Open-and-shut case against no-permit open carry

On April 24, Herbert Merritt took his dog for an early evening walk west of Delray Beach.

The decision nearly cost Merritt his life.

As he neared the 15th hole of the golf course at Kings Point, the retirement community of 12,000 residents, Robert Andrew Levine approached on his golf cart. Levine told Merritt that dogs aren’t allowed on the course.

After the 64-year-old Merritt said he wasn’t on the course — just next to it — the 74-year-old Levine pulled a 9mm pistol and fired four shots at Merritt while chasing him around a tree. One bullet struck Merritt in the left ankle.

Levine wasn’t done. According to the probable cause affidavit, he began flailing at Merritt with a golf club while Merritt was on the ground, unable to run. Along with the handgun, investigators found two bloody clubs.

Levine faces charges of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and — for good measure — discharging a firearm in public. He has pleaded not guilty. Perhaps Levine’s “stand your ground” defense will be that Merritt’s dog posed a threat.

Roughly a week after that unprovoked, near-fatal shooting at Kings Point, Gov. Ron DeSantis made the latest of his many comments in support of Florida allowing open carry of firearms without a permit. “I can’t tell you if it’s going to be next week or six months,” DeSantis said, “but I can tell you before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that bill.”

Florida already leads the nation in concealed carry permits, with

2.5 million — one-fifth of the adult population. Obtaining one presumably means that someone has had enough training to use a weapon responsibility.

Levine had one of those permits. Whatever happens with his case, he did not use that weapon responsibly. Levine should be grateful that he’s such a bad shot.

DeSantis doesn’t oversee concealed weapons permits.

The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — under Democrat Nikki Fried — issues them. Because DeSantis is running for the Republican presidential nomination, however, he must prove that he’s the most gun-friendly GOP governor.

And DeSantis has work to do. AZ Defenders, an Arizona-based criminal defense firm, ranks what the attorneys consider the best states for “responsible gun owners.” They based their survey, updated in February, on “gun laws, culture and sentiments.”

Florida ranked just 30th, well behind top-rated Alaska. More ominous for DeSantis, Texas — where Gov. Greg Abbott is a presidential rival — ranked 10th.

This state surely lost points because it requires a background check. Then there’s that failure to allow open carry without a permit, what DeSantis and others falsely call “constitutional carry.”

The label implies that the Second Amendment covers it. In the U.S. Supreme Court’s seminal opinion on the subject, however, the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the Second Amendment “is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

But DeSantis and his Republican enablers in the Legislature hope to turn every Floridian into a right-wing lab rat. They don’t concern themselves with collateral damage. The governor who sicced the morality police on textbook publishers wants no restrictions on carrying firearms for anyone allowed to own one.

When the Legislature considered allowing firearms on college campuses, every president and university police chief opposed it. They believed that campuses would be less safe.

As Levine showed, permits don’t necessarily make for responsible gun ownership. Imagine what would happen without permits at all.

Not surprisingly, Levine’s case made national news. Golf Digest had a particularly salient take:

“A normal human would let it slide and maybe (and we stress maybe) send an email to the club to keep an eye out for it. Levine pulled out a gun and started blasting.

“In a world where there’s seemingly a Florida Man inside each and every one of us trying to get out, this is proof (and perhaps solace) that there’s no substitute for the original.”

DeSantis isn’t running the state. He’s running for president. Permitless open carry has nothing to do with public safety and everything to do with politics.