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Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Less than a week after Floridians observed the fifth-year anniversary of the mass school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a committee in the Florida Senate has advanced a measure that would let people carry guns in the state without state permits or having to undergo gun-safety training.
The measure (SB 150), described by gun-rights advocates as “constitutional carry” and by its opponents as “permitless carry,” is part of a larger school safety package sponsored by Hillsborough County Republican Jay Collins that would also permit private schools to be able to request that the sheriff in a school’s county be allowed to establish a “guardian” program to train private school employees to carry guns on campuses. Currently only public and charter schools can establish guardian programs.
Currently in Florida, state law requires most gun owners to complete firearms training courses with state-certified instructors as part of their applications for concealed-carry licenses. That’s the case in 25 states around the country, according to the gun safety group Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.
The Democrats on the Senate Criminal Justice Committee – particularly South Florida’s Jason Pizzo and Tina Polsky – repeatedly questioned Collins with concerns that the measure would make the public less safe.
“We believe in our constitutional right to bear arms,” Collins repeated to their queries. “We do not believe that there is a requirement for a permit for that process.”
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri told Sen. Pizzo directly that he considered the legislation a “very good public safety bill.”
“It doesn’t change anything. It changes nothing,” he said in response to the concerns that it will make Floridians unsafe. “If you’re disqualified today, you’re disqualified tomorrow. No more guns in the street. No difference in buying. If you go buy, you’re still going to go through a background check.”
There were several speakers who came out in opposition to the legislation, many of them college students.
Alexis Dorman, a member of the Florida Chapter of Students Demand Action, accused the lawmakers who support the bill of prioritizing politics and profits over the lives of Floridians. “So I ask that you take into all account the Floridians of all ages who will be negatively affected by this bill, that you could save from the next mass shooting and think about them when casting your votes today,” she said.
Olivia Solomon, a member of March for our Lives and a student at the University of Central Florida, said that her generation was “tired of watching people die.”
“I do not want to be here right now explaining to election officials who are supposed to protect us why allowing anyone to get a gun without proper permits and training and evaluations is a bad idea, as you stand here and just tell me bad people do bad things and there’s nothing that we can do about it,” she said.
There were plenty of advocates of the bill as well.
“Constitutional carry will give Floridians the freedom that the founders intended,” said Sherrie McKnight, the co-founder of Big Daddy Unlimited in Gainesville. “I keep hearing about the ‘free state of Florida,’ but we are not living up to that.”
But as was the case when the bill came up before a House committee earlier this month, there were several gun rights advocates who chastised the GOP-controlled Legislature for not going further to allow for open carry in the state – as Florida is one of only three states in the nation that prohibit people from openly carrying firearms in public.
“This is a shuck and jive maneuver by a supermajority,” complained Christopher Rose. “Other states who have done more than this are bipartisan controlled, and we have a supermajority Republican legislature, and this is the best I can get right here? This is nonsense. You are all lying to you-all’s constituents.”
Other Second Amendment supporters echoed those sentiments. Luis Valdes from Gun Owners of America asked the committee to now oppose the measure because it does not include open carry.
The bill also includes a school safety package that includes a “Safe Schools Canine Program” that designates a person, school or business entity as a partner who pays or raises funds for a law enforcement agency to purchase, train or care for a firearm detection dog. It also calls for all law enforcement agencies have an active assailant response policy by Oct. 1, 2023 with required annual training.
And it requires that the Office of Safe Schools, which is part of the Florida Department of Education established in 2018, must develop a behavioral threat management process which is aimed at guiding public and charter schools in “identifying, assessing, and monitoring potential and real threats.”
After three-and-a-half-hours of debate, Pizzo asked for the committee to separate the school safety proposal from the permitless carry section. His motion failed, and the measure then passed on a party-line 5-3 vote. It will now go to the Senate Committee on Fiscal Policy.
Florida Phoenix is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Florida Phoenix maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Diane Rado for questions: info@floridaphoenix.com. Follow Florida Phoenix on Facebook and Twitter.
