ORLANDO, Fla. – The founder of the Orlando Ribbon Project has created a petition urging Floridians to ban bump stocks, an attachment that allows a semiautomatic rifle to fire nearly as fast as a machine gun.
Ben Johansen, known best as the Ribbon Maker, started the project in 2016 after the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando left 49 people dead and dozens of others wounded. In an effort to spread a sense of love and community, Johansen has distributed hundreds of thousands of rainbow ribbons across the globe.
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Now Johansen is backing Florida Sen. Linda Stewart's Senate Bill 456 and Florida Rep. David Richardson’s House Bill 321, which both aim to prohibit the sale of bump stocks in Florida.
“To the more than 500,000 around the world who have shown their support by putting on rainbow ribbons to honor those we lost at Pulse, I ask of you now to sign this petition in a sign of solidarity,” Johansen said. “We need to prevent future tragedies from occurring and that starts with moving this petition forward and banning bump stocks.”
A bump stock was used during the mass shooting at the Route 91 Harvest music festival in Las Vegas last year. The New York Times estimates that the alleged gunman, Stephen Paddock, was able to fire about 90 shots in 10 seconds using a modified weapon. More than 1,100 rounds shots were fired during the massacre, killing 59 people and injuring hundreds more.
Johansen's goal is to garner at least 1,000 signatures on the petition before the end of the year. Click here to read the petition in its entirety.