SB 1242 by Greg Steube (R): This bill would allow permitless open carry during a wide number of recreational activities, from picnicking to bird watching to dog walking. Current Florida law requires a concealed weapons permit for carrying a firearm. SB 1242 would allow people to openly carry firearms, including assault weapons, without undergoing the training class or federal background check required to receive a permit.
Floridians have said NO to Open Carry bills before. Why is our Legislature not getting the message? Indeed, three gun bills died in Sen. Steube’s committee this past December. Yet Sen. Steube has now placed SB 1242 — the most radical gun bill we’ve ever seen in Florida — on his agenda, and also:
SB 1048 by Dennis Baxley (R): This bill would allow churches, synagogues, and other religious institutions to authorize concealed license holders to take their firearms onto their properties. This also means that the designated carrier could take their concealed weapons into schools if the religious institution owns, rents, leases or borrows the property. SB 1048 is a different version of the same idea we saw die a hard death in a December. Now it’s back in disguise!
Recent polls have shown that the majority of Floridians oppose campus and open carry. It’s high time these elected officials stop wasting our time on bills that have been repeatedly rejected. It’s past time these “guns everywhere” legislators start listening to Floridians who want common sense gun laws instead of continuing to agenda bills that are even more radically irresponsible! Call the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and request that they vote NO on SB 1242 and SB 1048!
