(José Niño, Headline USA) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vows to repeal several gun control measures that were passed in Florida in 2018 after the Parkland high school mass shooting.
During his State of the State speech last Tuesday, DeSantis announced his desire to roll back the measures that then-Gov. Rick Scott signed into law.
“The free state of Florida has not exactly led the way on protecting Second Amendment rights,” he declared. “We need to be a strong Second Amendment state.”
At the time, Scott signed SB 7026 after the Parkland Massacre of 2018, where a 19-year-old man slaughtered 17 people at Parkland high school. This bill enacted a bump stock ban, an increase in the age to buy a guy, and a red flag gun confiscation order.
DeSantis said the state’s gun laws lag behind other conservative states who have liberalized their carry laws in recent years. He cited problems with “red flag laws” and legislation raising the minimum age to buy firearms from 18 to 21. Red flag laws refer to laws that grant law enforcement the power to seize the lawfully-owned firearms of Americans based on accusations from family members, neighbors, co-workers, or any other close associates who deem that individual to be a threat to himself or others. Second Amendment advocates have long argued that red flag laws violate both gun rights and due process rights.
DeSantis signed Constitutional Carry into law in 2023, declaring it was “an anomaly” that the state hadn’t put that law on the books. Constitutional Carry is the concept that any law-abiding individual can carry a firearm without having to obtain a government-issued permit. The Florida governor described red flag laws as a “huge due process violation” and advocated that the burden of proof be shifted to the state.
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
