Firearms Owners Against Crime
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
Institute for Legal, Legislative and Educational Action
The press event in Florida announcing “constitutional carry” legislation had barely finished before Sunshine State anti-gunners were already declaring the proposal to be a disaster in the making, while Gov. Ron DeSantis is expected to sign the bill if it hits his desk.
The Orlando Sentinel quoted Brandon Wolf, a survivor of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, who declared, “There is no Second Amendment requirement to allow people hopped up on the latest Ron DeSantis brand of political hysteria being fed to them to wander the aisles of Publix with a gun they don’t know how to use.”
WFLA News reported, “Giffords Florida, a nonprofit that advocates for gun safety and restrictions, said the bill was ‘reckless’ and would ‘allow almost anyone to carry a gun in public, without any training or background check.’”
The gun control group Prevent Gun Violence Florida released a statement declaring, among other things, “Permitless Carry laws endanger the public by removing vital safety measures designed to ensure that those carrying concealed weapons have been properly trained and vetted. If Permitless Carry becomes law, Florida will be a more dangerous place to live, work, visit, and do business.”
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, fired back.
“The gun prohibition lobby will say anything to convince people permitless carry is an awful idea,” Gottlieb stated. “Remember, they also predicted blood flowing in the streets when they opposed shall-issue concealed carry permit laws from being passed a generation ago. All they could talk about was minor fender-benders and neighborhood disputes turning into gunfights.”
As if to underscore Gottlieb’s observation, up in Maryland, anti-gunners pressing for more gun control laws in response to last summer’s Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, are on the warpath, according to DelMarVaNow. The news agency quoted Maryland State Sen. Jeff Waldstrecher (D-Montgomery) insisting guns should be prohibited in certain places.
“Any fender bender could turn into gun violence; any dispute over a check at a restaurant can turn into gun violence,” said Waldstreicher. “When guns are everywhere, we are less safe.”
When all else fails, or maybe right from the start, fomenting hysteria with inflammatory rhetoric is one of the more powerful weapons in the gun prohibitionist’s toolbox.
Take, for example, what Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said upon signing the state’s new—and already challenged—gun control law banning so-called “assault weapons.”
“Illinois,” he declared, according to Pew Trusts, “now officially prohibits the sale and distribution of these mass killing machines and rapid fire devices.”
More than a decade ago, when Gottlieb literally stumbled upon a gun control “playbook” titled “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging,” the fight over gun rights had clearly entered a new stage. The 80-page “guide” was written to “help organizations and individuals choose effective arguments and language when communicating with the public on behalf of stronger public policies to prevent gun violence.” It offered tips on effective language and how to counter Second Amendment arguments.
The playbook became the basis for a 2014 book titled “Dancing in Blood: Exposing the Gun Ban Lobby’s Playbook to Destroy Your Rights.”
In a Monday statement, Gottlieb observed, “The gun control crowd is already dishing out the ‘end-of-civilization’ rhetoric.”
Out in Washington State, the House Committee on Civil Rights & Judiciary voted to send two bills to the full House for a vote last week. One will ban so-called “assault rifles” and the other would require a permit to purchase firearms. A bill to repeal the state’s 40-year-old preemption statute received no action, but the committee is scheduled to meet again later this week. Washington’s liberal-run cities want to restore local control so they can adopt what will amount to a patchwork of laws that may be confusing and conflicting from one jurisdiction to the next.
However, down in Georgia, Republican lawmakers are taking the apparently novel approach of punishing criminals rather than penalizing law-abiding citizens. According to the Washington Examiner, State Sen. Brandon Beach (R-Alpharetta) has introduced Senate Bill 7, which would impose a ten-year mandatory minimum sentence on anyone using a gun during the commission of a violent felony.
If that doesn’t make enough sense, Brevard County, Fla., Sheriff Wayne Ivey put the gun control debate in perspective when he told Monday’s press event, “Criminals don’t go get a permit. Not one of them. They don’t care about obeying the law. Our law-abiding citizens have that immediate right guarantee and the freedom to go protect themselves.”
Anti-gunners may not like it, but Ivey’s logic is likely to carry the day in Tallahassee and Florida could become the 26th state with “constitutional carry.”