The Florida GOP

The Orlando Sentinel reports on the political climate in central Florida.

U.S. Senate hopeful Marco Rubio and four other Republican hopefuls stumped at Central Florida’s largest gun show Saturday, courting a powerful force in Florida politics: gun owners.

Rubio, a Miami native, made his rounds at the Central Florida Fairgrounds to meet gun enthusiasts and suppliers while displaying his support for the Second Amendment — the one protecting the right to keep and bear arms. Rubio received his concealed-weapons license last summer after announcing his Senate candidacy.

“It’s an important constitutional right,” Rubio said at the Great Southern Classic Gun and Knife Show. “It separates us from the rest of the world.”

Now, there's something worthy of a QOTD. "It separates us from the rest of the world."

Indeed.

Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is running for governor, spent most of the morning at the show shaking hands with conservatives.

McCollum doesn’t have a concealed weapons license but noted he’s a quail hunter and owned a shotgun before it was stolen “a while ago.” But he affirmed he was a defender of the Second Amendment.

Why would he even say that? Doesn't he realize that having a gun stolen is almost as bad as misusing the weapon himself? As a savvy politician, isn't he smart enough to keep his mouth shut about something that can be damaging to his career, something about which people might think he's a stupid and irresponsible man who failed to properly secure his shotgun?

Of course, the people he was addressing wouldn't think any such thing. To them, getting a gun stolen every once in a while is part of the deal. It's certainly nothing that can reflect back on the gun owner since only the thief is responsible for his actions. That's about it, right?

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