JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- In his Colorado movie massacre that killed twelve and sent many more to the hospital, James Holmes used ammunition purchased legally online, striking up fear in Floridians and making many of us ask, could this potentially happen here?
"Surely the answer would be yes because this could happen anywhere," said State Representative, Audrey Gibson.
For Gibson, that also begs the question, how should she keep her constituents safe?
"How should we proceed to making sure the public is safe and what does that look like," she asked. "Does that look like being more restrictive with gun laws or what should we do?"
Many say the way we buy firearms in Florida is just fine, and our gun laws should stay status quo.
"I think Florida's gun control laws are pretty adequate as they are," said Will Jarrett. "I think the shooting in Colorado, I don't know why it gives anybody any reason to suddenly go to the book to change the laws. Being reactionary is not proper policy."
"I think they're good the way they are," said gun owner Max Franklin. Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
That's why Gibson says there should be a way to document who buys a gun in Florida, to make sure nobody is stock piling weapons like Holmes.
"The only thing I think we could do as a state is build some kind of a database," suggested Gibson. "We can't just say nobody can have firearms so we need to look at what are the control mechanisms that we can put into place," she said.
One control method Gibson recommends; taxing internet sales.
"If we enacted an internet sales tax, that would help us then to know in Florida who is potentially stockpiling ammunition," she said.
Bottom line, no matter how it gets done, Gibson wants to make sure Floridians feel safe.
"I believe there's a balance and certainly this incident calls us back to the table to look for that balance," she said.
