Concerns and questions have risen as a new bill, HB 543, was passed by the Florida House and Senate on April 3rd, allowing for citizens to carry concealed weapons without a permit or training.  

   People who are otherwise qualified to purchase and carry would now be able to avoid the process of training to carry their concealed weapons. Republican Representative Chuck Brannan pushed for the legislation, saying “Florida will not come between you and your freedom to protect yourself anymore.” Soon after, Republican Representative Mike Beltran filed an amendment for an open carry in specific types of holsters but quickly withdrew it. “(the amendment) was and is good policy, but unfortunately this is not the right time or the right vehicle,” said Brannan on the House floor. 

 In light of another school shooting where 3 children and 3 adults were murdered, Ron DeSantis’s lack of sensitivity is conveyed by his swiftness to sign this bill into law. 

   While there are millions of people pushing for more gun control after the rise of fatal shootings and mass murders, bills like this reveal even more reasons why we should be concerned with the Republicans in Florida’s legislature’s ideological extremism they display while pushing their agenda of protecting our second amendment. “It is shameful that so soon after another tragic school shooting, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a permitless concealed carry bill behind closed doors, which eliminates the need to get a license to carry a concealed weapon. This is the opposite of common sense gun safety. The people of Florida- who have paid a steep price for state and Congressional inaction on guns from Parkland to Pulse Nightclub to Pine Hills- deserve better,” said White House Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. 

  Jean-Pierre also mentioned President Joe Biden’s call for Congress to take action on this matter. “President Biden has been clear: too many lives are being ripped apart by gun violence. The President continues to call on Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, require safe storage of firearms, eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability, require background checks for all gun sales, and for state officials to take action at the state level,” Jean-Pierre stated.

   Knowing that the so-called “safety bill” allows people to be able to carry a concealed weapon with no experience or training, does not make a lot of citizens, such as myself, feel safe. Brandon Wolf, who is a survivor of the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre believes that Republicans should have required training for the safety of citizens. “People do not feel safer when they know that people are wandering around Publix with a gun they learned how to use on YouTube,” Wolf told Equality Florida.

 Democratic Representative Anna Eskamani reveals the hypocrisy with the new law after she brought forward an amendment that would allow people to carry firearms into meetings in the Legislature. “If the majority party thinks guns make us more safe, we should strike this,” Eskamani said. Ironically enough, the Republicans voted the amendment down. 

  The overwhelming amount of concerns with the HB 543 law, such as the risk of racial profiling and the increase of gun violence, seems to not phase Florida’s Republican population. How much more gun violence do they need to see to comprehend that guns, especially without training, do not make us safer?