Anger Management Class Requirement in Florida

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Bill Introduced into FL State Senate

A Florida legislator wants anyone trying to buy ammunition to complete an anger management program first, in what critics say is the latest example of local lawmakers reaching for constitutionally-dubious solutions to the problem of gun violence.

The bill filed Saturday by state Sen. Audrey Gibson, D-Jacksonville, would require a three-day waiting period for the sale of any firearm and the sale of ammunition to anyone who has not completed anger management courses. The proposal would require ammo buyers to take the anger management courses every 10 years.

[CitizenBBN]

OK, that's a new one.

Wow, just wow. I give it a B for creativity. No doubt it will help all those criminals who are obviously just in need of ways of handling their anger when someone else takes over their drug turf.

[KeithKSR]

That's just plain ol' stupid.

[jazyd]

Each day I realize more and more just how stupid politicians have become and hoe stupid the voting public is to put in office idiots like this

[kritikalcat]

Leave aside Constitutional/legal issues and the reality that such a law is just going to make it more onerous for law abiding citizens to own and utilize firearms; criminals protecting their drug turf has nothing to do with a law like this. It's justification would be to reduce domestic shootings, "heat of the moment" type homicides.

A big catch is that such violence rarely goes down as the "they'd all be happy, loving people except there was a little argument and a gun present..." Frequently there is a history of violence and police interventions. I've read that on average police have been involved 6 times before a typical domestic homicide. Rather than require everyone to take anger management classes to buy ammo; maybe we should work on defusing the situation on the 1st or 2nd police intervention, not the 6th or 10th...

[CitizenBBN]

Oh I know it's not about criminal use, I admit to being flippant in my reply, but my point is that it's yet another potential law that touches only tangentially on the real problems, be it criminal violence or domestic violence.

I just get very tired of lawmakers constantly proposing laws that are ineffectual and off target and refusing to address the real problems which they say demand action. A law on domestic violence makes sense, we need to always be looking to deal with those things. Instead we get a law on access to ammo for everyone b/c some tiny percentage of those people may even be involved in a domestic dispute, much less those buying ammo to kill the other person within 3 days.

To me that's the same as ignoring the obvious fact that criminals don't obey laws. People in domestic disputes probably won't fall back on their 5 year old anger management class to keep from killing someone nor will a 3 day waiting period on ammo they probably already have if it's gotten that severe. it's those kinds of failures in thinking that drove my admittedly somewhat OT response.

I'd love to know the overlap between domestic homicides and criminal records. I bet the domestic violence call from the neighbors isn't the first run in a lot of them have had with the police. Could be 20%, could be 60%, I have no idea but I'd like to know.

[kritikalcat]

My data is decades old, but I suspect the situation now is no better - what I remember is that in domestic homicides there have been an average of 6 prior police interventions and 2 arrests (I'll guess that the latter number is higher now, due to laws which mandate that police make an arrest in pretty much every domestic violence call.)

(on a slight tangent, let's also add that the "people known to each other" category in crime records includes anyone with a prior relationship whether it be personal, business, criminal.)

[Darrell KSR]

I think they should require an I.Q. test, a physical examination, a series of examinations with psychiatrists or other mental health professionals, a W-2 or other evidence of income, a voting record history, a list of all of the oil changes they've had for their car, and a record of their last bowel movement.

Where is the line? At what cost? You could enact all of my requirements, and I suspect that almost all of them could, in some ways, be used to show a decrease in the likelihood to commit a violent crime (yeah, even the bowel movement. Ever hear of irritable bowel syndrome? But I digress ).

Find the problem. Identify the problem. Then work backwards immediately from the problem along a logical, measured set to provide solutions.

Yeah, that's what our politicians do.

[CitizenBBN]

I like the idea of that IQ test for holding elective office. If I were in that legislature I'd probably introduce it as a response.

[suncat05]

All of the "anger management" classes that I have ever attended included propelling 180 grain projectiles downrange in large quantities. Works for me..........

[kritikalcat]

All of the "anger management" classes that I have ever attended included propelling 180 grain projectiles downrange in large quantities. Works for me..........

Reminds me of the "You know what I do when I'm angry. I hit a pillow" scene in Analyze This