Republican Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, signed on Monday the law that allows carrying a firearm without a state permit, a regulation strongly criticized by Democrats.
HB 543, approved by the Senate on March 30, will take effect on July 1 and will make Florida the 26th U.S. state to enact such legislation.
With 27 votes in favor and 13 against, the Florida Senate, with a Republican majority as well as the state’s lower house, approved this bill, which its advocates have called “public safety”.
As of the law’s effective date, people who carry concealed weapons in public will not need special training or background checks to do so.
“Carrying guns is a constitutional issue that is on the books,” DeSantis said Monday in a statement after signing the law into law.
In April of last year, DeSantis took his conservative agenda a step further by promising to sign a law allowing state residents to carry a firearm without a permit, something he called “constitutional carry.”
The term “constitutional carry” refers to the right to carry a firearm, either discreetly or openly, thanks to the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which gives the American people the right to keep and bear arms.
Currently, Floridians do not need permits to purchase a gun, but they do need permits to carry them in public, so this bill would eliminate that requirement.
TYT Newsroom