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Florida gun laws have not changed much since Pulse shooting

Posted at 7:15 PM, Jun 09, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-11 09:00:25-04

They are the pictures and emotions we all felt.

Friends and partners out for a fun night, ending with a mass shooting.

Our hearts broke as millions of us watched parents such as Christine Leinonen begging to find her son.

"For the parents who had gay sons, they saw me desperate to just spend one more second with my gay son. What I wouldn't do to find out he was alive."

Christopher Leinonen died along with 48 other people.

In the year since the gunman bought guns at a local gun store and went on the murder spree, we found there have been no new national restrictions on gun purchases.

The last time congress voted on gun laws was 2013, when they voted to extend a gun law banning plastic handguns.

In Florida, Christine has tried to stay vocal in support of gun restrictions.

"I know common sense gun policies save lives. Christopher lost his voice much too young. But I didn't lose mine."

We searched Florida's legislative record and found since the shooting lawmakers proposed more than 20 bills related to guns.

Democrats wanted mental health screenings for those applying for a concealed-weapons permit and a ban on assault weapons. Neither of those passed.

Republicans successfully expanded the "Stand Your Ground" law and made it easier to claim self-defense in pre-trial hearings.

The National Rifle Association has weighed in on this in fact. in this memo, it blames the Florida Senate leadership for not calling some of those pro-gun bills to a vote of the full Senate, in fact it calls the leadership obstructionists.

A Harvard Business School study shows that after mass shootings, just like the one at Pulse nightclub, there are usually more gun bills introduced across the country. Only 15% ended up passing. Of the roughly two dozen proposals in Florida, just three passed.

Christine says she isn't slowing down, she won't forget how her son died and she will keep pushing she says to make this country safer.

"We need gun safety in this country, it's clear that we have mass shooting, after mass shooting, after mass shooting. It's so staggering that you don't even remember the number, you don't even remember the names."