Florida’s proposed law that allows the carrying of weapons in public without the need for a government permit awaits the signature of Governor Ron DeSantis.
This Thursday, the state Senate approved HB 543 legislation after the House did the same the previous week.
Under the legislation, gun owners will no longer have to obtain a permit or pass a background check, in most cases, in order to carry concealed weapons in public. The legislation will also end a state requirement that established the obligation of training before carrying them.
Recently at an event where he presented his book “The Courage to Be Free,” DeSantis said that the legislation seeks to support the Second Amendment.
This part of the United States Constitution protects the right of Americans to keep and bear arms.
“You don’t need a permission slip from the government to be able to exercise your constitutional rights,” DeSantis said Thursday.
Arguments in favor of the legislation include school safety.
In Nashville, Tennessee, a shooting was reported this Monday that left six people dead, three of them minors, at a Christian school.
In this sense, the legislators in the Senate observed a minute of silence before the vote. But they insisted that the initiative will help prevent further fatalities like those reported in The Covenant.
“It doesn’t stop me,” Sen. Jay Collins (R-Tampa) was quoted as saying by WFLA. “The good guys with a gun are the antidote, as we saw in the body cam footage, to the bad guys with a gun,” he said.
If HB 543 is signed, as anticipated, those who have a firearm could take it with them almost anywhere, as long as it is not in plain sight.
Since July 1, 2022, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has rejected 4,134 permit applications because the applicant was deemed ineligible.
As of last month, and according to the CNN report, the state has issued more than 2.6 million concealed weapons permits.
In the view of one of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Chuck Brannan, Floridians should have the right to bear arms without government interference or local trial and error.
“In the state of Florida, government bureaucracy will no longer be an impediment between law-abiding citizens and their right to exercise their constitutional rights,” the legislator declared in written statements. “This measure recognizes that while the Government has a duty to protect its citizens, citizens have the right to protect themselves,” he argued.
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