Florida Lawmakers Declared Porn A Health Risk On The Same Day They Blocked An Assault-Rifle Ban Vote

Getty Image

Florida’s House lawmakers called for more research on the negative health effects of porn while denying a debate on banning large-capacity clips and assault rifles, which Stoneman Douglas High School shooter Nikolas Cruz used to carry out the premeditated murder of 17 students. This decision has led to collective face-palming and calls from Democratic lawmakers to focus on the issue of coherent gun control to keep mass shootings from happening.

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the declaration of pornography as a health risk “states a need for education, research and policy changes to protect Floridians, especially teenagers, from pornography.”

These same lawmakers did not want to debate if AR-15 assault rifles should be banned after another mass shooting.

In January, state representative Ross Spano told Florida’s House Health and Human Services Committee the following:

“Research has found a correlation between pornography use and mental and physical illnesses, difficulty forming and maintaining intimate relationships, unhealthy brain development and cognitive function, and deviant, problematic or dangerous sexual behavior.”

As expected, people are wondering how Florida lawmakers can consider pornography a health risk but not even want to host a debate on assault weapons, which (by definition) are a risk to the health of those on the wrong side of the barrel:

https://twitter.com/_kaburi_/status/966099462681604096

This isn’t to say the risks around the severe consumption of pornography don’t exist (so far it’s inconclusive), but when held up to each other in a vacuum, it’s clear that this looks like a headline straight out of The Onion.

(Via Buzzfeed/Fox News/Tampa Bay Times)