(RepublicanNews.org) – The Florida legislature introduced a bill in January that would allow citizens to carry a gun without a state license, and a junior state house member is calling it ‘fascism’.
House Bill 543, if passed, would see Florida join about half the US states that have no licensing requirements to carry a gun.
Just before President Biden took the stage this past Tuesday for the State of the Union address, MSNBC host Joy Reid spoke to Democratic Florida house representative Maxwell Frost about the Florida bill.
Frost said the bill constituted “fascism” and that “people will die” in his state if the bill is signed into law.
Governor Ron DeSantis – whom Democratic lawmakers frequently describe as “authoritarian,” “dangerous,” or “scary” – was in Rep. Frost’s sights, too. Frost said DeSantis was abusing his authority and “scapegoating” what he calls vulnerable communities.
Frost did not give details on this alleged abuse of power or targeting of certain populations.
Florida’s House Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law, and Government Operations Subcommittee voted 10-5 on February 7th to advance the bill to the full legislature. The vote went along party lines.
The bill would allow Florida citizens to carry guns without a state license, though it would require gun carriers to have valid identification on their person, and to display it to a police officer upon request.
HB 543 also includes restrictions on where people would be allowed to carry weapons. For example, weapons would be barred from school property and from locations where school-sponsored events take place.
Critics of such restrictions point out that they do not stop spree killers, who obviously are not concerned with complying with gun laws. But they do stop “good guys with guns,” say the critics, who might be able to stop the kind of mass murders Americans have become grimly used to hearing about at public schools.
Some speakers at the bill’s February 7th hearing called it “watered down” and said it didn’t go far enough.
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