If DeSantis wants less gun violence in Florida, he should support background checks | Opinion

Gov. Ron DeSantis recently made callous remarks about the sirens he hears in Tallahassee because of the city’s gun violence. Since then, Florida has seen even more gun violence, most recently shootouts in Miami and Miramar and the shooting at the Pensacola Naval Air Station that left three people dead and more injured.

My big brother was killed by someone who should never have had a firearm. If DeSantis really wants to do something to prevent gun violence in Tallahassee, and across the state, he needs to close the loopholes in state laws that allow people who shouldn’t have guns to buy firearms with no background check.

But DeSantis has tried harder to protect an unconstitutional law that limits local officials’ ability to fight gun violence than he has tried to actually fight gun violence. It’s time for the governor to do so much more in the face of a gun-violence crisis that takes the lives of more than 2,500 Floridians each year.

Those aren’t just numbers, and the lives of survivors, victims and their families are forever changed the moment somebody pulls a trigger. I know their pain. It’s the same pain I’ve been living with since my brother was shot and killed in 1983. Senseless gun violence is always maddening, and my entire family and I have been traumatized since that day. But it’s particularly difficult to grapple with the fact that my brother might still be alive today if his shooter had been subject to a background check before buying his gun.

That pain has given me my purpose to be part of the change we need — and that change starts with background checks on every single gun sale.

When I first started advocating for gun safety, people often talked about the gun-show loophole, through which anyone can buy a firearm at a gun show without a background check. However, what they often don’t know is that just like the rest of the world, the gun market has evolved dramatically since my brother was shot and killed. But because of inaction by lawmakers in Washington and Tallahassee, the laws have not. These days, people can just as easily purchase a gun from someone they meet online without a background check as they can at a gun show.

With no laws on the books requiring background checks for gun sales negotiated over the internet, Florida’s online gun marketplace is thriving. In 2018, there were more than 93,000 posts advertising guns for sale by unlicensed sellers on one website alone, Armslist.com. In fact, Florida had the country’s second-highest number of total Armslist.com ads that did not require a background check that year. Our gun laws are completely undermined when anyone — whether a minor, convicted felon or convicted domestic abuser — can buy a gun from an online seller with no questions asked. Faced with this frightening trend, it’s critical that when lawmakers discuss our weak background check laws, they understand the danger posed by unlicensed sellers offering firearms for sale online.

The bottom line is that when we close these background-check loopholes with common-sense gun laws, we save lives. Republicans, including Senate President Bill Galvano and Senate Infrastructure and Security Chairman Tom Lee already have said they support strengthening background checks. It’s time for Gov. DeSantis to do the same.

Betsy Dale Adams is a volunteer with the Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action and a member of the Everytown Survivor Network.

This story was originally published December 12, 2019 at 5:00 PM.