Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) signed a Constitutional Carry bill on Monday that will allow lawful citizens to carry concealed weapons without a government-issued permit. The law goes into effect on July 1, and strengthens Floridians’ Second Amendment rights. Florida is the 26th state to enact Constitutional Carry legislation.
“Constitutional Carry is in the books,” DeSantis said in a brief press release.
The legislation will allow people to carry concealed weapons in most public spaces. The bill does not affect current laws regarding the purchase of a firearm and will not allow anyone prohibited from possessing a firearm to carry concealed. The state will still require full background checks when a firearm is purchased, including a three-day waiting period for all firearms. People carrying concealed without a license will still be required to obey existing laws prohibiting carrying in places like schools and government buildings.
A Florida Senate press release stated:
“Under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis, here in the free state of Florida, government will not get in the way of law-abiding Americans who want to defend themselves and their families,” said Senator Collins, a retired U.S. Army Green Beret. “I’ve been blessed to serve shoulder to shoulder with brave men and women willing to put their lives on the line in defense of our constitutional freedoms. I’ve also been deployed to countries where oppressed people have lived their entire lives under tyrannical regimes with no ability to safeguard their loved ones. We have an obligation to respect their sacrifice by protecting our God-given and Constitutional rights here at home.”
Even with the new law, people may still want to get a permit as it will allow them to carry concealed weapons in states with reciprocal agreements. The state reported that near three million Floridians currently have concealed carry permits.
The legislation process did further expose the political divide between democrats and republicans over gun rights. Republican lawmakers argued that law-abiding citizens have a right to carry guns and protect themselves while democrats shared the state’s history of recent mass shooting events like the Parkland Florida High School shooting, as reason against the legislation’s passage.
The Washington Post shared:
“I am pissed,” Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, told reporters during an online news conference. “I will chase him down across the state as well as possibly across the country … because Ron DeSantis today put his signature to a bill that guarantees there will be more Jaimes.”
“Somebody in Florida may die … because of this legislation. That will be because of you, Ron DeSantis,” Guttenberg said. “I understand why you hid today…. You are a weak, pathetic, small-minded individual.”
Florida Senator Jason Pizzo (D) according to the AP News said, “I am, in fact, not worried about mass shootings through passage of this bill. I’m worried about mass idiots.,” Adding, “People are going to die because of carelessness.”
Even White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was quick to respond, issuing a statement shortly after DeSantis signed the bill. Jean-Pierre wrote: “It is shameful that so soon after another tragic school shooting, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a permitless concealed carry bill….” Adding, “this is the opposite of commonsense gun safety. The people of Florida — who have paid a steep price for state and Congressional inaction on guns from Parkland to Pulse Nightclub to Pine Hills — deserve better.”
With the passage of this new law, a majority of states now allow permitless concealed carry. However, The Trace reported that a “majority of the U.S. population still lives in states that require a permit or license to carry concealed firearms. With the addition of Florida, 142.7 million people live in permitless carry states, while 190.5 million people reside in states that retain their licensing requirements.”
DeSantis’s support of the Second Amendment with allowing constitutional carry is only a small victory in the ongoing war over gun rights and the consequences of both legal and illegal use of firearms. President Biden has made it clear that he wants to disarm Americans. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that Americans never surrender their unalienable God given and constitutionally protected rights to protect themselves.
