The Tampa Bay area is a major media market. In fact this week it jumped over Seattle to becoming the 13th largest Designated Market Area in the U.S.But in some ways it doesn't seem like a big media market, at least from a news reporter's point of view.
Case in point? The issue of gun control. When I began covering news in this region back in 2000, the issue of guns and gun control was big, driven by several bloody mass shootings in 1999, none bigger than in Columbine. That's what led to the Million Mom March in the spring of 2000.
And then, not much happened on the gun control front in this country, until Newtown.
But there was always one man in the Tampa Bay area fighting very hard for gun control. A man by the name of Arthur Hayhoe. The Tampa Bay Times reports this morning that Mr. Hayhoe, who served as the volunteer executive director of the Florida Coalition to Stop Gun Violence and Floridians for Gun Safety, died Monday at the age of 82.
Hayhoe was the lone guy reporters could contact when they wanted to include a voice in opposition to the Gunshine State mentality of the NRA-lovin' Florida Legislature, who never like a gun law that they can't dilute. And that was well before a little thing called Stand Your Ground was passed back in 2005. He was the guy who appeared on television and radio, often the one guy, the only guy, whom the media could find to give a different perspective, a perspective that is hardly a minority opinion, though it often seems that way here in Florida.
After Adam Lanza killed 26 people, including 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, new gun control groups emerged, most prominently the Michael Bloomberg-created Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. That group tried to rally for some type of legislation post-Newtown in 2013, but a modest universal background check went down to defeat in the Senate in April of last year.
Although he never recorded any wins for his cause, he was in the game, and will always be remembered by this reporter for speaking up and giving a damn. May you rest in peace, Mr. Hayhoe. You will be missed.
In other news...
A Sunshine State Survey produced by by the USF School of Public Affairs and Nielsen was published yesterday. Floridians have a renewed faith in local government — but not so much for what's going on in Washington.
9/11 was observed yesterday in Ybor City. CL's Ashley Whitney has more.
And it's just over 50 days before voters in Pinellas County decide on Greenlight Pinellas. Our report on where that campaign stands at this point.