Despite the reputation, which was once well earned, that Florida was an extreme place for guns, the state now is somewhere in the middle nationally on gun regulations. Unlike Texas and New York, where recent mass shootings committed by teenagers took place, in Florida, 18-year olds cannot legally buy firearms.

Florida does not have a widespread “open carry” law, which puts the state again in a place that is different than right-wing states like Texas, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Idaho among others. Much like on age restrictions, Florida is somewhere near the middle on “open carry,” and has a strong red flag provision of gun laws, which is not the case in places like Texas.

Governor DeSantis however wants to change all of that and would like Florida to once again compete with Texas for the most permissive gun laws.

Late last month, the Governor made these remarks on constitutional carry which would effectively mean you can carry guns without permits (even though you have to get permitted for just about everything else in life including driving a car!).:

“I can’t tell you if it’s going to be next week, six months, but I can tell you before I am done as governor, we will have a signature on that bill.”

“We used to be a leader on the Second Amendment,”

While running for Governor in 2018, DeSantis indicated he would have vetoed the gun control laws which included raising the minimum age of purchase to 21, and was signed by his predecessor Senator Rick Scott and would have allowed guns on public university campuses. At the same time he called himself “a big second amendment guy.”

As a US House member, DeSantis had a near perfect grade from the NRA and was endorsed three times for election by pro-gun groups.

DeSantis’ views on guns are to the right of a state which already has a torrid reputation on this issue and has been the seen of several prominent mass shootings in the past decade.