Luis Valdes, the Florida State Director of Gun Owners of America, spelled out the bad news for Florida gun owners in a piece that was published at AmmoLand.
HB 103, Florida’s Constitutional Carry bill, was viewed as the legislative key towards restoring the right to bear arms during the 2022 legislative session.
Ron DeSantis, who previously signaled to Florida Gun Rights Director of Legislation Matt Collins that he would sign Constitutional Carry into law if it arrived at his desk, used his position to urge Florida legislators to pass Constitutional Carry.
Unfortunately, the key players in the Florida state legislature did not hear the call. As usual, they offered up all sorts of excuses. For example, Valdes noted that Florida political insiders rationalized their inaction by saying that HB 103 died “because there was no companion bill in the Senate.”
Curiously, the same excuse was used during the 2021 session to rationalize Republican leadership’s failure to pass said legislation.
However, Constitutional Carry wasn’t the only pro-gun legislation that the Florida political class killed. Valdes noted the following:
Well, other than killing constitutional carry, they killed the bill that would have repealed the ban on the sale of ammunition/firearms during declared states of emergency. Here’s the kicker, there were companion bills in both chambers (HB 6095 & SB 1528).
The Republican leadership in both the House and Senate refused to move these bills forward.
Further, Valdes explained how Florida’s spineless political leadership justified Constitutional Carry’s death:
According to the gatekeepers. Rep. Anthony Sabatini failed because he never spoke with anyone in the Senate to get a companion bill submitted, nor did he speak with the House committee chairs to bring the bill up for debate and vote.
Florida is a state with a Republican governor, Republican-controlled House (78-42), and Republican-controlled Senate (24-16). So there’s no excuse for it not to pass Constitutional Carry. Alabama and Ohio have already passed Constitutional Carry this year bringing the number of states with that legislation to 23.
With so much attention on Florida for its resistance to the COVID-1984 state, Florida must continue to bolster its pro-freedom image. It cannot afford to have blindspots with regards to the Second Amendment.
Valdes is correct in calling out Florida Republicans for their cowardly behavior in not passing Constitutional Carry. Not only that, he has gone the extra mile by demanding a special session of the Florida State legislature to address the matter of Constitutional Carry.
He left this call to action for Florida residents to use in their efforts to change Florida policy:
Contact Governor Ron DeSantis and demand a Special Session be called for Constitutional Carry.
His office is (850) 717-9337 and his email is governorron.desantis@eog.myflorida.com.
Anyone who is a Florida resident should take the time to call DeSantis and urge him to get the Florida legislator on the Constitutional Carry bandwagon. Florida is too great of a state to be slacking on key Second Amendment legislative items like Constitutional Carry.
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