Gov. Ron DeSantis’ expected run for President is the unstated backdrop to much of the action in the 2023 Regular Session that began this week, but that prospect burst into the open during the debate over a bill allowing for permitless concealed carry of firearms.
Frustrated by the GOP-led Legislature’s refusal to add a provision to the bill allowing gun owners to carry firearms openly in public, some gun rights advocates turned their ire on DeSantis.
“This inaction by the Legislature undermines the Governor’s agenda, which of course hurts his chances in the upcoming Presidential Primary,” Central Florida gun rights advocate Matt Collins told the Senate Fiscal Policy Committee. “I like Governor DeSantis but quite frankly the inability to get open carry included in this bill is embarrassing for him. It’s weak. It’s failed leadership.”
“If the Governor cannot get a very friendly legislature to add open carry to this bill, then how do we think he will do trying to convince Congress to act on anything if he were to become President?” Collins added. “If open carry isn’t added to this bill it shows political impotence on the part of Governor DeSantis.”
DeSantis has said he’d sign an open carry bill if the Legislature passes it, but hasn’t made it a central plank of his agenda for the Session.
The bill (SB 150) passed on a party-line 13-6 vote with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed, and it is now headed to the Senate floor.
Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Naples Republican, said she doesn’t favor open carry because the Florida Sheriffs Association doesn’t support it.
“The Sheriffs, who I deeply respect, who are in the business, who understand the issues do not support open carry in the state of Florida,” Passidomo said Tuesday, the first day of the 60-day Regular Session. “I don’t know one end of a gun from another so I certainly want to support the experts and that’s why I support the permitless carry.”
That approach angered some open carry advocates.
“Governor DeSantis’ book is called The Courage to be Free. Do you have that courage?” asked Louis Valdez, Florida state director of Gun Owners of America. “Do you serve the people, do you serve the community, or do you serve the Sheriffs?”
Sen. Geraldine Thompson, a Windermere Democrat, took umbrage at the suggestion the Legislature should rubber stamp DeSantis’ proposals.
“There are three co-equal branches of government,” Thompson said. “We are the legislative branch and we’re not here to make sure that whatever agenda the Governor has is passed.”
Many gun control advocates also spoke out against the bill’s move to permitless carry.
“This bill is reckless, this bill is dangerous and we don’t want it in our communities that are already bleeding,” argued Susan Kennedy of Moms Demand Action, a gun safety advocacy group.
Sen. Jay Collins, a Tampa Republican who is sponsoring the bill, said it was important to remove the hurdle of the permit process to enjoy the Second Amendment right to bear arms, but also argued the bill was a good step forward even if it falls short of open carry.
“We simply cannot risk snatching defeat from the jaws of victory because of an all or nothing approach,” Collins said.
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