Florida Democrats introduce bill to track suspicious gun sales on anniversary of Parkland shooting

Two Florida Democrats introduced legislation to track suspicious gun and ammunition purchases on Wednesday, the sixth anniversary of the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left 14 students and three staff members dead.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), who represents Parkland, unveiled the legislation along with Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), who represents Orlando, where the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting happened. Other lawmakers joined the two at a press conference to honor the victims of the 2018 shooting.

The Identify Gun Stores Act “is simple,” Frost said. It would allow credit card companies to create new merchant category codes to better identify sellers of guns and ammunition. The measure then would allow credit card companies to detect suspicious sales and flag the activity.

Frost said such a measure could have allowed the internet searches and credit card purchases of the Parkland shooter to be flagged.

It’s unlikely to go anywhere in the GOP-controlled House.

The Democrats also used the press conference to slam their Republican colleagues for a lack of action on gun safety.

Moskowitz, who is a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, argued that the shooting was an “indictment on elected officials” who had allowed it to happen by “not dealing with the fact that mentally ill people can have access to weapons.”

Moskowitz has hosted bipartisan groups of congressional members to tour the school, which has remained locked for use as evidence in the trial against the gunman. Items inside the school have remained untouched since Feb. 14, 2018.

“Writing on the board, homework on the desks, computers, the essays that were being written and within the horrors of those walls are lessons,” Moskowitz said, adding that “there are bipartisan things we can do here in this Congress.”

Moskowitz said he brings Republican colleagues to the school because he believes that “there are areas that we can work together, especially on school safety.”

House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), who toured the Parkland school, also criticized Congress for its inability to pass gun violence prevention measures.

“Everything is just as it was six years ago on Valentine’s Day. It is a place frozen in time,” Clark said of the school. “And so is Capitol Hill. Our gun laws are frozen in the past.”

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) was also in attendance for the press conference. McBath wished the mothers and fathers of children killed in shootings across the country a happy Valentine’s Day. Her son Jordan was shot and killed in 2012. He would have turned 29 on Friday, she said.

Moskowitz concluded the press conference by saying he wants to work with Republicans but can’t pretend that it’s not difficult.

“Let’s not pretend this is the most productive Congress of all time, and we just can’t get gun violence prevention, right?” he said. “These guys can’t even decide who they want to be their Speaker.”