Saying gun owners don’t need a government permission slip to protect their God-given rights, Florida’s House speaker proposed legislation Monday to eliminate concealed weapons permits, a move Democrats argue would make a state with a history of horrific mass shootings less safe.
Republican leaders, including Gov. Ron DeSantis, have expressed support for the idea, so the bill should not have a problem passing in a legislature with a GOP a super-majority.
“What we’re about here today is a universal right that applies to each and every man or woman regardless of race, gender, creed or background,” Speaker Paul Renner said at a news conference.
Democrats immediately responded that the proposal could lead to more gun violence and accidents. They said that the bill supporters call constitutional carry will allow people to buy guns with no training or background checks.
“Untrained carry is what it is,” said Democratic Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, who was mayor of Parkland when a former Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student fatally shot 17 students and faculty. “You are not making our communities, our schools or any places safer with this.”
Renner said law-abiding gun owners will take safety seriously.
“Anybody that is a gun owner and uses guns knows that safety comes first,” Renner said. “That’s important, but it’s not required. So the permit and all aspects of that permit will go away.”
Manuel and Patricia Oliver became advocates for tighter gun regulations after losing their 17-year-old son Joaquin in the 2018 massacre at the Parkland high school. They said with more people carrying guns without restrictions, Florida will become a more dangerous state.
“How about a little paperwork, some norms, before we take that step. It’s not right and it’s not protecting (the carrier) from anything. It is actually putting in danger a lot of people,” Manuel Oliver said.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey said people who want to do harm to others won’t be stopped by the permit requirement.
“Criminals don’t get a permit. Not one of them. They don’t care about obeying the law. Our law-abiding citizens have that immediate right, guarantee and freedom to protect themselves,” Ivey said.
About half the states allow people to carry a gun without a permit, a movement that has been growing particularly among conservative states.
Florida handgun owners would still have to conceal their weapons in public, though there has been discussion to allow gun owners to openly carry weapons.
(AP)
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5 Responses
Complete insanity!
a move Democrats argue would make a state with a history of horrific mass shootings less safe.
Oh, please. These are exactly the same arguments we heard 35 years ago, when Florida pioneered the “shall issue” movement, becoming the first state to change its laws from saying that the authorities “may issue” a concealed carry permit to saying that they “shall issue” it. Of course now we know that “may issue” was always unconstitutional, but in the 1980s many states had such laws.
Florida was the first to do the right thing and require that anyone who qualifies by objective criteria is entitled by law to be issued a permit, and the Democrats, not only in Florida but all over the USA, hysterically shrieked that the streets would run with blood, that Florida would become the “Gunshine State”, etc.
Of course there was never any reason to believe that, but experience proved that not only did violent crime not go up, it went down significantly, because criminals now knew that anyone they attacked might be carrying. For a while there was a spate of crimes against tourists, because the criminals knew that they were not carrying, so it was safe to attack them. As more states followed Florida’s example, and Florida recognized their permits, tourists became no longer safe targets either, because they could just as easily be carrying, so crime against them went down too. Now the last tiny handful of “may issue” states are being forced to become “shall issue” because the constitution is finally being enforced.
Then we heard the same hysterical claims when Florida became a “stand your ground” state, and eliminated the absurd law that if you can escape you are not allowed to defend yourself. Again Florida pioneered the movement, and now about 40 states agree. And again, this did not lead to any problems at all. On the contrary, people are now a lot safer, because they’re not afraid to defend themselves when attacked. Democrats pointed to an increase in the number of thugs killed in justified self defense, but of course every normal person laughed at them, because that is a GOOD thing, and was the whole point of the new law! The more dead thugs there are the safer everyone is, not just the would-be-victim who shot them, but also the people who would have been their next victims. And there has been no significant problem of people mistakenly shooting in self-defense, or falsely claiming self-defense.
More from the Democrats: They said that the bill supporters call constitutional carry will allow people to buy guns with no training or background checks.
That is an outright FILTHY LIE. They know very well that the right to carry concealed has no connection to the right to buy guns. They know you don’t need a concealed carry permit to buy a gun; you never needed one. They also know that it is impossible, anywhere in the USA, to buy a gun from a licensed dealer without a background check. Constitutional carry wouldn’t change that at all. So they’re outright lying, as is normal for Democrats.
As for training, you never needed that to buy a gun, and as the sheriff pointed out any normal person who buys a gun gets training anyway, while criminals buy illegally and don’t need any training, so what good does the permit requirement do? The only people who obey it don’t need it!
The big difference that this will make is that people from other states, who have no concealed carry permit in their home states, will now be allowed to carry concealed in Florida. Until now they could not get a Florida permit, because they’re not residents. Now anyone who would qualify for a permit will be allowed to carry without one, so that will include them. And that will make everyone safer.
So if this passes it will be a welcome move. But really the question is why Florida insists on being one of the only THREE STATES that does not allow open carry! 47 states have no problem with it, but Florida for some reason does.
Yes, RT, you are completely insane. We already knew that.
They should first abolish driving licenses. It’s a no brainer guns yes but driving not…
Yukel, there is no right to drive a car on a public road; and you don’t need a license to drive on private property.
But owning and carrying a gun is a fundamental human right, just like speaking freely, or not being arrested without probable cause.