Florida shooting comes as lawmakers try to make it easier to carry guns. That makes sense? | Opinion

The shooting Wednesday in Pine Hills, near Orlando, took another three lives in the heart of a state that continues to try to loosen gun laws.

This time, the shooting took the lives of a 9-year-old girl, a 38-year-old woman and a reporter who had come to the scene to cover the crime. Two others, including the girl’s mother and the reporter’s colleague, were injured. When police recovered the alleged shooter’s gun, it was still warm, all the rounds spent, according to reports from WESH2.

Is this what Florida will be known for? The state of Parkland, the horrific school shooting that just reached its five-year anniversary. The state of Pulse, the nightclub slaughter almost seven years ago. And now, the state of Pine Hills. And so many other shootings that are less known but no less devastating.

Unconscionably, this is also the state where even the most basic gun laws are considered to be too much, crushed by the weight of the GOP, led by Gov. Ron DeSantis. (The same guy who hypocritically wanted to make sure guns were not allowed at his own election night party.)

The Legislature is close to passing a bill that would allow Floridians to carry permitless concealed weapons — no permit or training required. Right now, Floridians have to undergo a background check, fingerprinting and training, and pay a $97 fee for first-time applicants.

These are reasonable safeguards, but Republicans are ready to toss them out.

A few places would remain out of bounds for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit: courthouses, polling locations and, ironically, meetings of the Legislature.

And who are the victims, over and over? Not Florida’s congressional delegation, whose members won’t do anything real to reform gun laws. Not the members of the Florida Legislature, in lockstep with the governor in his single-minded drive toward a presidential run. No, the victims are 9-year-old girls and high school students on Valentine’s Day and innocent nightclub goers. We, in other words, are the victims.

As White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Thursday of the Florida Legislature’s effort to pass the law that will eliminate the need to get a license to carry a concealed weapon: “This is the opposite of common-sense gun safety, and 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.”

We do. But in the free state of Florida, we’re increasingly free, it seems, to shoot each other.

This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 6:09 PM.