By Marion P. Hammer
U.S.A. -(AmmoLand.com)- On December 3, 2020, attorneys representing NRA filed a Motion to exclude the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) from relying on a “mouse brain” expert to testify that 18-20-year-old adults in Florida are not mature enough to buy guns.
FDLE’s so-called expert, Dr. Pradeep G. Bhide, was a veterinarian in India, then studied brain science in Scotland before coming to the United States. Now, based on studies he did on “mouse brains,” Dr. Bhide is trying to act as an expert on young adults in Florida and claim young adults should not be allowed to purchase guns.
However, despite his claims, Bhide has not offered any hard evidence that young adults age 18 to 20 are more likely to commit criminal violence with a purchased firearm than other adults. Dr. Bhide’s opinions on young brains are extrapolated from emerging research of others in the very specialized and controversial area of adolescent brain development where Dr. Bhide himself admits that he has conducted no research, authored no articles, and given no presentations himself on human adolescent and adult brains.
Even Dr. Bhide has admitted and confirmed that “you cannot pinpoint the age of brain maturity” in humans, yet he claims to be able to testify as an expert on 18-20-year-olds who would purchase of firearms. This would be laughable if it were not so ridiculous.
The legislature never considered any evidence to support the ban, much less the pseudoscientific opinion offered by Dr. Bhide. Rather, it merely reacted out of emotion to the Parkland tragedy.
Florida Republican legislators acquiesced and allowed themselves to be stampeded by Sen. Bill Galvano who received over $500,000 from Michael Bloomberg’s EveryTown. It was about money, power and political favors and had nothing to do with science of any kind.
Our fight is about protecting the Constitutional rights and freedoms of law-abiding adults in America, whether they are young adults or elderly adults.
Link to the Motion NRA filed: HERE
About NRA-ILA:
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the “lobbying” arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess, and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Visit: www.nra.org
Funny. My country trusted me to carry a rifle at 17. In the Marine Corps.
OOOOH RAH, Brother
Thank you for your service. Too many take that responsibility too lightly.
I was (at age 19) trusted by the Army to use(!) an “assault rifle”… with no ill effects – more than a half century later, and still counting!
In 1970, I was liaison officer to a Marine unit in VietNam. The majority of marines in that location were under 21, but I was very impressed with their abilities and their patriotism. And, thank you for your service, by the way.
Just the kind of person needed to examine socialists'(they use Liberal as a weasel word) brains.
I mean, mouse brains must be pretty close in both size & ability… 🙂
Well then … no voting until age 21.
Yesss!
^this^
I wonder if Biden thinks its ok to issue 17 to 20 year-old government employees automatic firearms.
If the NRA had any balls, they would counter with a historian that can recount this history of gun clubs and ranges in public schools.
Such as:
https://nypost.com/2018/03/31/when-toting-guns-in-high-school-was-cool/
https://www.nrahlf.org/articles/2018/8/9/what-happened-to-middle-school-rifle-club/
The problem is they don’t. They’re all about fancy dinners and gifts for their mistresses now. It needs to be gutted and Wayne needs to never have a thing to do with the NRA ever again.
Interesting.
There’s a private school near me here in the UK & they have a thriving rifle club.
We need to be careful here. Banning “mouse brain” conclusions could have unintended consequences. Rep DeGette (D-Colorado) testified at length (video available online) about how banning the manufacture of new high-capacity magazines would, over time, reduce their numbers because, once the rounds were fired from a currently-owned magazine, the magazine itself would then be thrown away since, as single-use, it would no longer be useable. The larger problem here is that few Congressman have any more inherent knowledge of firearms than they do any of the other subjects they pass laws on – and listening to DeGette stumble through her… Read more »
Thank you, NRA, for showing up more frequently in recent days as actually doing things to protect the Second Amendment! Please keep it up.
Here is some more history of gun clubs and ranges in public schools:
https://shakerite.com/spotlight/rifle-club/31/2019/
At least we in Florida have some kind of expert .