Gov. Ron DeSantis has seen his name bandied about as a possible presidential candidate for a little while now. He’s impressed a lot of Republican voters in a number of ways, most of which aren’t relevant to what we do here.
However, his latest push is.
It seems he wants to make some positive moves in his state on gun rights.
Ron DeSantis is pushing Florida lawmakers to change the legislation in the state to allow gun owners to carry firearms in public spaces without needing a permit.
A massive change to the state’s gun laws looks almost certain to take place in the next legislative session because high-ranking legislators have publically supported the governor’s push for looser gun laws, WFLA reported.
The push comes less than five years after the Parkland school shooting, which took place in the state in February 2018, when 17 people were killed.
Which, it should be noted, isn’t relevant because the killer there wasn’t exactly inhibited by any requirement for a permit as things currently stand.
Moving on…
Fentrice Driskell, the Democratic statehouse minority leader, told WFLA that she thinks the change could be put in place before the regular legislative session in March.
“I’m very concerned about this potential legislation because I do think it would make our communities less safe,” she said. “It wouldn’t surprise me if we saw a special session on this, prior to the regular session.”
This is a regurgitated talking point about constitutional carry making our communities less safe, but I haven’t seen any evidence of that happening.
After all, the bad guys are carrying guns without permits already. It’s not stopping them and it has never stopped them. It’s never going to stop them.
So why are law-abiding citizens seeing their rights infringed upon by a law that accomplishes nothing at all?
DeSantis is right to look at passing this, especially since Florida’s carry laws aren’t exactly sensible as it currently stands. For example, open carry is generally a no-gun except in a handful of circumstances such as while hunting or fishing. Activists down there will sometimes put a cover over the gun so that it’s clear they’re carrying, but they’re also complying with the law enough so they don’t get arrested, all to make a point.
It shouldn’t be that way, especially in such a red state as Florida.
The truth of the matter is that gun rights actually matter, and if DeSantis wants to run for president, having gun rights activists in his corner isn’t going to hurt. Especially since his biggest competition as things currently stand is former President Donald Trump. Trump oversaw the bump stock ban, which means there’s little reason for gun rights advocates to trust him on Second Amendment issues.
Some will, but many others won’t.
Yet without doing something to show he’s actually pro-Second Amendment, there’s no reason for them to support DeSantis, either.
Passing constitutional carry would do precisely that.
Now, I’m not saying it would make the path to the White House easy for DeSantis. Still, it isn’t going to hurt, and that’s without calculating just how much it will benefit law-abiding gun owners in Florida. That alone is enough reason to pass it. That alone is why it should have been passed years ago.
But over the coming months, expect to see the debate take place and expect to see the specter of Parkland thrown up over and over again, despite that incident having nothing at all to do with concealed carry, constitutional carry, or any other kind of carry.
