By: Sharon Aron Baron
The grades are in and State Rep. Jared Moskowitz has earned an F-.
However, he doesn’t mind. After all, it’s a grade that he’s proud to have achieved through a grading system with the National Rifle Association.
As the only politician in the state of Florida to receive an F- grade from the NRA, Moskowitz, who represents Tamarac, Coral Springs, Sunrise and parts of Plantation said he’s wearing it as a badge of honor.
He believes he received it because NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer holds him personally responsible for the passage of the Marjory Stoneman Public Safety Act signed by Governor Scott in March. This was where he helped lead the charge, breaking with the caucus position after his moving speech on the house floor, which eventually went viral.
“She probably holds me personally responsible for that bill passing; that I rose to the moment,” said Moskowitz. “She probably looks to me as her main foe going forward.”
A graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, George Washington University, with a law degree from Nova Southeastern University, Moskowitz never received an F in his life.
“This is the lowest and proudest grade I’ve ever received simultaneously rolled up into one package,” he said. “Never before has my dad been so proud for me to receive an F -.”
Moskowitz said his parents were stern about his grades, and if he received even an A- in school, his father would ask why it wasn’t an A plus.
“Apparently there is an exception for grading which is: you can receive an F- and still make your parents proud – if it happens to be from the National Rifle Association.”
Moskowitz is clear that despite his stance on the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Act, he doesn’t want to take gun rights away from anyone.
He said the things they passed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act isn’t going to take the Second Amendment away. An assault weapons ban wouldn’t take anyone’s Second Amendment rights away, as they would still be able to obviously protect themselves and their families and bear arms.
“I want to make schools safe. I want to make movie theaters safe. I want to make malls safe. I want to make sure guns don’t fall into the hands of people like the Parkland shooter. I want to make sure we have background checks. I want to make sure we have people who don’t have extended magazines and bump stocks. Those are the things I want to do.”
He said he’s not interested in restricting the rights of people who are law-abiding citizens but he believes there are certain things we need to do to make sure we don’t have a shooting, and at the end of the day we don’t need military style weapons on our streets.
“This idea that myself or anyone else wants to take their Second Amendment rights away is ridiculous.”
A list of all grades are here.