DeSantis Has Pro-Gun Plans for Florida

Gov. Ron DeSantis has been credited for turning Florida from a swing state into a firmly red one. The Republican Party holds a supermajority in both chambers, which, in theory, should give DeSantis a green light for whatever he wants.

It’s the dream of every governor to have their party hold that much of the legislature.

Unfortunately for DeSantis, at least on guns, the legislature isn’t really cooperative with the governor. While he wants to unroll a ton of anti-gun measures, particularly those passed in the wake of the Parkland massacre, the supposed Republicans in the legislature are working against that goal.

Still, DeSantis hopes the future unfolds differently.

Seven years after the passage of sweeping gun control measures, Florida is looking to move in a more freedom-oriented direction as it seeks to repeal the state’s red flag law.

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Fast forward to 2025, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) has moved to fundamentally redefine Florida’s approach to gun rights and regulation. In March 2025, DeSantis made it clear that he wanted lawmakers to review and potentially repeal the state’s red flag law. 

His main objection centers on the harm this law does to the time-honored concept of due process. According to DeSantis, the law inverts the traditional burden of proof by requiring individuals to demonstrate that they don’t pose a danger to themselves or others in order to regain access to their firearms. 

He contends that this contravenes the fundamental legal norm that the burden of proof should rest with the government. DeSantis argued before the state’s legislative session that red flag laws, as implemented in Florida, threaten Second Amendment rights by allowing courts to deprive citizens of both property and constitutional freedoms on dubious legal grounds. As he put it, “The burden shifts where you have to prove to a court that you are not a menace or a threat. That’s not the way due process works. The burden’s always on the government, yet they’ve shifted the burden for doing that.” 

That’s not the only issue with red flag laws, of course. The fact that they allow someone who is supposedly so dangerous to continue walking around where they can commit some other unspeakable horror with anything other than a firearm is a big issue for me, considering it’s hinged on the idea that without a gun, it’s no big deal.

The gun isn’t the issue.

Still, the due process concerns are quite legitimate, and I share them. The idea that someone can just say I’m a danger to a judge, who can then decide to take my guns, only for me to have to prove I’m not a threat to anyone, is the antithesis of how our system is supposed to work. We’re all supposed to be treated as innocent until proven guilty, but red flag laws assume guilt from the starting position, then try to work backward.

The whole concept bothers me on a visceral level because our “innocent until proven guilty” was considered essential because of the horrors of things like the Salem Witch Trials, where innocent people were accused by their neighbors of being witches, and then the accused had to prove their innocence, which wasn’t necessarily a simple task. People were killed by the authorities because of things like their accusers wanting their land or other nefarious reasons.

We weren’t supposed to go back to that, but red flag laws do exactly that.

DeSantis wants them repealed, but there are former Democrats who are now Republicans who apparently don’t want to see their previous work undone.

I have a message for them, but I can’t print in here because we try to keep Bearing Arms family-friendly.