Students gathered on the steps of the old Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday protesting gun violence. Associated Press/Matt Wallheiser
• Students across the US are rallying for stricter gun-control measures after the shooting in a Florida high school last week that killed 17 people.
• Students planned walkouts and staged protests and rallies in Tallahassee, Florida, and Washington, DC.
• Lawmakers are under pressure to act on gun-control measures, and President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he intended to ban "bump stock" devices for semiautomatic firearms.

Students in Florida and Maryland walked out of their schools en masse Wednesday to protest gun violence in what could be a preview of nationwide demonstrations planned for next month.

Dozens of students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, the site of the shooting that left 17 people dead last week, joined hundreds of their peers from across Florida to descend on the state Capitol, enraged that state lawmakers on Tuesday dismissed a bill that would ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines.

The crowd chanted slogans like "vote them out" and "never again," railing against the Republican-controlled chamber, the Associated Press reported.

"We're what's making the change. We're going to talk to these politicians," Alfonso Calderon, one of the shooting survivors, told CBS News, adding: "We're going to keep pushing until something is done, because people are dying and this can't happen anymore."

Students at the Florida rally wore "We call B.S." T-shirts, according to The Washington Post. The slogans referred to their peer, Emma Gonzalez, who recently used the phrase in an impassioned speech denouncing lawmakers for inaction on gun control.

Gwendolyn Frantz, 17, of Kensington, Maryland, in front of the White House on Wednesday during a student protest advocating gun control. Associated Press/Evan Vucci

Also Wednesday, thousands of high-school students from Maryland marched at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, chanting "NRA, not today," according to The Hill.

"After the Parkland, Florida, shooting, we students can no longer stay silent on the issue of gun violence in the United States," a Maryland student named Daniel Gelillo said in a statement announcing the event. "Far too many innocent lives have been taken in these slaughters, all because of the easy access and availability of guns in general and assault weapons in particular."

Students have planned a national school walkout on March 14 and a "March for Our Lives" protest on March 24.

Lawmakers appear to be under the most pressure in recent memory to enact gun-control measures, and public-opinion polls show American voters are increasingly favoring stricter gun laws.

President Donald Trump announced Tuesday he had directed the Justice Department to ban bump-stock devices, a rifle attachment used in last year's mass shooting in Las Vegas, and he indicated he'd be open to improving the federal background-check system.</s>CLOSE

House Republicans reject a bid to debate a bill that would ban the kind of weapons used at Stoneman Douglas High and the Pulse nightclub.

Buy Photo Students from Broward County, including some from Stoneman Douglas High School, meet with Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, in his office Tuesday to advocate for gun reform. (Photo: Hali Tauxe/Democrat)Buy Photo

CLOSE Teenage survivors from the Stoneman Douglas shooting are in Tallahassee to tell lawmakers they want a ban on assault weapons. James Call

Even as survivors from the Stoneman Douglas High School massacre roamed the Capitol’s hallways demanding lawmakers act to stop mass killings Tuesday, the Florida House refused to debate an assault weapons ban. The vote was along party-lines in the GOP controlled chamber.

A motion to hear a proposal by Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando, failed, 36 – 71. Tallahassee representatives Loranne Ausley and Ramon Alexander voted with Democrats. Rep. Halsey Beshears, R-Monticello, failed to vote on the issue.

The procedural vote came as the nation's attention is focused on Florida and the Legislature after the events in Parkland a week ago. The first wave of Douglas students began lobbying lawmakers Tuesday morning. More were expected to arrive in Tallahassee Tuesday night for a Wednesday noon rally.

The overflow of students at Sen. Perry Thurston's office pushed Spencer Blum’s back against the wall. Blum wants an assault weapons ban. A 14-year old classmate chimed in she didn’t want to live in fear of going to school.

“A gunman opened fire with an AR-15 at my school. Sandy Hook, Las Vegas, Pulse and now my school. Enough,” said Blum in Tallahassee while his school remains closed so the people of Parkland can bury the victims.

“This is where it stops,” said Blum, who plans to study chemistry or meteorology when he goes to college.

