A.G. Gancarski, Florida Politics
(Source: The Miami Times)
Gov. Ron DeSantis has no time for those who say open carry in the state of Florida will affect public safety.
“When you say that the sky’s going to fall if you have open carry, well, I can look at 40-plus other states that have it, and I haven’t seen the sky fall. We already have under statute permitless concealed carry, constitutional carry,” DeSantis said in Miami at Florida International University’s Tamiami Hall.
Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal ruled this month the state’s open carry ban (Florida Statutes 790.053) was unconstitutional. That brought an end to the yearly push for open carry to become the law of the state after the Legislature repeatedly resisted efforts to change the law previously. Soon after the ruling, Attorney General James Uthmeier said open carry was the law of the state.
DeSantis doesn’t think most people will notice change.
“I don’t think it’s honestly going to make a meaningful difference in kind of the daily culture of Florida,” DeSantis said, “simply because it hasn’t really done much different in these other states.”
DeSantis said repealing the “blanket prohibition” aligns Florida with most of the rest of the country.
“We’re much more consistent now with the vast, vast, vast majority of states. Even blue states, quite frankly. Vermont, for example, has had this since like the 1770s, and they’re very blue states. I thought that that was the proper reading of the Constitution, and it’ll be something that’ll be upheld in Florida.”
