U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- 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.”
The Speaker of the Florida House just announced a permitless carry bill.
No more training, background checks, or permits. Just lawlessness.
There is NOTHING safe about letting anyone and everyone carry loaded guns in crowded spaces, no questions asked.
— GIFFORDS (@GIFFORDS_org) January 30, 2023
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.”
About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.
Curious how the line is becoming about people carrying a gun that they don’t know how to use. I’m not sure how many people actually like to drive cars that they don’t know how to drive, use computers that they don’t know how to use, or carry guns that they don’t know how to use. Sounds like a terrible straw man argument, for the most part. Admittedly, though, there are certainly those who know how to shoot guns who have no clue how to be safe with them, Alec. A lot of those, strangely, are the same people who say… Read more »
In the mean time, the author fails to mention Michigan, where “our dear leader” Wretched $hitbird is pushing for Red Flag laws and expects them to pass the democrat led Legislature. Notwithstanding the fact that Red Flag laws are being determined to be a Constitutional Violation (4th Amendment for one) they will press ahead as our dear leader has higher political aspirations.
Anti-gunner’s playbook:
appeal to emotion
lie
drum up hysteria
bring up disproven “what if this happens” theories
make fake claims from bogus studies/statistics
deflect from reality
rename everything
call every weapon an “assault weapon”
say “if you aren’t for X gun control then you are for slaughtering children”
It is NOT ‘Constitutional Carry’. It is permit less concealed carry. The bill does not even address accidental display like a concealment garment blowing open, reaching for an item, etc.
It should be open carry but the ‘conservative Republicans’ are against that and are giving this to DeSantis so he can bolster his 2A cred. That’s all this is, a meaningless political ploy.
Gottlieb observed, “The gun control crowd is already dishing out the ‘end-of-civilization’ rhetoric.”
Communism/Marxism is the “end of civilization.” And the gun grabbers are pushing hard to disarm us so they can have their communist dystopia/new world order where citizens become slaves. Was it Jefferson that said something like he preferred dangerous freedom to the slavery of security?
the gun ban community only wants to foment hysteria at every opportunity, like the recent shootings. they will not concede that it is criminals that commit these crimes and want to punish the law-abiding citizens for the action of those criminals. john lott just demonstrated that the majority of firearms crimes happen in a very few zip codes. using their analogy, that would be like blaming all drivers for the drunk driving accidents that happen. if you want to compare numbers, more people die from medical errors than firearms yet i don’t hear the gun banners saying medical professionals should… Read more »