Stoneman Douglas students in Tallahassee:

Gun control advocates welcomed Blum and the other students as reinforcements in a fight they have been losing for nearly two decades. Time is short. There are only three weeks remaining in the 2018 legislative session. They face a legislative schedule that is about to become mostly focus on a budget. When the session ends March 9, lawmakers won’t return until after the November elections.

The House vote shows, despite the immensity of last week's tragedy, students face a tough climb to get new gun restrictions.

Speaking to a radio interviewer on Monday, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, Stoneman Douglas Class of ’99, explained the hard realities of gun politics in Florida.

“We’ve deemed it unsafe for a teenager to go rent a car but not unsafe to have an AR-15 and extended magazines and enough ammo to go to war on the streets of America,” said Moskowitz.

In the works is a six-point plan to restrict access to firearms for those with mental illness, a three-day waiting period for rifle purchases, a minimum age of 21 for rifle purchases, expanded background checks, and money for school safety.

Gov. Rick Scott organized a series of workshops Tuesday in Tallahassee to examine school safety, mental illness and gun regulations. Scott has said all options are on the table. Students, gun control advocates and lawmakers are waiting to see what he will propose.

Gun control advocates say they feel the ground shifting in a long-running debate

“I have been here for 12 years; these people don’t listen to me on gun control. That’s just a fact,” said Rep. Evan Jenne, D-Hollywood, of the Republican majority.

“These students may be the change agents needed to make something happen in Florida when it comes to gun control,” said Jenne. “The kids from Stoneman Douglas are old enough to read bills and laws and say ‘this is wrong.’ The kids at Sandy Hook couldn’t do that. These are young adults. It’s a different animal.”

In his office before the House vote, Jenne said at the very least the Senate and House should discuss a proposal to ban semi-automatic weapons. He thought it a long-shot at best to get the majority to agree. Sen. Linda Stewart and Smith, her fellow Democrat from Orlando, both filed the proposal after the Pulse nightclub shooting in 2016.

Buy Photo High school students from Broward County, including Stoneman Douglas, where seventeen people were killed and fifteen more injured by shooter Nikolas Cruz, speak with Senator Kelli Stargel, left, Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee about measures to ban the sale of weapons like the AR-15 used by Cruz. (Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

“They need to realize and acknowledge that assault weapons are weapons of war,” said Smith. “There’s a reason why the Douglas shooter left his other guns at home. The assault weapon is the gold standard for mass murder.”

Jack Levine lobbied the Florida Legislature on child welfare issues for more than 40 years. Now retired, he is still a familiar sight in a Capitol building he once called a “monument to subtlety.” Usually when change comes, it is in increments small enough to be unnoticeable until a critical mass is formed, he believes.

“They are turning the corner on an amazing transformation,” said Levine drinking coffee outside the statehouse cafeteria as a group of teenagers filed in for lunch. Levine explained the change the students bring to the gun debate is in perspective – the witnesses are no longer the experts but an individual with real life experience.

“We saw it in the foster care system 10 years ago, when foster youth showed up at committee meetings,” recalled Levine. “We love social workers, but the kids’ experiences were more influential than the experts’ credentials.”

More importantly, Levine said the change the students represented is their transformation from voices in a crowd to promising voters.

“And that’s what gets the attention of most political people. It’s not just what you say. It is what you do,” Levine said with a smile.

Buy Photo High school students from Broward County, including Stoneman Douglas, where seventeen people were killed and fifteen more injured by shooter Nikolas Cruz, speak with Senator Wilton Simpson, top right, on Tuesday at the Capitol in Tallahassee about implementing measures to ban the sale of weapons like the AR-15 used by Cruz. (Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

That's why Blum and his schoolmates had come seeking a ban on assault weapons.

“I will not rest until we get this done. I will not let them beat around the bush,” said the high school junior, eyeing two senators as they pass by. “I want them to tell me whether they will vote yes to save lives or will they vote no and let this continue.”

Reporter James Call can be reached at jcall@tallahassee.com.

