Florida Republicans are urging the Legislature to pass an open carry bill

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Wilton Simpson have both signaled support for a proposal to allow the open carry of firearms.
• This comes at the same time that the governor is pitching a sales tax holiday.
• 'Second Amendment Summer' would give purchasers a break on things like guns and ammunition.
• Below is a lightly edited transcript of the story that aired Feb. 7 on Capital Report.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Gun-rights groups are once again pushing the state Legislature to make open carry legal in Florida.

“If you run pro-gun, and you don’t do pro-gun things, you’re going to face the iron hostility of your constituency,” Florida state director of Gun Owners of America, Luis Valdes said during a phone interview with WFSU on Wednesday.

Gun Owners of America, GOA, is a pro-gun rights group.

Open carry proposals have been filed before, then failed after receiving significant pushback from law enforcement. Valdes said the Legislature should give the open-carry proposal another chance.

“Floridians have the right to exercise their second amendment rights without the Legislature telling them how they can," he said.

But Florida’s Senate President Ben Albritton has already voiced concerns. He’s worried the proposal could negatively impact public safety.

Albritton said he’s against it, because most law enforcement oppose civilians openly carrying firearms.

Florida House of Representatives

“I’ve supported law enforcement my entire life. It was the way I was raised," the Polk County Republican said in November. "[Law enforcement] oppose it, I trust my law enforcement officials, and that’s where I stand.”

Wilton Simpson, Florida's 13th Commissioner of Agriculture, believes those worries could be unfounded. He recently talked about the issue on the Bob Rose Morning Show on Gainesville's WSYK radio.

“There are many opinions on open carry in a state like Florida with tourism," Simpson said. "I have been in many states with open carry; there’s not any problems.”

Meanwhile, Governor Ron DeSantis recently said on social media, that Florida needs to join other states in "protecting" the Second Amendment.

“Would be great to see it hit my desk – Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right...” DeSantis posted on X.

DeSantis is proposing a sales tax holiday called the ‘Second Amendment Summer,' to make guns and ammunition tax-free.

“From Memorial Day to the fourth day of July, you could get your ammunition, your firearms, and encroachments, tax free in the state of Florida," said DeSantis.

Cathy Swerdlow chairs the Gun Violence Prevention Team for the League of Women Voters of Florida.

She told WFSU in an interview at the state Capitol building Wednesday that lawmakers should focus more on gun violence prevention and make firearms less accessible to keep gun deaths to a minimum.

“We know that access to guns leads to a lot of unnecessary gun deaths," she said. "I'm not talking about criminal activity; I'm talking about suicides and unintentional shootings of children and people with suicidal ideation.”

The Legislature will weigh in on the open carry and tax break proposal during the legislative session that kicks off Tuesday, March 4.