DeSantis can show his pro-gun bona fides by voicing support for Open Carry!

It appears that the proverbial wheels are already falling off the campaign bus of a prominent, pro-gun presidential contender—namely, our Governor, Ron DeSantis—even before his campaign is officially announced.

The problem is either that anti-gun staffers are making him look bad, or even worse, there’s a problem with the Governor himself.

But all of this could be ameliorated if Gov. DeSantis would take a STRONG stand for gun owners’ rights by demanding that the RINO Supermajority controlled legislature send him a Constitutional Carry bill which protects Open Carry.

And that’s where you come in!

You can make a huge difference by taking action on this alert.

So please urge Gov. DeSantis to publicly advocate for Open Carry.

To be sure, Gov. DeSantis has said some good things about gun rights. After the grocery store murders in Buffalo last year, DeSantis pointed out that New York is a giant gun-free zone:

They are not dumb, because they pick their targets and they know — and the Buffalo guy said he wanted to go where he knew there wouldn’t be blowback from people being armed, and so he tried to find a gun-free zone.

Gov. DeSantis added, “What you do is, you focus on the criminal. You focus on the lunatic. You don’t kneecap the rights of law-abiding citizens.”

We couldn’t agree more—focus on the criminal and don’t punish law-abiding gun owners. Unfortunately, DeSantis’ advisors didn’t follow this advice, and instead, they got caught turning campaign events all across Florida into gun-free zones.

Pro-gun media like Bearing Arms are already running articles (here and here) that point out the Governor’s 2A misstep.

And the Washington Post even uncovered evidence showing that the DeSantis campaign tried to blame the City of Tampa or the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) for illegally turning the campaign events into gun-free zones.

But it turns out that others were not to blame. No, it was the campaign itself that was breaking state law to disarm law-abiding citizens—as evidenced by this email exchange between a City of Tampa employee and her supervisor:

Gun Owners must push DeSantis to advocate for Open Carry!

Right now in our wonder state of Florida, the Republican Supermajority is pushing a watered-down permitless carry bill. They are claiming the bill provides Constitutional Carry, when in reality, it does nothing to reverse the ban on Open Carry.

Right now, there are 25 Constitutional Carry states, and every single one allows Open Carry. Moreover, 47 states and two territories enjoy Open Carry, as well.

But Florida is keeping TERRIBLE COMPANY by outlawing Open Carry along with New York and Illinois.

When a concealed carry state lacks protection for open carry, gun owners can easily find themselves afoul of the law for accidentally exposing their firearm when their shirt or jacket raises up. Yes, we have 790.053 that claims a brief exposure isn’t a violation of the law. But we’ve seen the end result of how poorly crafted 790.053 is because even after its passage in 2011, people have been arrested and charged with openly carrying a firearm.

Florida’s ban on Open Carry can be traced to Democrat Janet Reno, when in 1987 as the Dade County State Attorney, she pushed lawmakers to outlaw Open Carry during a Special Legislative Session. And since then, Republicans have been upholding the gun control policies of Democrats.

The Washington Post directly asked the Governor’s Office where Gov. DeSantis stands on the issue of Open Carry, but his campaign refused to answer:

Gov. DeSantis says that he will sign a permitless carry bill. That’s good. But his campaign remains mum on whether the Governor will push to include Open Carry in the bill.

Never mind the fact that many gun owners showed up to the state Capitol on February 7 to demand in a loud and unified voice that they wanted Open Carry added to HB 543.

Gun Owners of America & Florida’s Gun Owners demand HB 543 & SB 150 have Open Carry added!

Gov. DeSantis claims he is pro-gun. Well, he must show his pro-gun support with action!

As a Florida gun owner, you should let DeSantis know that if he wants to get the 2A community’s votes for his upcoming 2024 presidential campaign, he needs to prove it with ACTION.

He needs to make amends to you, Florida’s gun owners—and he can do that as a first step by demanding the Republican Supermajority in the legislature add Open Carry to the permitless carry bills (HB 543 and SB 150) that are moving through the legislature.

As a GOA member and a Patriot, you can exercise your First Amendment rights to help secure our Second Amendment rights in Florida.

Again, please contact Gov. DeSantis and urge him to have Open Carry added to HB 543 and SB 150!

As you know, he will especially want to hear from you, given the presidential race that will be heating up over the next year.

And then if you have time, please take a couple of minutes to call the Governor’s office at (850) 488-7146.

Again, this is crucial, especially for the fact that we all know Gov. DeSantis wants to run in 2024. But the litmus test on where he stands on Second Amendment related issues is how he deals with the issues in Florida.

Our national motto is e pluribus unum. Out of many, one. Together, as a unified voice, we can put Gov. DeSantis back on the right track.

In Liberty,

Luis Valdes
Florida State Director
Gun Owners of America

P.S. Again, please tell Gov. DeSantis that you want Open Carry added to HB 543 & SB 150 by calling him at (850) 488-7146 and emailing him. Also, please share this alert with every freedom loving Patriot that you know and continue supporting Gun Owners of America so that we can keep the heat on politicians around the nation!