Is it finally clear to voters that the Florida Republican Party is a radical fringe? Maybe. ... by gimleteye

What is wrong with Trump supporters/ the Republican Party? Have they entirely lost their minds? The answer to that, is a resounding YES. Watch this amazing clip from CNN:

RUSSIA FOUND OUR VERY WORST AND IS STILL EXPLOITING THEM: this Florida woman, who ran a Trump supporters page that unwittingly promoted a Russian-coordinated event on Facebook says she doesn’t believe that she was influenced by Kremlin-linked trolls.

Then, this: the GOP majority state legislature yesterday argued that porn is more dangerous than semi automatic weapons in schools. Really.

The news is splattering across the web. From GQ Magazine:

One is a threat to public health and should be investigated, the other is an AR-15.

On Tuesday, less than a week after the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, students who survived the massacre looked on as Florida's House of Representatives voted along party lines to shut down a bill banning assault rifles.

According to Florida's legislature the real threat to the health and safety of the state's teens isn't how easy it is for their classmate to legally purchase an AR-15. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the pressing, immediate danger is in all those erotic Tumblrs out there:

The state's House of Representatives approved the resolution by a voice vote on Tuesday. The resolution states a need for education, research and policy changes to protect Floridians, especially teenagers, from pornography.

Republican Rep. Ross Spano says there is research that finds a connection between pornography use and mental and physical illnesses, forming and maintaining intimate relationships and deviant sexual behavior. Spano is also a candidate for attorney general.

The most twisted part of this is the demands by Florida Republicans to research the public health impact of porn, while the CDC is implicitly banned from doing research on gun violence. The 1996 Dickey Amendment specifically blocks the CDC from using its budget to "advocate or promote gun control," and since objective, peer-reviewed, scientific studies consistently show effective gun control would reduce gun violence, there's no research the CDC can do that won't sacrifice its funding.

This is a clear example of Republican priorities, where gun control isn't a public health issue or a matter of literal life and death, but rather it's a political wedge issue that lets you clobber Democrats or out-rightwing other Republicans in primaries. This is the political world where news of 17 people shot to death in a high school is received gladly by a president's administration because it means their incompetence won't take up as much space in the news cycle.

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