Yes, a state Democratic Party chair just applauded a move by the ATF that is, ultimately, a pro-gun move. Yes, it’s enough to make you check and make sure you’re not still asleep and having the least realistic dream you’ve had since that time in high school when you dreamed that Heather Locklear was next to you as you stood on a pyramid in sun god-like robes while thousands of naked women were screaming and throwing little pickles at you.
What? I’m the only one who has that dream?
Anyway, a state chair. Democrat.
Yes, it’s surprising, but it’s actually a case of this particular Democrat being consistent. Not on guns, mind you, but something else.
Nikki Fried, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party (FDP), issued a statement Thursday applauding an announcement by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that would loosen restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms by medical marijuana users.
At first glance, loosening gun restrictions might seem to be a surprising position for a Democrat to take, much less a state party chair. But Fried has a long history of not being as strenuously anti-gun rights as many others on the left are.
One of her previous gigs was Florida’s Agriculture Commissioner, a statewide elected position that oversees medical marijuana programs and the issuance of gun permits.
And it’s the marijuana issue where Fried’s consistency shines through.
She’s not fond of gun rights, to be sure, and isn’t someone whom I’d trust not to enact all kinds of gun control if given half a chance. However, she’s definitely been pro-pot, and she hasn’t let her own anti-gun biases get in the way of being pro-marijuana legalization, unlike many others who suddenly find marijuana users simply too dangerous to own a gun, while still thinking the drug is safe enough to have a dispensary next to every Starbucks.
Fried has been an advocate for the expansion of marijuana legalization throughout her career, working as a lobbyist for the medical marijuana industry before getting into politics and teaching cannabis law seminars at the University of Florida College of Law.
Near the end of her time as Ag Commissioner, Fried filed a lawsuit challenging the ATF regulations that prohibited those who participate in state medical marijuana programs from buying and owning guns.
Again, consistency.
Say what you want, but I can at least respect it since many other Democrats are losing their minds over this new rule, despite otherwise favoring marijuana. That’s an inescapable inconsistency, in my mind, and Fried is about the only somewhat high-profile Democrat who isn’t inconsistent on the subject.
I might not particularly like her politics on most things, but I respect the consistency here if nothing else.
If only she could convince the rest of her party that guns aren’t suddenly going to make marijuana users any more dangerous than they are without them. If she could do that, we might actually get somewhere on the issue. Alas, Fried is unique in that way.
Of course, as a state chair, she doesn’t really have any power to change anything in the Democratic Party, which is a shame, because this would be the easiest sell I can think of, and too many are still losing their minds over marijuana users not being forbidden entirely from owning firearms.
All too typical.
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