‘Political carry’ gun laws risk all our lives

This week, our nation observes a grim anniversary.

Tuesday marks five years since my alma mater was victimized by one of the worst school shootings in American history. Seventeen people — mainly children — were killed and 17 more injured at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

Since that day, our community has never been the same.

Many of these students and their families were my constituents as a then-city commissioner in Parkland’s neighboring city of Coral Springs. I saw the anguish in their eyes as lives were forever altered. For them, the impact of gun violence was not a theoretical or political argument.

The tragedy at MSD, and more tragedies since then, have led to some meaningful changes in protecting our communities from the scourge of gun violence.

In Florida, our Republican-dominated Legislature passed the state’s first significant gun reform package in decades — over the NRA’s objections, of course. That 2018 state law included raising the age on firearms purchases to 21, a three-day waiting period for all gun purchases, and red-flag laws to keep weapons away from those deemed a serious threat.

Last summer, President Joe Biden signed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first major federal gun safety legislation in nearly 30 years, enhancing background checks, investing in mental health and school safety funding, and disarming domestic abusers.

Yet today, many states across the country are actively working to undo this progress.

On the eve of the Parkland tragedy’s fifth anniversary, Florida lawmakers proposed passing so-called “permitless carry.” With a Republican supermajority, this will pass in the upcoming legislative session over the objections of Democratic lawmakers pleading for sanity.

Carrying firearms in most places without a concealed weapons permit will become law, and every woman, man and child in Florida will become less safe.

We have alternatives — one I’ve proposed means more background checks, not fewer.

For several years, I’ve filed a bill called “Jaime’s Law,” which would require a background check on the sale of ammunition. Named after Jaime Guttenberg, who at age 14 was tragically gunned down at MSD, the bill has yet to be heard in a single House committee, squashed by self-interested legislative leaders doing the NRA’s bidding.

These challenges are not unique to Florida. Texas, South Dakota and numerous other states continue pushing the envelope in reducing or eliminating gun laws. These states are led by ultra-MAGA governors attempting to “out-conservative” one another for political points on the national stage — our own governor chief among them.

For these morally bankrupt leaders, permitless carry is the ultimate political win. It’s a political stunt masquerading as policy, serving no public function other than advancing political careers. It’s why a more accurate name may be “political carry.”

Because political carry will put real lives at risk, members of the law enforcement community have opposed these measures in every state where they’ve been passed. Here in Florida, the sheriffs of Orange and Broward counties have rightly pointed out that it will make their deputies, and all of us, less safe.

States that have passed permitless carry have seen a nearly 13% increase in officer-related shootings. And yet, despite the consistent objections of law enforcement, these permitless carry measures are now law in 25 states, with Florida set to adopt them next. We have a choice to make as a nation. We must decide if we’re more interested in protecting our communities, our children, and our families, in making progress towards a safer society that respects everyone’s rights — or propping up the callous aspirations of presidential wannabes like Ron DeSantis.

On Feb. 14, we remember the 17 souls lost at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and the thousands injured and killed since then. Children in Uvalde. Festivalgoers in

Las Vegas. Black and Hispanic Americans shopping in Buffalo and El Paso.

Remembering is not enough. It never has been. Honoring the memory of those lost requires action. Allowing guns to be carried almost anywhere without permits isn’t just a step backward. It’s a cruel, calculated political game with the lives of innocents as pawns.

We can — and must — demand progress, not politics.