Florida Bill Seeking to Prevent Gun Bans in Emergencies Passes House

Ideally, when an emergency comes, we’d all be fully prepared. We’d have water, food, a way to get information, a way to keep from being killed by the elements, and we’d have a way to protect ourselves.

On that last one, most Bearing Arms readers are probably covered.

Yet not everyone does a great job of keeping enough ammo on hand–and there’s no such thing as “too much ammo” in my book–and other people realize they need a gun when things start going sideways.

In Florida, the House just passed a bill that will probably be a big help to folks like that.

A proposal that would prohibit local governments from suspending the sale of guns and ammunition during a declared state of emergency has been approved in the Florida House.

The measure (HB 6025) sponsored by Brevard County Republicans Monique Miller and Debbie Mayfield, would repeal an existing state law that prohibits the sale of firearms and ammunition during a local state of emergency.

The bill would also repeal the prohibition against anyone intentionally possessing a firearm in a public place during a local emergency.

South Florida Democratic Rep. Mike Gottlieb said he had voted for the bill in an earlier committee meeting, but that upon reading the actual statute that it would repeal (Section 870.044) was now opposing it.

“What we’re saying is that if there’s a riot or public disturbance we’re just going to let everybody sort of willy-nilly, without the controls that we have in place, get their firearms, and that’s adding fuel to that riot,” he said. “That’s adding fuel to that fire.”

In 2020, we saw widespread riots all across the nation. The rioters didn’t need guns to cause billions in devastation and to claim more than a few lives in the process.

But people who may be facing a riot are a different story, so yeah, people should be able to buy guns at that point.

And yeah, people need to be able to have a gun in a public place during a local emergency because those who are going to be a problem aren’t exactly leaving their guns at home before burning down the city.

In a normal legislative session in Florida, I’d like this measure’s chances of passing. Making it through the House is the first step, but I’d see this gaining enough traction that it should be able to get by in the Senate and get to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s desk.

However, that was before what happened at FSU on Thursday.

While this measure would have had no impact on that incident, one way or another, a lot of the so-called Republicans in Florida are really anti-gun Democrats who switched jerseys so they could get re-elected. They didn’t change their positions much, if at all. Then you’ve got squishy Republicans who might actually be Republican, but aren’t exactly firm on Second Amendment issues.

It’s entirely likely we’ll see FSU held up as some kind of reason why they can’t pass this measure, among others. “The time’s not right,” they’ll say, or something of that sort, and then let this die.

Could I be wrong? Oh, absolutely. I can’t see the future. In fact, I pray that I’m wrong.

But we’ll have to wait and see.