Carrying your gun and growing pot-Florida's 2 newest and wasteful pieces of legislation

Here in Florida last week, we had 2 interesting laws take effect. The first makes it now legal for Floridians to have a gun in their car. Some call the law The-take-your-guns-to-work-law because it was written under the premise that those traveling to work would like to be able to carry their weapon with them in their car for personal protection to and from work. There are exemptions within the bill as too what places of work you cant bring a gun too (schools, power plants, etc...), but on the whole if you have a job you can now bring your gun to work with you so long as you leave it in your car. On the same day that the new gun law became active a new law against growing Marijuana took effect as well. Florida's new 'grow house' law now considers it a felony and drug trafficking for anyone who is growing 25 or more Marijuana plants on their property. The old law had set the bar at 300 plants or more...I find both of these laws interesting and, more importantly, unnecessary...When it comes to gun ownership I am by no means a member of the NRA, but I am a staunch defender of the Constitution in which the 2nd Amendment makes it clear that we have "the right to keep and bear arms". But how far should that right extend? Should it extend beyond our home to our cars? Should the right to "bear arms" be extended so far that anyone who can buy a gun can carry it on their person, concealed, wherever they go? I firmly believe we have the right to keep and own a gun, but laws like this have come about due too rampant crime and violence nationwide. Statistics do support that in areas that have looser gun laws, violent crime is lower than in areas that have stricter gun laws. But where is the logic in this law? What purpose does this law serve? The CCW laws in Florida are already some of the loosest in the country and since they were changed shortly after the turn of the millenium, violent crime in many parts of state dropped way down (the 10-20-life law here helps a lot too). My question with this law is why? We already have CCW laws here, why do they not apply to having a gun in your car? Why did we have to spend countless time and waste millions of taxpayer dollars on what I see as pointless legislation that, on face value, should be covered within the states concealed weapons laws?...When I heard about the new "grow house" legislation I got a huge laugh. Anyone who knows me knows I am a supporter for the legalization of Marijuana, but at the same time I am against large grow house operations. Pot smoker or not, there is no need for anyone to grow large quantities of Marijuana in their own house unless they have the intention to distribute it for profit. I can see how many people-pot smokers or not-would like to grow Marijuana. As a plant its one of the neatest (for lack of a better word) out there and has an odor that even pot haters admit to liking. Grow houses, on the other hand, have no good intentions when it comes to Marijuana. As with all other current illegal drugs, grow house operations attract the seediest and most violent people in our society because they concentrate a large amount of valuable product in one location. It's not the drug itself that attracts the criminal element, but the value and quantity of it which does-but I'll leave my Marijuana propagation for another blog, right now the idiocy of this new law is the focus. Like Florida's new gun law, this new grow house law is unnecessary. Before this new law, grow house operations (and operators) weren't considered felonies unless they had 300 or more plants growing in them. Because of this, grow house operations of under 200 plants sprung up all over the state during the housing boom of the early part of this decade. Also, before the new law, grow house operations of under 300 plants weren't considered criminal enterprises or distribution centers...I take no real issue with either of these laws, the problem I have is why? Why were these laws needed? In the case of carrying a gun with you in your car, isn't that why we have CCW permits and laws? Since when is having your gun in your car considered beyond the traditional CCW legislation? Growing up, I had plenty of friends and relatives who owned guns and had concealed weapons permits so that they could have them in their car under their seat for protection. This of course was in Michigan where I grew up and I know laws concerning CCW's vary greatly from state to state, but why spends millions in tax payer dollars to write a new law when simply updating the current CCW laws on the books would have sufficed? All I can do is laugh about the new 'grow house' legislation. Talk about an a waste of legislation! I know it varies some from county to county within Florida, but where I live, if you are caught with more than 27 grams of Marijuana on you its a felony and you can be charged with attempted distribution. Common sense and logic can tell anyone that if you are growing it then you possess it and I'm pretty sure you can get more than an ounce off one Marijuana plant. If we take our laws literally as they are written that would mean growing Marijuana plants doesn't legally constitute 'possessing' it. So, if we follow the logic of our laws as they are written, we should all be able to grow a few Marijuana plants in our yards without fear of arrest or prosectution!...But I digress...Honestly, I really shouldn't be surprised. After all, state and local governments have been writing needless legislation like these for decades now, seemingly in an effort to make it look as if they are actually accomplishing something to their constituents. But, for those of us who actually pay attention, its obvious that all they are doing is guaranteeing that they have a purpose-that they are "serving" the community...More like bleeding us dry and wasting their time is more like it.