Florida becomes the 26th constitutional carry state.

 

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Fox News.

Florida has become the 26th constitutional carry state which allows people to carry concealed firearms without a permit. Fox News. Florida's Senate approved the bill 27-13 and Governor Ron DeSantis signed the law today. The law allows anyone legally able to own a firearm and 21 years old or older to carry it without paying a fee or getting a permit. The law will go into effect on July 1st. With Florida now having constitutional carry the majority of US States have the law on the book. All 50 states are now "shall issue" for concealed carry permits thanks to NYSRPA v Bruen. 

My Comment:

I'm not sure if I would call Florida a constitutional carry state as they do not have any form of open carry whatsoever. This makes them a strange state for gun laws as there are many more states that do allow open carry without a permit, including my state, Wisconsin. This new law does not change that and it is quite honestly strange. 

It's sort of the opposite of Wisconsin as here we can open carry without a permit but we have to get a permit to CCW. CCW permits are not that hard to get here but you still need one. Does that mean we have better gun laws than Florida? Probably, the only real restriction is the need for permits on CCW. 

Still, I do think this is a major win for gun rights. America is now a constitutional carry country and in most of the country you don't need a permit to carry a firearm. This is a very good thing for the people of the country and a very bad thing for the criminals that live here. 

Democrats are of course freaking out about this saying that this new law will somehow result in more shootings. Of course the huge number of shootings by people carrying firearms legally has not manifested so I think at this point it's safe to ignore the whining. 

Besides, it's pretty clear that most gun laws in America are going to fade away. NYSRPA v Bruen did not get the attention that the repeal of Roe v Wade got but I think it was a more impactful ruling. Not only did all 50 states get CCW, many old and new laws ran afoul of the ruling and are getting rolled back. Under Bruen there are only a few restrictions that will survive judicial scrutiny.

Does Ron DeSantis deserve credit for this? Sure. He has been a pretty good governor for Florida and is rolling back much of the worst excesses coming from the left today. This is a good win for him and I do think he should celebrate it, even if I don't really support him as president in 2024.