Will Constitutional Carry Legislation Pass in the Next Legislative Session?
As the 2022 Florida Legislative regular session ended last March, the issue of Constitutional Carry was getting a lot of attention from the Governor and Republican legislators. There seemed to be enough momentum to expect a Constitutional Carry bill to be filed in both the House and Senate for the 2023 Florida Legislative session.
Then we had the horrific school shooting on May 24th, where 18-year-old Salvador Rolando Ramos fatally shot nineteen students and two teachers and wounded seventeen other people at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
The question now is the support for Constitutional Carry by Republican legislators diminished by the tragedy in Uvalde, Texas?
For the next Florida Legislative session, the three main players in deciding the fate of Constitutional Carry will be Governor Ron DeSantis, Incoming House Speaker Paul Renner, and Incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (assuming all three are reelected and the Republicans maintain the majority in both chambers.)
Here are what these three have said recently, before the Uvalde school shooting about Constitutional Carry:
When asked about Constitutional Carry at a press conference, Governor DeSantis was quoted as saying; “Before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that bill”
At an event in Ocala on May 17th, Paul Renner guaranteed Constitutional Carry will pass the House of Representatives, declaring that he would make it a legislative priority. "We'll do it," he said, "You have my word. We'll get it done."
On May 3rd, Incoming Senate President Kathleen Passidomo was a guest on the Bob Harden Podcast in Naples. On the show, Senator Passidomo certainly didn’t give a ringing endorsement of Constitutional Carry. Senator Passidomo said that in her Naples district, she had constituents on the beach that opposed Constitutional Carry and constituents in the more rural part of her district that supported Constitutional Carry. Senator Passidomo would not say what her position was but said it should go to the voters as a Constitutional Ballot Amendment in 2024.
Also, Representative Blaise Ingoglia, now running for the Florida Senate had said he would file the Constitutional Carry bill in the Senate.
We should get our answer on the future of Constitutional Carry during the current election season. Obviously, Florida Democrats are going to use the Uvalde tragedy as a campaign issue against Republican candidates that voiced support for Constitutional Carry. I have not heard from the Republican legislative leaders about their support for Constitutional Carry since the Uvalde school shooting, but I expect they will be asked by the media if their position has changed.
More important is that we need to know if Republican candidates will get squishy and change their position or will they stand strong and pledge to fight for Constitutional Carry?
We need to reach out to every Republican running for the state House and Senate and get them on record as to their current position on supporting Constitutional Carry in the next legislative session.
We can’t depend on Republican legislators to do the right thing. We need to remember that in 2018 after the school shooting in Parkland, Republican Senator Wilton Simpson wrote SB 7026 which took away the gun rights of 18-19-20-year-old citizens and Senator Simpson also included the unconstitutional red flag law.
In fact, you may want to remember what Wilton Simpson did to our gun rights when you decide who to vote for Agriculture Commissioner in the August primary election.
In Liberty,
John Hallman
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About John Hallman
John Hallman is an active, longtime voice in all levels of Florida politics and is a veteran of advocating issues of liberty in the Florida legislature. John has spent the last 20 years learning the real nature of the legislative process in Tallahassee and has learned what works and does not work through his personal experience. John Hallman assists clients with lobbying efforts, promoting issues before legislators and executive branch officials regarding pending and proposed legislation. While in Tallahassee, John has represented such groups as Florida Taxpayers Union, Cut Property Taxes Now, The Second Amendment Coalition of Florida, The Florida Campaign for Liberty, and Liberty First Network. John teaches legislative activists training schools, is a frequent guest on radio talk shows, and has written numerous articles promoting liberty.