Local echoes to school shooting

Read or Share this story: http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2018/02/20/students-demand-action-and-house-votes-no-assault-weapons/356694002/</s>Florida students turn up heat on lawmakers for gun action

Student survivors of the Florida school shooting that saw 17 people killed in a hail of bullets last week descended on the state capital Wednesday to ramp up the pressure on lawmakers to enact tougher gun control measures.

Holding signs reading “Never Again” and “Be The Adults, Do Something,” students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School rallied with thousands of supporters outside the imposing white stone-columned capitol building in Tallahassee.

“I am here to demand change from my government,” student Lorenzo Prado told the crowd. “To let these victims lives be taken without any change in return is an act of treason to our great country.”

“To let our fellow countrymen fall beside us without fighting back is to me equal to leaving a soldier to die in the battlefield.”

Rallying in solidarity, students staged walkouts from other high schools in Florida and elsewhere vowing to make the tragedy a turning point in America’s deadlocked debate on gun control.

In Washington, hundreds of local high school students gathered outside the White House chanting slogans against the National Rifle Association (NRA), the powerful gun lobby, and demanding action from President Donald Trump.

Faced with the massive outpouring of grief and outrage over the Parkland, Florida shooting, Trump was to meet with parents, students and teachers at the White House on Wednesday to discuss school safety.

Trump — who received strong backing from the NRA during his White House run — is also showing a new-found willingness to take at least some steps on gun control.

The president threw his support on Tuesday behind moves to ban “bump stocks” — an accessory that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic one.

Calls to ban bump stocks have been mounting since Stephen Paddock, a retired accountant, used them on several of his weapons to kill 58 concertgoers in Las Vegas in October 2017 in the deadliest mass shooting in recent US history.

Although the former student who shot dead 17 people in Florida last week did not have bump stocks on his gun, there has been a renewed focus on the devices because outlawing them is a rare point of agreement between Democrats, some Republicans and the NRA.

In Florida, more than 100 students from Stoneman Douglas travelled eight hours in buses on Tuesday to meet with state legislators and demand they action on gun laws.

– ‘Things are going to change’ –

“My classmates and I are probably the most determined group of people you will ever meet,” said student Sofie Whitney.

“People are talking about how we aren’t serious because we’re children, but… we’re serious.”

The students’ push for change hit a hurdle Tuesday when the Republican-dominated Florida House of Representatives declined to take up a debate on legislation that would have banned assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

The US Congress is also deadlocked on the gun debate, accomplishing nothing since the shooting in Las Vegas.

“We must actually make a difference,” Trump said Tuesday.

“We must move past cliches and tired debates and focus on evidence-based solutions and security measures that actually work,” he said. “We must do more to protect our children.”

“This includes implementing common sense security measures and addressing mental health issues,” he said, “including better coordination between federal and state law enforcement to take swift action when there are warning signs.”

Florida school shooter Nikolas Cruz, 19, had a history of troubling behavior and a person close to him warned the FBI five weeks before the shooting that he was a threat — but no action was taken.

Cruz legally bought the gun he used in the attack — an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle — and the White House said Tuesday it would consider raising the age for such purchases.

“I think that’s certainly something that’s on the table,” spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

Students are planning a march on Washington next month and on Tuesday, they earned two million dollars in pledges from Hollywood A-listers George Clooney and his human rights lawyer wife Amal, Oprah Winfrey, director Steven Spielberg and film producer Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The “March for Our Lives” is scheduled to take place on March 24, with sister rallies planned across the country.

Americans support stricter gun laws by a 66 to 31 percent margin, according to a poll released on Tuesday by Quinnipiac University.

It described the margin as “the highest level of support” for stricter gun control since it began surveys on the question in 2008.</s>The Florida House on Tuesday defeated a move to debate a ban on assault weapons. The party-line vote came as survivors of last week’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre roamed the capitol’s hallways demanding lawmakers act to stop mass killings.

While Douglas students looked on, the proposal by state Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando failed, 36-71.

Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and MaryLynn Magar, R-Tequesta, all voted no. Larry Lee, D-Port St. Lucie, voted yes.

