Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed Friday to make the Sunshine State a “constitutional carry” jurisdiction where firearm enthusiasts can pack heat without a permit.
Backers of the move argue that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to possess a firearm without the need for additional documentation or permit approvals.
Roughly half of American states have “constitutional carry” laws in some form, with Alabama, Ohio, Georgia and Indiana joining those ranks this year.
“I’m pretty confident that I will be able to sign ‘constitutional carry’ into law,” DeSantis said at an unrelated press conference.
DeSantis made the claim while taking aim at one of his fiercest political rivals — Nikki Fried, Florida’s commissioner of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
Fried, a Democrat, is running for governor against DeSantis.
“You have a situation where the official in charge of these permits doesn’t support Second Amendment rights,” DeSantis said without directly naming his nemesis. “So why would you want to subcontract out your constitutional rights to a public official that rejects the very existence of those rights?”
While Florida has long had a reputation for firearm permissiveness — earning it the nickname “the Gunshine State” — it is not an open-carry jurisdiction that allows for the visible possession of a gun in public.
“The Legislature will get it done,” DeSantis vowed. “I can’t tell you if it’s going to be next week, six months, but I can tell you that before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that bill.”
Fried later pounced on DeSantis’ comments, arguing that Florida should not be loosening its gun-control measures.
“This is absurd political pandering from the governor of a state that has experienced some of the worst mass shootings in our country’s history and in a nation where we have the highest rates of gun violence in the world,” Fried said in a statement.
She punctuated her opposition Friday by suspending gun licenses for seven Florida residents who took part in the Jan. 6 protests at the US Capitol.
“This is in addition to the 28 license suspensions announced last year by the Commissioner and FDACS related to the insurrection,” her office said in a statement.
