GOP governor candidate: ‘I would have vetoed’ gun law

Ron DeSantis, a leading Republican candidate for governor and self-described “big Second Amendment guy,” says he would have vetoed the historic Florida gun-control law passed in the aftermath of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.

During a South Florida campaign stop, DeSantis also said, if he already was governor, he would have suspended Broward Sheriff Scott Israel over his agency’s actions leading up to and during the Feb. 14 shooting.

The Parkland school shooting produced an outpouring of public sentiment from family members of the 17 people killed and 17 wounded, students at the school, and others throughout the state, prompting the Legislature to pass and the governor to sign gun restrictions and school-safety enhancements — reversing decades of the gun lobby’s blockage of any gun control in the state.

“I would have vetoed it,” DeSantis said in a brief interview after he spoke Monday night to

several hundred people at the Palm Beach County Donald Trump Club.

The new law raises the minimum age to buy rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21, extends the previous threeday waiting period for handgun purchases to include long guns and bans bump stocks that allow firearms to perform like automatic weapons.

DeSantis, a Republican congressman who represents the area around Daytona Beach, said he would have told the Legislature to send him parts of the legislation that enhanced school security and mental health programs — but not restrictions on guns that he views as infringements on the Second Amendment.

The new law and the issue of guns is a delicate issue for Republicans, especially in a pivotal election year:

Polls show the public overwhelmingly supports the key gun-control provisions. (Voters don’t support the component that allows arming of some school staffers, something many Republicans pushed for.)

The politically influential National Rifle Association opposed the law and has sued to block some of its provisions.

It was signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Scott. The governor, who has been an NRA favorite in the past, can’t run for re-election and is running for U.S. Senate.

The law wouldn’t have passed without the support of Florida state House Speaker Richard Corcoran, and a large number of Republican lawmakers. Corcoran is an all-but-officially declared candidate for the Republican nomination for governor against DeSantis and state Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. The NRA has aimed scorching criticism at Corcoran for “betrayal” in supporting the legislation.