Putnam’s public safety plan ignores firearms

Adam Putnam has a long list of how he would keep Floridians safe if he’s elected governor.

His plan details policies that span from hiring a drug czar to combat the opioid crisis to strengthening the state’s role in enforcing federal immigration laws.

One item that is absent from his agenda unveiled Thursday in Tampa: guns. Putnam steered clear of the issue, choosing to instead highlight how he would take a tough approach to crime, increase monitoring of social media for school-violence threats and work to deport immigrants living here illegally.

“There are liberals who are looking to water down many of the strong sentencing guidelines that have made this 47-year low in our crime rate even possible,” he said at an event in Tampa. “There are those who refuse to pursue the death penalty against cop killers. That won’t happen in a Putnam administration.”

Putnam says he will veto any attempt to loosen penalties on “major drug traffickers and violent felons.”

Mandatory sentencing laws have been blamed for making the United States the world’s incarceration leader and keeping nonviolent drug offenders behind bars for too long.

Putnam’s plan doesn’t propose any new regulations on guns, but it also doesn’t call for repealing a new state law raising the age to purchase a rifle from 18 to 21. His plan also doesn’t call for expanding where guns could be carried in Florida, such as allowing guns on college campuses.

His school safety section supports hardening schools and increasing the availability of mental health services to students.

Putnam’s proposal to hire a “drug czar” would reinstate a position eliminated by Gov. Rick Scott during budget cuts in 2011. Scott closed the state’s Office of Drug Control, a department created by former Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, while cutting costs.

Putnam also would empower state law enforcement agencies to deputize officers to work with federal immigration agents.

Parkland student activists have been pushing for Putnam — a self-proclaimed “proud NRA sellout” — to reverse his stance on gun control. Demonstrators staged “die-ins” in the aisles of Publix supermarkets, a key contributor to Putnam’s campaign. In response, the Lakeland-based grocer announced it was putting a moratorium on political giving to re-evaluate its practices. Putnam and his primary challenger U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis have taken issue with parts of the legislation passed by Florida state lawmakers after the Parkland massacre.

Along with raising the age to purchase a rifle, the new law extends the statewide three-day waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns and bans bump stocks that allow firearms to perform like automatic weapons. It also made it easier for police to seize the guns of people suspected of being dangerous.

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