Floridians expect sensible gun laws
Want to carry a gun? Go ahead. No background checks. No training. No registration. Take it anywhere you like. Hide it or carry it openly. Your call.
Take it to work. Take it to church. Take it to college. Or a sporting event. Or a state park. Use it as a convenient place to rest your hand while arguing with a store clerk about return policies.
Do you have a history of violence related to mental illness? A felony record? An injunction ordering you to stay away from someone who is scared you might hurt them? Well, you’re not supposed to have a gun, much less carry one around in public. But it may become a lot harder to catch you.
This is an educated guess of what life will look like in Florida if lawmakers pass the permitless-carry gun legislation Gov. Ron DeSantis is about to unveil. We haven’t seen it yet, but most of the above changes have been proposed in Florida before and come close to becoming law. All of them are permitted in at least one other state.
Support for sensible laws
In 15 other states, permitless carry laws (which the gun lobby is trying to rebrand as “constitutional carry”) erase any state requirement to obtain a license to carry a concealed firearm. It almost always incorporates a concept known as “open carry,” which allows guns to be carried unconcealed. Many states have packed in language that relaxes other laws governing gun purchases, bans on the sale of bump stocks and other enhancement devices and age-related restrictions.
DeSantis hasn’t been specific about which existing laws he intends to target — and he can’t go after federal laws, including the background check required when a gun is purchased from a licensed seller. But when our governor proposes legislation intended to please his far-right base, his motto seems to be “Go big or go home.” Some expect the governor to call for the repeal of modest reforms passed in the weeks just after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, such as an age limit of 21 for weapons purchases.
Here’s what the governor is ignoring: Most Floridians want rational restrictions on the availability of guns. They don’t want to have to consider whether someone is carrying a weapon before shushing them in a movie theater or staring them down over the last spot in a crowded parking lot. They don’t want private-property owners forced to allow guns to be carried inside their businesses. They don’t support the availability of assault-style weapons, high-capacity magazines or other technology that can enhance a firearm into a weapon of fast, lethal destruction. Repeatedly, Americans have said they want guns kept away from people with a history of violence. They want to close loopholes for private weapons sales and gun shows.
In a nationwide Quinnipiac University poll taken last year, 89% of Americans (and 84% of Republicans) said they supported background checks for all gun buyers. In a 2020 Gallup poll, 91% of Americans said gun laws should be at least as strong as they are now, and 57% said they should be stricter.
They understand the deadly correlation between lax gun laws and death. Of the 15 states with a firearm-related mortality rate of more than 20 deaths per 100,000 people, 14 are rated “F” by the Giffords Center To Prevent Gun Violence. Florida’s firearms death rate is 13.7. If DeSantis gets his way, expect that number to go up. And understand that it’s not just a number. These are human lives — 3,041 in 2020 — cut short in the most violent of ways. Every death counts. Those who died in the massacres in Parkland and at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub in 2016. Young men who end their own lives with a bullet. People slaughtered in acts of domestic violence or drug-related warfare. Children who find guns that have been improperly stored.
Protect Floridians from shattering violence
Before they shred Florida’s gun laws, DeSantis and the Legislature should hear from Floridians who support the Second Amendment but want common-sense guidelines intended to keep everyone safe. They should listen to the survivors of mass shootings, such as the Parkland students. And they should definitely hear from Florida’s law enforcement community — such as Orange County Sheriff John Mina, who has been outspoken about the toll of gun violence and reiterated this week that he strongly opposes any open-carry law. In the past Florida’s law-enforcement community has been outspoken and nearly unanimous in its opposition to permissive gun laws. It takes courage to stand up against a governor who is both popular and vengeful, especially in an election year, but police chiefs and sheriffs should put the safety of their officers first.
So should DeSantis. We ask him to remember a sunny day nearly three years ago, when he and his wife Casey visited the new memorial for the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting that claimed 49 lives — at the time, the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in modern American history.
“Florida will always remember these precious lives,” DeSantis wrote on the memorial wall. Has he forgotten?
This isn’t about scoring partisan points. It’s about suppressing violence and saving lives, about fighting fear and preventing heartbreak. Floridians should make it clear where their priorities lie — and that politicians should stop scheming to nourish their ambitions with bloodshed.
The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson, Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick and El Sentinel Editor Jennifer A. Marcial Ocasio. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com