“The legislature will do it,” DeSantis told a news conference in North Florida. “I can’t tell you whether it will be next week or six months, but I can tell you that before I finish as governor, we will have a signature on it.
In Florida, people need to get concealed weapons permits to carry concealed weapons in public. About 2.5 million people have permits, more than any other state where they are required. Permission can be obtained by taking a weapons training course and presenting proof of competence. In most cases, gun owners in Florida also cannot openly carry firearms without permits, except in certain circumstances, such as while hunting.
For DeSantis, successfully introducing a constitutional measure into the law would be another conservative victory, as he builds an autobiography that may be to the liking of primary Republican voters if he decides to run for president. He has already addressed several other important issues about his base, including a 15-week abortion ban, and supports several measures that the LGBTQ community has called anti-transgender, such as banning transgender girls and women from women’s sports.
“We were the leader in the second amendment,” said DeSantis, who will be re-elected in November.
Proponents of gun rights have long urged Florida, now one of the country’s most pro-gun states, to become a constitutional carrying state. But they have failed to persuade Republican leaders who have held power in Tallahassee for two decades to lift one of the few restrictions on gun ownership here. Earlier this year, a bill to allow the constitutional carrying of weapons died without a committee hearing.
DeSantis has called for an urgent enactment of a constitutional provision to be carried at the feet of State Commissioner for Agriculture Nicki Fried, a Democrat and head of the office that manages gun permits in Florida. DeSantis claims that Fried “does not support the rights under the Second Amendment”.
“So why would you want to subcontract your constitutional rights to a civil servant who rejects the very existence of those rights,” DeSantis said.
The management of the Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Services of weapons permits is a unique arrangement once maintained by the National Arms Association. At the time, the office was controlled by a Republican.
Fried, who is not running for re-election and is instead seeking her party’s nomination to take over DeSantis in November, backed legal gun ownership and sued the Biden administration for denying federal firearms licenses to those who use medical marijuana. Since taking office in 2019, her office has approved nearly 500,000 new permits to carry concealed weapons.
“I am the owner of a weapon and the holder of a concealed weapons license,” Fried said in a 2019 publication.
Fried also called on DeSantis to lift the state ban on local authorities adopting weapons regulations, which will allow communities to decide whether they want to limit ownership of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. She suspended the licenses of people accused of crimes related to the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, a move she noted on Twitter on Friday: “I have just suspended seven more licenses from Florida held by rebels at 6 January “.
Responding to DeSantis’ Twitter message, US envoy Charlie Christ, who is also running for governor as a Democrat, said: “The last thing Florida needs during an epidemic of gun violence is a governor who wants dangerous people. carrying a weapon on the street without as much as checking the background. “
Republican lawmakers have recently cautiously raised the issue of guns in Florida, the site of a deadly mass shooting in 2018 at a high school in Parkland. After the massacre that killed 17 students and employees, Republicans and Democrats banded together to raise the age limit for buying a rifle or shotgun to 21 and to introduce a so-called red flag law that allows the court to temporarily confiscate firearms from someone. perceived as a threat. The combined measures were signed into law by the then government. Rick Scott, Republican.
But DeSantis criticized the law as a candidate in 2018, saying he would have vetoed it if he had reached his desk. Calling himself the “Great Man of the Second Amendment,” he also supported the authorization of firearms in university gardens.
Weapons policy emerged this year in the DeSantis primary election, where he faced Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who is campaigning as a self-proclaimed “Proud NRA Sale”. Putnam’s oversight of concealed weapons permits has become a dominant issue in the race after reports surfaced that his office had failed to check some permit applications for more than a year. Putnam’s office illegally issued weapons licenses to hundreds of people, which later had to be revoked.
Although DeSantis has voiced support for constitutional carrying in the past, Friday’s declaration was his most vocal assurance to gun groups that he intends to make it a priority. If approved, Florida will become the second largest state to allow unauthorized concealed weapons. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill last year that allows people to carry weapons in most places without licenses or safety training.
No gun permits are required in 23 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislators.
DeSantis has already called on lawmakers to return to the state’s Capitol in May for a special session focused on the property insurance crisis, and he could force the legislature to consider constitutional legislation to wear then.
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