More: Florida school shooting: Gov. Rick Scott says 'everything is on the table' after Parkland

Sheryl Acquarola, a 16-year-old junior from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, is overcome with emotion in the east gallery of the House of Representatives after the representatives voted not to hear the bill banning assault rifles and large capacity magazines at the Florida Capital in Tallahassee, Fla., Feb 20, 2018. Acquarola was one of the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that left 17 dead, who were in Tallahassee channeling their anger and sadness into action. (Photo: Mark Wallheiser/AP)

Three weeks remain in the 2018 legislative session to enact new gun control laws.

More: Viral ascent of 'Never Again' movement could change Florida gun laws | Eve Samples

More: Florida school shooting survivors to talk gun, mental health issues with legislators</s>High school students from Broward County, led by local legislators like Sen. Lauren Book, took buses to the Florida State Capitol to push for gun control legislation and meet with lawmakers and officials. Videography by Daniel Ducassi.</s>PHILADELPHIA (CNN) — The Florida state House on Tuesday voted down a motion on a bill that would ban assault rifles and large capacity magazine as dozens of students and staff who survived last week’s school shooting headed to the state Capitol to turn their grief into political action.

The motion failed by a 36-71 vote during a legislative session that opened with a prayer for the 17 people killed by a former student last Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Florida House Rep. Kionne McGhee of Miami invoked the shooting in asking that HB 219 — which would bans AR-15 rifles and other assault weapons and large capacity magazines — be moved from committee to the House floor for questions, debate and a vote.

“I ask that you keep this bill and the conversation about the solution to combat mass shootings alive,” McGhee told the House before the vote.

“While this is an extraordinary procedural move, the shooting in Parkland demands extraordinary action.”

With subcommittees set to consider the bill not scheduled to meet this session, the bill is effectively dead, McGhee said.

Under the rallying cry of #NeverAgain, dozens of students and staff who survived the Florida school shooting departed for the state Capitol, where they hope to speak with lawmakers about school safety and gun control Wednesday.</s>Lawmakers voted down a motion to consider the ban during a session that opened with a prayer for the 17 people killed by a former student last Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. The vote in the Republican-dominated body was 36-71.

Stoneman Douglas students in the gallery of the Capitol during the vote appeared stunned, according to CNN affiliate Spectrum News 13/Bay News 9.

House Rep. Kionne McGhee of Miami invoked the shooting in asking that HB 219 -- which would ban AR-15 rifles and other assault weapons and large capacity magazines -- be moved from committee to the House floor for questions, debate and a vote.

"I ask that you keep this bill and the conversation about the solution to combat mass shootings alive," McGhee, Democratic ranking member on the Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee, told the House before the vote.

"While this is an extraordinary procedural move, the shooting in Parkland demands extraordinary action." Parkland students: This is why we're going to Florida's capital With subcommittees set to consider the bill not scheduled to meet this session, the bill is effectively dead, McGhee said. Under the rallying cry #NeverAgain, dozens of students and staff who survived the Florida school shooting departed on Tuesday for the state Capitol, where they hope to speak with lawmakers on Wednesday about school safety and gun control. Some students had headed to the Capitol earlier and were there when the vote took place. "I knew that it wasn't going to go through," Sheryl Acquaroli, a 16 year-old junior from Stoneman Douglas, told Capitol News Service of Tallahassee. But she lamented the vote disparity as "too much." "The next death of someone with an assault rifle here in Florida is going to be on them," she said of the 71 votes against the motion. "It's going to be their fault. ... because they could have done something today." Many of the students on the buses were eating at an Orlando rest stop when they learned of the legislative defeat. As Marjory Stoneman Douglas students were en route to Tallahassee, the Florida House opted not to take up a weapons ban this session. At a rest stop, @firepfeiffer1 shares his thoughts. pic.twitter.com/pCpbfTe7O7 — Eliott C. McLaughlin (@EliottCNN) February 20, 2018 Diego Pfeiffer, 18, a senior at Stoneman Douglas, acknowledged that the issue has multiple perspectives and likened the need to toughen gun control to the fight to end slavery and the suffrage movement. "On great decisions in the past, there have been two sides and the good side always wins out in the end, and that's what I am hopeful for when I get to Tallahassee," he said.</s>(PARKLAND, Fla.) — Students who survived the Florida school shooting began a journey Tuesday to the state Capitol to urge lawmakers to prevent another massacre, but within hours the gun-friendly Legislature had effectively halted any possibility of banning assault-style rifles like the one used in the attack.

