Don’t weaken Florida gun laws, strengthen them

It took the spilled blood of far too many to convince even a minimum of Florida lawmakers that modest reforms were needed in our gun laws.

Mass shootings in Colorado, Connecticut and in dozens of other states didn’t do it. It took the murders in our own backyard, in Parkland, and the grieving efforts of parents, siblings and schoolmates that followed, to stir just enough shame to overcome stalwart gun defenders and bring modest reforms in 2018.

But now, just a few seasons distant, a winter legislative session brings with it the chill of efforts at repeal.

House Bill 1223 would lower the age limit to buy rifles and other long guns back to 18, from 21. Another bill, HB 1619, also filed by a House Republican, would make it legal to carry weapons openly. Just last April, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed HB 543, which let Floridians carry concealed weapons without a permit.

It seems unbelievable that, given the horrors that left 17 dead and 17 injured almost six years ago at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, not to mention the 49 killed and 53 wounded eight years ago at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub, and the many multiple-fatality shootings since then in Florida and around the nation, that anyone would call for weakening laws that even slightly restrain the American killing culture.

And yet.

It’s as if they think we’ve forgotten.

We haven’t had a chance to forget.

According to the Every Town for Gun Safety website: “In an average year, 2,849 people die and 5,267 are wounded by guns in Florida. Florida has the 19thhighest rate of gun violence in the US.” The rate of gun deaths rose 15 percent from 2011 to 2020, while the rate of gun homicides rose 40 percent.

But by all means, let’s lower the purchase age and let everyone walk around strapped – except in the Florida Capitol in Tallahassee, of course, where our brave legislators take up these bills.

We recognize that age limits, licensing requirements and even bans on bump stocks and semi-automatic rifles won’t stop the most sinister, deranged or determined mass murderers, any more than licensing drivers makes I-95 accident-free.

But a combination of legal restraints, red flag law enforcement and enhanced availability of mental health care at least gives us a chance to counter the normalization of death sprees.

Sadly the Legislature’s Republican supermajority has come untethered from the checks and balances of political opposition. Only voters can rein them in.

Our sympathies go out to those in Perry, Iowa, who saw one 11-year-old killed and four other students and school staff members injured Jan. 4, before the 17year-old who shot them killed himself. The shooting occurred at a time when the nation’s eyes already were on Iowa, in advance of the caucusing for the Republican primary, in which two Florida residents are contending.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, interviewed by the Associated Press, attributed the blame for such incidents mostly on “an underlying sickness in society” that requires addressing mental health issues but not “constitutional rights.”

Former President Donald Trump offered his prayers and “deepest sympathies,” at an Iowa gathering a day after the shooting. “That’s just horrible,” he said. “But we have to get over it. We have to move forward.”

No worries. A poll conducted by Florida Atlantic University and Mainstreet Research in October and November asked respondents, “Which personality trait do you value the most in a presidential candidate?” The options: integrity, leadership, intelligence, stability and empathy. Empathy came in dead last, at 4 percent. So DeSantis and Trump are well-positioned.

And Florida lawmakers moved forward indeed, filing their bills days after the Iowa shooting, to weaken our state’s gun laws.

They’d like nothing better than for us to get over it, too. But there is no “it.” It’s more of a “them,” when it’s happening every day, eight gun deaths a day across Florida, sometimes in a school near you.