FACT CHECK: Did Florida Politician Randy Fine Publish This Tweet About ‘Sacrificing’ School Children For The Second Amendment?

An image shared on Facebook purportedly shows a tweet from Florida state Rep. Randy Fine in which he claims he is willing to sacrifice the lives of elementary school children in order to protect the Second Amendment.

Verdict: False

The tweet is from a parody account. There is no record of Fine making such a statement.

Fact Check:

A gunman shot and killed 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday before being killed by law enforcement, according to the Associated Press. Shortly after the massacre, an alleged tweet from Fine began circulating on social media.

“Elementary School Children is a small sacrifice that I’m willing to make for the Second Amendment,” the alleged tweet reads. “Public schools aren’t in the Constitution. @VoteRandyFine in 2022. Gun Owner, Gun Lover, Gun Conoissuer, and an A+ Grade by the NRA, the National Rifle Association!”

The tweet is not from Fine’s official Twitter account. A reverse keyword search revealed the tweet is originally from a parody account with the handle @VoteRandyFineFL that has 90 followers. The account’s bio reads, “Husband, father of two they/them’s. Pro-1A, Anti-Woke. Parody account?”

There is no evidence Fine published such a tweet on his official Twitter account, which has over 8,000 followers and the handle @VoteRandyFine. The tweet could not be found on his account or on archived versions of the account. (RELATED: Did The NRA Support Mark Warner As A Governor?) 

“I did not make this tweet,” said Fine in an emailed statement to Check Your Fact. “It was published by a fake Twitter account @voterandyfinefl. My account is @voterandyfine (no fl).”

There are no news reports suggesting Fine made such a remark at any point, though he has previously expressed his support for the Second Amendment on Twitter. Fine published a tweet May 25 that reads, “I have news for the embarrassment that claims to be our President — try to take our guns and you’ll learn why the Second Amendment was written in the first place.”

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