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NRA Has More Harsh Judgment For Judiciary Chair

The National Rifle Association is turning up the heat on a Jacksonville lawmaker who refused a last-ditch attempt to expand Florida’s stand your ground law.

NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer is trumpeting another reason she thinks Governor Rick Scott shouldn’t appoint House Judiciary Chairman Charles McBurney as a circuit judge --- temperament.

Hammer points to a well-publicized 2013 incident in which McBurney got a state trooper fired for issuing him a traffic ticket.

“He is unfit to be on the bench. When he puts himself above the people, as a legislator. I shudder to think what he would do on the bench.”

McBurney was pulled over for speeding, but the trooper ticketed him for lacking proof of insurance. McBurney filed a formal complaint and denied speeding or driving without his insurance card. The trooper was fired, then reinstated after challenging his dismissal.

McBurney says he earned a 100 percent NRA rating two years ago, but he agreed with prosecutors that the stand your ground bill would hurt domestic violence victims.

A Miami native, former WFSU reporter Jim Ash is an award-winning journalist with more than 20 years of experience, most of it in print. He has been a member of the Florida Capital Press Corps since 1992.