The legislative action further energized the teens as they prepared to confront legislators who have quashed gun-control efforts for decades in a state where 1.3 million people have concealed carry permits.

“They’re voting to have shootings continually happen. These people who voted down the bill haven’t experienced what we did. I want to say to them, ‘It could be you,'” 16-year-old Noah Kaufman said as he made the 400-mile (640-kilometer) trip to Tallahassee.

Three buses carried 100 students who, in the aftermath of the attack that killed 17 people, want to revive the gun-control movement. The teens carried sleeping bags and pillows and hugged their parents as they departed, many wearing burgundy T-shirts in their school colors.

Read More: What Are Bump Stocks? President Trump Is Seeking To Ban Them

They spent the seven-hour ride checking their phones, watching videos and reading comments on social media about the shooting, some of which accused them of being liberal pawns.

As the grieving Florida students demanded action on guns, President Donald Trump on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to move to ban devices like the rapid-fire bump stocks used in last year’s Las Vegas massacre. It was a small sign of movement on the gun violence issue that has long tied Washington in knots.

“We must do more to protect our children,” said Trump, a strong and vocal supporter of gun rights. He added that his administration was working hard to respond to the Florida rampage.

Meanwhile at the Florida Statehouse, a Democratic representative asked for a procedural move that would have allowed the Republican-controlled House to consider a ban on large-capacity magazines and assault-style rifles such as the AR-15 that was wielded by the suspect, Nickolas Cruz.

The bill had been assigned to three committees but was not scheduled for a hearing. The House quickly nixed the Democratic motion. The vote broke down along party lines, and Republicans criticized Democrats for forcing the vote.

Read More: Everything You Need to Know About March For Our Lives

Because the committees will not meet again before the legislative session ends March 9, the move essentially extinguishes hope that lawmakers would vote on any sweeping measures to restrict assault rifles, although other proposals could still be considered.

“No one in the world with the slightest little hint of a soul isn’t moved by this tragedy,” Republican strategist Rick Wilson said. “The discussion has to be a longer, bigger and broader discussion.”

Lizzie Eaton, a junior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, spent the day lobbying senators of both parties and concluded that lawmakers were “just not listening to us.”

The vote was “heartbreaking,” she said. “But we’re not going to stop.”

The students planned to hold a rally Wednesday to put more pressure on the Legislature.

“I really think they are going to hear us out,” said Chris Grady, a high school senior aboard the bus.

The Feb. 14 attack initially appeared to overcome the resistance of some in the state’s political leadership, which has rebuffed gun restrictions since Republicans took control of both the governor’s office and the Legislature in 1999. However, many members of the party still have strong resistance to any gun-control measures.

Republican leaders in the House and Senate say they will consider raising age restrictions for gun purchases and temporarily revoking someone’s guns if that person is deemed a threat to others. Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican, convened groups assigned to propose measures for protecting schools from gun violence.

Lawmakers will probably say that getting a new bill passed is nearly impossible with only two and a half weeks left in the legislative session. Some lawmakers who are thinking of running on a statewide ticket are mindful of their sensitive positions, since gun owners make up huge voting blocs in some parts of the state, especially the Panhandle.

Wilson said he knows the students “want something to happen,” and they need “a moment to come and make their case.”

But, he said, “the thought that you get to wave a wand and change the law is something that is probably going to collide with reality.”

The Parkland students also plan to meet Wednesday with top legislative leaders, including Corcoran and Senate President Joe Negron.

Florida has a reputation for expanding gun rights. Negron sponsored a 2011 bill that Scott signed into law that banned cities and counties from regulating gun and ammunition sales.

