How would gun law impact Florida?

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Ron DeSantis, whom critics oftenaccuseofshootingfrom the hip, is pushing yet another proposal that leaves a lot of unanswered questions about what supporters call “constitutional carry” of guns.

While the term usually refers to laws allowing people to carry handguns without getting a state permit, it remains unclear just what it will actually mean in practice, including if businesses such as Disney World could ban guns on their property.

The biggest question, though, is whether such a bill would actually clear a Florida Senate that has repeatedly killed previous attempts to pass versions of it.

Detractors worry that the governor, whose power over the Legislature has been nearly absolute this year as he runs for reelection in the fall,

will be able to push it through this time.

“If DeSantis demands that he wants to do this, Republicans will follow,” said Linda Coffin, an Orlando volunteer with Moms Demand Action, an affiliate of Everytown For Gun Safety. “It just wasn’t an issue until DeSantis said, ‘I’m going to make this pass.’ ”

Florida has become an anomaly among Republican-controlled Southern states, many of which have passed such laws over the past decade. Instead, the Sunshine State currently stands with Democratic-controlled states such as New York, Illinois and California when it comes to restrictions on carrying firearms in public.

In Florida, anyone carrying a handgun in public must obtain a concealed weapons permit, which requires a background check and training and prohibits openly wearing the weapon. Coffin equated it to getting a driver’s license to drive a car.

In the past two years, Alabama, Georgia, and Texas were among the states that passed permitless carry laws, putting pressure on Florida, she said. Thirty-seven states now have some version of permitless gun laws.

“Florida is now like, oh, we have to get on the bandwagon,” Coffin said.

Requiring gun permits had “been uncontroversial for decades,” said Noah Lumbantobing, a spokesman for the gun reform group March For Our Lives, which was created after the Parkland high school shootings in South Florida that killed 17 in 2018.

“In New York, we’ve had laws for over 100 years,” Lumbantobing said. “But in the last few years, we’ve seen an increase of states passing these ‘constitutional carry’ laws. And while they vary for the most part, it’s really about removing all restrictions to carrying concealed firearms and sometimes even openly carrying firearms in public places.”

Roots of ‘constitutional carry’

“Constitutional carry” is a term popularized by gun rights proponents based on their interpretation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Constitutional carry means that the state’s law does not prohibit citizens who can legally possess a firearm from carrying handguns, (openly and/or in a concealed manner) thus no state permit is required,” writes the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, one of the largest groups promoting the idea.

The group does acknowledge that such laws may be “conditional,” including states that allow the open carry of a handgun but require a permit to keep it concealed.

Other states have different laws for handguns and rifles, with some requiring permits for one and not the other.

Gun safety advocates said they don’t like the term “constitutional carry” because it inaccurately assumes that current law requiring permits is unconstitutional and that people have a right to freely carry sidearms wherever they want.

“It has nothing to do with the Constitution,” Coffin said, instead it takes “away an important safety measure.”

An Everytown survey shows 88% of adults around the country and 80% of gun owners support permits.

“Permitless carry means you can purchase a gun without a background check and training,” Coffin noted.

Police and sheriff ’s offices have opposed permitless carry because they know a person with a licensed weaponhashadabackground check. Orange County Sheriff John Mina “strongly opposes any attempts to make Florida an open carry state,” said spokesperson Alex Villarreal.

But Nanette Schimpf, vice president of the Florida Sheriffs Association, said the group’s legislative committee “has not discussed anything related to constitutional carry” because there was no legislation to go with DeSantis’ proposal.

“Because of that, the FSA has not taken a position,” she said. “If a bill does get filed and heard by the Legislature, our legislative committee will review them.”

A Florida House member’s bill

While DeSantis didn’t give details of his proposal, a bill to carry guns without permits was filed prior to this year’s legislative session by state Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills.

Sabatini, who is leaving the Legislature this year to run for Congress, has been trying to push his plan through since he was first elected in 2018. But he has always been blocked by the GOP House and Senate leadership.

That includes House Speaker Chris Sprowls, Rep. Chuck Brannan and Senate President Wilton Simpson, who sponsored the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Safety Act in 2018, the one major gun reform legislation passed in the state in decades in response to the Parkland massacre.

The tourism industry, a major employer in the state, has played a key role in the Legislature’s unwillingness to move forward on previous bills.

Dennis Speigel, president of International Theme Park Services, said the tourism industry, “as a whole across the United States, we don’t want any firearms on our premises in any of our parks. ... And I’m sure that our association will be taking a position and lobbying against this wherever that may occur.”

The industry is still figuring out what the implications of constitutional carry will be in many states, including Ohio, where Speigel lives and where a similar law will go into effect next month.

The Ohio law has an exemption for private business owners and landowners, he said. But how theme parks would handle people trying to enter with a gun is unclear.

“Can a facility, as somebody comes on property, have them check their guns at the door? Like they used to do in the saloons in Dodge City?” Speigel asked. “... The crazy part is, it’s so new. And we’re just getting started. So the precedents are very few and far between at this point.”

Other states’ laws include narrower exemptions for specific private businesses.

Texas, according to The National Law Review, still bans guns in bars, sporting events, and, notably, amusement parks.

Sabatini’s bill specifically cites a section of state law listing where licensed firearms are still banned, including police stations, courthouses, polling places, schools and the state Capitol, as a list of where concealed weapons would also still be banned under his bill.

That list includes sporting events, but not theme parks. Felons also would still be banned from possessing firearms under Sabatini’s bill.

Disney, the American Hotel & Lodging Association, and the Central Florida Hotel and Lodging Association did not return requests for comment. A Florida Hotel & Lodging Association spokesperson said it would need to review any actual proposal before it takes a position.

Lumbantobing said it was still unclear whether Sabatini’s bill, or any other one, would be the basis for what DeSantis is proposing.

“It really comes down to what bill Gov. DeSantis signs and what it contains,” Lumbantobing said. “From his perspective, it’s all hot air right now. And we’re not we’re not super clear on the specifics.”

Still, he added, “that’s a real concern that you might be able to carry a gun into Disney World. That’s frightening. It might be the case that they carve out some exceptions for private businesses, but some states don’t allow for that.”

Disney, however, is currently on the outs with DeSantis after its CEO’s opposition to the so-called ‘don’t say gay’ bill, leading the Legislature to dissolve its Reedy Creek Improvement District and end a carveout for the theme park from his Big Tech social media law.

No timeline from DeSantis

DeSantis hasn’t said when a gun bill might be considered.

“In terms of when? You know, I don’t know. The Legislature has got to pass it,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “I mean, I’ve said for years I would sign. I don’t know if they have the votes now. But I know that this is something that a lot of people are going to be looking at as we go forward into this next election.”

There is a special session of the Legislature scheduled for May 23-29 to deal with property insurance reform. While DeSantis’ call for it didn’t include any other issues, that could change.

Just last month, DeSantis announced at the start of another special session to deal with congressional maps that the Legislature would take up the abolishment of Disney World’s Reedy Creek.

“We know he can change his mind and do that, so we have to be prepared,” Coffin said. “We need to be on guard.”

Lawmakers could also see it differently now that DeSantis is behind it and not just Sabatini, who didn’t get a single committee assignment this session and has an office in the basement of the Capitol.

“It’s pretty obvious why the governor wants to pass this bill,” Lumbantobing said. “We see through it. … And we believe that Florida voters will see right through it. This is just political horseplay. This is not really about policy.”