In Florida, people have to obtain secret firearms licenses to carry concealed weapons in public. About 2.5 million people have licenses, more than any other state where they are required. Permission can be obtained by attending weapons training courses and submitting proof of competency. In most cases, gun owners in Florida may not carry open firearms without a license, except in certain cases, such as when hunting. For DeSantis, the successful introduction of a constitutional measure into law would be another conservative victory, as he builds a resume that could attract Republican voters to the qualifying process if he decides to run for president. It has already taken on many other important issues for its base, including banning abortions for 15 weeks and defending many of the LGBTQ community’s anti-trans measures, such as banning trans girls and women competing in women’s school sports. “We were leaders in the Second Amendment,” said de Santis, who will be re-elected in November. Defenders of gun rights have long pushed for Florida to become one of the country’s most arms-friendly states, a constitutional state. But they failed to persuade Republican leaders in power in Tallahassee for two decades to lift one of the few arms embargoes here. Earlier this year, a bill allowing constitutional arms transfers died without a committee hearing. DeSantis urged the passage of a constitutional provision at the feet of Georgia’s state commissioner, Nikki Fried, Democrat and head of the Florida bureau of arms licenses. DeSantis claimed that Fried “did not support the rights of the second amendment”. “So why do you want to subcontract your constitutional rights to a civil servant who denies the very existence of those rights,” DeSantis said. The management of firearms licenses by the Ministry of Agriculture and Consumer Services is a unique regulation once endorsed by the National Rifle Association. At the time, the office was controlled by a Republican. Fried, who is not running for re-election and is seeking her party’s candidacy to face DeSantis in November, has argued for legal gun ownership and has sued the Biden government for refusing to grant federal weapons licenses to its members. . Since taking office in 2019, her office has approved nearly 500,000 new licenses to carry hidden weapons. “I have a gun and a secret firearms license,” Fried said in a 2019 article. Fried also called on DeSantis to lift a state ban on local governments issuing firearms decrees, which would allow communities to decide whether to limit their possession of offensive weapons and high-capacity magazines. He suspended the permits of people accused of crimes related to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, a move he made on Twitter on Friday: “I just suspended seven more licenses in Florida held by the Jan. 6 insurgents.” Responding to DeSantis’s Twitter post, U.S. MP Charlie Crist, also a Democratic nominee, said: “The last thing Florida needs during an armed violence epidemic is a governor who wants dangerous people to carry guns in road without so much. as a history check “. Republican lawmakers have carefully addressed the issue of guns in Florida, where the deadly mass shooting in 2018 at a high school in Parkland took place. In the aftermath of the massacre, which left 17 students and staff dead, Republicans and Democrats joined forces to raise the age requirement to buy a rifle or shotgun to 21 and enact the so-called Red Flag Act, which allows the court to temporarily remove firearms by someone perceived as a threat. The combined measures were signed into law by the then governor. Rick Scott, Republican. But DeSantis criticized the law as a candidate in 2018, saying he would have vetoed it if he had arrived at his office. Calling himself the “big guy of the Second Amendment,” he also argued for the permissible use of firearms on campus. Arms policy came to a head that year in the DeSantis by-elections, where he confronted Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, who campaigned as the self-proclaimed “NRA Proud Sale”. Putnam’s oversight of covert firearms became a major issue in the fight, with reports that his office had failed for more than a year to conduct background checks on some permit applications. Putnam’s office inappropriately issued firearms licenses to hundreds of people who later had to be recalled. Although DeSantis has voiced support for constitutional implementation in the past, Friday’s statement was his most vocal assurance to gun rights groups that he intends to make it a priority. If approved, Florida would become the second largest state to allow unauthorized clandestine arms shipments. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed a bill last year that allows people to carry guns in most places without a permit or security training. No license is required to carry a pistol in 23 states, according to the National Conference of Legislatures. DeSantis has already called on lawmakers to return to the State Capitol in May for a special session focused on a property insurance crisis that could force the Legislature to consider constitutional law at the time.