Authorities said Cruz, 19, had a string of run-ins with school authorities that ended with his expulsion. Police were repeatedly called to his house throughout his childhood. His lawyers said there were many warning signs that he was mentally unstable and potentially violent. Yet he legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle.

The Senate is also considering boosting spending on mental health programs for schools and giving law-enforcement greater power to involuntarily hold someone considered a danger to themselves. The chamber will also look at a proposal to deputize a teacher or someone else at school so they are authorized to have a gun.

Kyle Kashuv, a 16-year-old student at the high school, said he was pro-gun prior to the shooting.

“I had no issue with anyone having a gun of any caliber,” said Kashuv, as he rode in the bus to Tallahassee. “I was all for it. But after the situation, I realized we have some issues in our society and it has to be addressed.

The fact that someone who was so steadfast in support of gun rights now acknowledges the need for changes “really shows how important what we’re doing is,” he said.</s>As hundreds of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School prepare to board buses to lobby lawmakers to demand gun control, a measure was struck down on Tuesday by the Republican-held Florida House that would ban assault weapons.

The motion was denied by a whopping 71-36 tally.

Tuesday's vote came six days after a confessed gunman killed 17 lives at the Parkland, Florida high school. Many of the 3,000 students of the high school have since been vocal in their opposition to status quo gun laws, with the hope of increasing restrictions to posses firearms.

On Wednesday, some of the students will arrive at the Florida Capitol to express their desire for tighter gun laws.

The accused gunman, Nikolas Cruz, used an AR-15 type weapon during his massacre, which only lasted several minutes before he tried to blend in with students escaping the school.

According to the Associated Press, the bill will likely no longer be considered during this session of the legislature.</s>With survivors of last week's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting watching from the gallery, the GOP-controlled Florida House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly against a motion to consider legislation that would "ban assault rifles and large capacity magazines"—a move critics quickly denounced as "cowardly" and further evidence that Republican lawmakers are beholden to the interests of the National Rifle Association (NRA).

"Most people would probably be ashamed to basically kill a gun control bill with teenage survivors in the room with them." 

—Luke Darby, GQ

"It was just so heartbreaking to see how many names were up there," Sheryl Acquaroli, a junior from Stoneman Douglas, told CNN following the 36-71 party-line vote. "It seemed almost heartless how they immediately pushed the button to say no."

According to Democratic State Rep. Kionne McGhee, the bill—which had been assigned to committees but not scheduled for a hearing—is now effectively dead, "unless the House vote[s] to remove it from the committees."

Here is a list of the 71 representatives who voted down the motion.

"Most people would probably be ashamed to basically kill a gun control bill with teenage survivors in the room with them," wrote GQ's Luke Darby. "But shame isn't enough of an incentive to get a legislator to flip on such a lucrative and politically useful issue. Unfortunately for them, these students are organized, angry, and soon to be voting age."

The Florida House's vote came as hundreds of students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School arrived in Tallahassee after traveling hundreds of miles by bus to pressure lawmakers to pass stricter gun control measures, including a ban on assault rifles.

Ahead of Tuesday's vote, students and parent activists held a candlelight vigil remembering the victims of last week's shooting.

"We're fighting for the friends we lost. We're fighting for the future kids that we're going to have, and that's why we're marching and that's why we're here talking to our senators and our representatives," Sofie Whitney, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, told a crowd of her fellow students late Tuesday.

While Florida Republicans declined to even allow debate on an assault rifle ban, they did come together—on the same day—to officially declare pornography "a public health threat."

"Basically, what they have determined is that these are the Republican priorities in 2018," said Democratic Florida State Rep. Carlos Guillermo-Smith in an interview with The Independent. "Wasting our time with debate and legislation that declares porn as a health threat, meanwhile we can't even get a single debate, vote, or hearing on anything related to assault weapons. That's really sad."
Families and students from Parkland, Florida, begin arriving in Tallahassee, the Florida State Capitol, for advocacy meetings with lawmakers and other State officials. During Tuesday's legislative session, the Republican-controlled Florida House defeated, by a party-line vote, a motion to debate assault weapons ban legislation, 71-36.