometown in my hometown at the school I graduated from which is a mile from my house margerie stman Douglas High School and so I'm glad BSO uh rightfully uh went and arrested that individual it's why we have the crimes unit that looks at this within BSO we've invested both state and federal dollars uh into the real crime uh real crime unit to do that and it's why the Marg s dougo school safety bill that we passed in Florida on a bipartisan basis is so important because it gave law enforcement these tools to react quickly uh when we see these threats made online and I I want to sort of bring that into the news of the week and exactly what you're talking about because since just this year alone 385 mass shootings and since the shooting at Douglas High 3,734 mass shootings as you go back to congress with your colleagues this week do those numbers have any significance at all at the capital I mean they have a significance to me who watched family members and parents bury their loved ones and their kids put them in the ground and you know dads that didn't come home husbands 14y olds so yeah that that has significance to me the problem is my colleagues on the other aisle don't they're beholden to a special interest they're beholding to lobbying money uh on this issue rather than the humanity of the issue and I'm I'm for uh the Second Amendment uh I'm for a robust Second Amendment but that doesn't mean we can't have common sense regulations and rules like we have here in Florida by the way exactly and that's that's kind of what I was getting at because Florida still a very conservative State just like it was six years ago and past these I mean it wasn't Monumental but it was unprecedented and it was the kinds of steps that really have been making a difference especially the red flag laws that have been used so many times that go to the person and not the weapon and and why not take Florida as a role model and and take those kind of steps on a national level well look it took us a while to get to those steps right we had the pulse shooting we had the Fort Lauder airport shooting and then we had Parkland uh but you know I always give my colleagues across the aisle credit I I do think it was uh a historic step in Florida and pretty Monumental if you compare what we've done uh at the federal level or even that some some states I mean we raised the age to 21 here in Florida four years before New York the state of New York did that uh red flag Lawes you mentioned three-day waiting periods hundreds of millions of dollars for school resource officers and Mental Health Counselors we have dedicated Mental Health Counselors now dealing with our high schools to identify this up threat assessments so that if there are kids that are making threats they get an assessment parents right to know parents have a right to know if there's something going on uh in their classroom and then making sure our school perimeters uh are completely uh or safer than they were uh before before Park on so this is all about mitigation uh and Florida's the model there are no protests in the street for people who can't go buy guns in the state we have permitless carry here uh in the State of Florida so if you want to be able to get a gun here you can get a gun here no problem in Florida that's why you don't see people banging on the door saying you're infringing upon my second amendment rights but yet we have common sense rules like red flag laws which have been used 19,000 times in six years let me say that again 19,000 times law enforcement has deemed someone a danger to themselves or a danger to others right suicide domestic violence a veteran suffering mental health or a student in this case threatening to shoot up a school um has taken their weapons away uh they get due process they get to go in front of a judge and say no it was a mistake right so that their so their rights aren't infringed upon but this is how we're keeping communities safer than we were before Parkland and it is a model uh for both Georgia or Texas or any other states that have suffered these problems those are conservative States this state is run completely by one party and yet they did the right thing and people are safer for it yeah so on Wednesday you had tweeted I refuse to do nothing does that mean that there is a plan are you heading to Washington with something in mind well again right it's like what I said after Parkland right the idea to to do nothing nothing we can't find one thing like one thing oh how about mental health or how about school safety we can't even agree on that I mean obviously I think red flag laws would be the most palpable acceptable thing that we could roll out Nationwide because that's not you know law-abiding citizens these are people who are are about to harm someone yeah okay there are signs that they're either about to harm themsel harm their spouse or loved one or go out and do something uh in the community um based on evidence that's being assembled that's why you red flag them um and so uh I think that's something that we should be talking about it's not going to stop all crime it's not going to stop all shootings this idea that oh we can't stop at all so why should we do nothing well then I guess we should get rid of all our laws right I guess we should you know the reason we have crimes against murder okay laws against murder is because we don't want that to happen it doesn't mean that we're going to prevent all of it so this idea that we should do nothing which is literally the what the other side has been pushing on for years now I I just find so defeatist uh and and unacceptable now that doesn't mean we're going to get something done in the 118th Congress you've seen what this Congress has looked like the most unproductive Congress uh in over 50 years we've passed you know a tenth of the bills that other congresses have passed uh we're no longer doing the business of the American people lowering the cost of healthcare lowering the cost of living um making Community safer no it's all about messaging bills and fakeness and shows and faux fake impeachments and all of that jazz so you know if the 119th Congress can get their act together we can actually work together on a bipartisan basis to do stuff for the American people well speaking of elections in November you know timing is everything and timing largely is why March of 2018 those your bills your gun bills really got through a conservative legislature so talk about timing presently do you think that because of Winder because of what may be another in the next couple of weeks will this be an issue to voters look the bills got through uh the state legislature in the house and the Senate and the governor signed it for a lot of reasons that were going on one is that we had these several Mass events three years in a row yeah two two is we had the parents and the family members who had just buried their loved ones come up to Tallahassee and become lobbyists immediately we had the students come up but there's one there's one particular item that doesn't get talked about a lot is that there were relationships and friendships across the aisle Democrats and Republicans and Republicans not from this area came down to see the school what it looked like when it was when you're your school gets turned into a war zone and we agreed that there were certain things that we weren't going to do but we tried to find a middle ground and we agreed on one principle which is whatever we pass it would have had to prevent what happened in Parkland and it was because of those relationships right and also because we don't have the national media in Tallahasse driving us apart or social media that we were able to actually put our differences aside and get some Middle Ground legislation done that's why it's so hard to get it done in Washington you heard Even Rick Scott say he supports the state law but he doesn't want to do it on a federal level right and so you you just laid out a blueprint for what needs to be done I hope someone up there is listening well look there are relationships up there but everyone's got to get out of their corner I'm not going to get everything I want want and I understood that in Tallahasse when I helped draft that bill but they also need to move this idea of doing nothing should no longer be acceptable there is a medium ground of making sure people have their rights under the Second Amendment and making sure communities are safe from people who are a danger to themselves or a danger to others in this case in Georgia this kid was a danger he was threatening to shoot up schools right he was questioned by local law law enforcement and his father thought oh I know what I'm going to do the way to deal with that is let me go get him the gun and then he bought him literally the AR-15 style weapon that he then used to commit the shooting that he was threatening that he was going to do okay and and now the father has been arrested rightfully so yeah but that's why we should have laws to make sure that parents are held accountable if they give their kid a gun who's threatening to shoot up a school I mean this is the most egregious of egregious cases that I can really remember yeah um why we got to find Common Ground 100% um I can't imagine anybody would disagree with how you frame that argument and Congressman we look forward to what you do in Washington this week and please do keep in touch with us on that appreciate your time as always thank you and next one of the most important local races that may not be getting your attention for the man or woman who will take charge of your free and fair elections a candidates debate is next [Music]