By: Kayleigh Hamilton
Not all Republicans are friendly to gun rights.
Many in the gun community believe that Republicans will protect them from gun control.
But two RINO politicians have now been caught quietly plotting to sell out gun owners.
Ever since Ron DeSantis took office in 2018, Florida has turned into one of the most Republican-leaning states in America.
It used to be the ultimate swing state, and many people expected DeSantis’s race with former governor Charlie Crist in 2022 to be close, but it ended up being a Republican landslide.
For that reason, there is absolutely no reason that Florida shouldn’t take advantage of the huge majorities they have in the state and pass protections for the Second Amendment.
But the so-called Republicans in the Florida Legislature have been blocking these types of bills at every turn.
They passed what they referred to as a “constitutional carry” bill in 2023, but it wasn’t a true constitutional carry bill because it didn’t include open carry.
Now, some of the conservatives in Florida are attempting to legalize open carry in the state, but they are being blocked by Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.
According to Tallahassee.com, “At the halfway mark of the annual Florida legislative session, everyone but Republican leaders appear frustrated with the approach to gun regulations.”
“Gun rights advocates fume that those proposals appear stalled in a Legislature where Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.”
These advocates are trying to make open carry permissible in the state. They have DeSantis on their side, but the two leaders in the legislature are adamantly opposed to it.
The article continues, “Gov. Ron DeSantis endorsed the idea last March, but on opening day of this year’s session, House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Coast, said lawmakers had ‘no appetite’ for open carry.
“And then after Valdes’ group and others got a House committee to lower the age to buy rifles, Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, R-Naples, dismissed the proposal as a ‘non-starter.’”
Passidomo, in particular, has positioned herself as a clear enemy of the gun rights movement in Florida.
Republican lawmakers are skittish about passing anything to protect gun rights as the media still tries to blame the 2018 Parkland shooting on the lack of “sufficient gun control” in the state.
Republicans fell all over themselves to pass gun control after that tragedy. The article goes on to say, “Within weeks of the killings, lawmakers raised the age for firearm sales to 21, banned bump stocks, and required a three-day waiting period for sales.”
Anti-gun politicians will always use tragedies like that to push their agenda, and Florida is no different.
Unfortunately, thanks to the incredibly weak-kneed Republican leadership in the state, it still appears to be working years later.
Florida should be one of the most gun-friendly states in America, thanks to the Republican supermajorities it has in both chambers.
But Republican leaders refuse to even allow something as basic as open carry to be passed through the state legislature.