(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – Florida is expected to become the 26th state in the nation to allow Americans to carry concealed guns without obtaining a government permit.
Last month, Florida’s GOP Governor Ron DeSantis urged the Republican-dominated state legislature to adopt the permitless concealed carry bill, and the state House Speaker, Paul Renner, is now spearheading the effort to do so, The Washington Times reported.
Under Florida’s draft law, qualified people would be allowed to carry a concealed firearm without a state permit and fees. However, they must comply with rules banning weapons in schools, sports events, and prisons.
Those banned from owning a gun would remain barred under the new law, while people who would like to have an official permit would be able to get it.
“Floridians shouldn’t need a government permission slip to exercise their constitutional rights,” Renner declared.
Nearly two dozen states, red and purple, have adopted permitless carry laws in the past few years, especially after 2015, according to the National Rifle Association-Institute for Legislative Action.
An NRA-ILA fact sheet also notes that Vermont has adopted but never enacted a law that prohibits the “right to bear arms discreetly.”
The NRA body points out that Florida and Nebraska are presently competing for the place of the 26th state with a constitutional carry law.
“Half of the country currently recognizes the fundamental right of law-abiding gun owners to carry a firearm for self-defense as enshrined in our Constitution,” declared NRA’s director for Florida, Art Thomm,
“The NRA is proud to have led this effort across America and looks forward to welcoming Florida into the fold of freedom that constitutional carry provides,” he added.
In its fact sheet, the NRA-ILA states that with permitless carry gun laws, criminals have “a reason to fear that any potential victim could be armed and disincentivizes criminal conduct.”
The report points out that the Florida bill for permitless concealed carry comes against the backdrop of growing state divisions on gun rights.
That includes multiple blue states that are “tightening” their gun restrictions over mass shootings and a recent ruling of the US Supreme Court which declared Democrat-led New York had put excessive limits on concealed carry.
Gun rights advocates sued the state of New York after Democrat Governor Kathy Hochul called a special legislative session last year to establish new “sensitive places” with banned concealed carry, such as churches.
Meanwhile, Illinois’s Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker has signed a bill prohibiting the ownership of “assault weapons” and capping magazine sales at 15 rounds for handguns and ten rounds for long guns.
The report calls the different concealed carry regulations in liberal and conservative states a “balkanization of gun laws” and notes that it could cause difficulties and confusion for Americans traveling through a restrictive state with firearms.
Under the Florida bill, qualified people could carry a concealed weapon without seeking a permit and paying related fees, although they must follow laws prohibiting weapons in places like schools, athletic events and jails.https://t.co/x6RE27Pe8W
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) January 31, 2023
