Miami, 30 January. The speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, Republican Paul Reiner, announced Monday that the chamber is “ready” to pass a bill promoted by Governor Ron DeSantis in March that would allow firearms to be carried without the need for furloughs, some That which is opposed. Congressional Democrats and Activists.
Rainer made the announcement during a press conference organized by sheriffs of several counties to support the measure.
Reiner said, “Florida led the nation in allowing concealed carry, and that continues today as we take away the government’s permission slip to exercise that constitutional right.”
In Florida, Republicans control the state legislature and have enough votes in their favor to get the bill through, and it is expected to pass in March according to local media.
Last April, DeSantis took his conservative agenda a step further by pledging to sign legislation allowing state residents to carry firearms without a permit, which he called “constitutional carry.”
Currently, Floridians do not need a permit to purchase a gun, but they do require a permit to carry them in public, so if passed, this legislation would eliminate that requirement.
The term “constitutional carry” refers to the right to carry firearms, either discreetly or openly, thanks to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which gives the American people the right to keep and bear arms.
“We are united in our opposition to this bill,” said Democratic Rep. Christine Hunshofsky, whose Parkland district was the scene of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 people.
Fred Guttenberg, the father of a student who lost his life in Parkland at the hands of life prisoner Nikolas Cruz, responded to today’s announcement by saying that “there is no freedom” or “in the grave.”
“In 2 weeks it will be 5 years since Jaime and 16 others were murdered in Parkland, Florida. This morning spokesman @paul_rainer announced the Carry Without Permit (Open Carry Soon) law, ensuring that More people die from gun violence in Florida. No. Freedom in the grave,” he wrote on Twitter.
In another Zoom press conference organized by the Florida affiliate of the Giffords organization working against gun violence, former Florida Congresswoman Debbie Mucarcel-Powell recalled that “in Florida we live with two of the biggest shootings in the United States”. .
Thus he referred to the Pulse nightclubs in Pakland and Orlando, which were the scene of an armed homophobic attack in June 2016 with at least fifty dead and 53 injured.
“We know that armed violence is the leading cause of death for people under the age of 18. In Florida, 60% of Hispanics do not want this type of law,” the former congresswoman insisted.
Cecilia Gomez, a community organizer in Giffords, said she moved to the country from Venezuela when she was 5 when her parents decided to find “a safe place.”
“My mother works at Walmart and there is not a day that goes by without fear because there are employees who have been assaulted. I have to call my mother every day, this cannot continue like this could,” she insisted.
Most Republicans, DeSantis voters, gun owners and white voters “oppose carrying firearms without a permit,” says the Giffords Organization, founded by former Arizona Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who died in a 2011 gun attack in Tucson. was saved.
The study found that opponents of the bill include Republicans (65%) and DeSantis’ own voters (60%) in Miami-Dade, Florida’s most populous county.
Mucarsel-Powell stressed today how dangerous the legislation could be if approved, because it does not require criminal record checks or training for gun carriers.
“Are they on the side of the criminals or the families?” the former Hispanic Congresswoman asked.
According to the Giffords organization, if approved, the new measure would put Florida in the same group of more than thirty states that do not require a permit to carry a weapon in public.
