Mothers’ Group Confronts DeSantis With Protest For Gun Violence Victims

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Caleb Newton
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Moms Demand Action, a group involved in the fight for commonsense reforms to gun policy, showed up recently in the Florida capital, Tallahassee, for advocacy work that evidently included testifying against a proposed bill to allow concealed carry without a permit, meeting with legislators, and putting thousands of white roses outside the Florida Capitol building.

The roses honored victims of gun violence in the state. “Reminded this morning after a powerful @MomsDemand program during Florida’s Advocacy Day why I do this work—2,849 white roses in front of the Old Capitol,” a Twitter user identifying herself as Beth wrote on the site. “One for each Floridian shot and killed last year. 2x as many are shot and survive.” Other sources, like the Tampa Bay Times, also reported on that particular advocacy initiative.

Elsewhere, there have also been protests against some of the key policies pushed by DeSantis, including demonstrations from college students against his attempts at furthering a takeover of the state’s system of public colleges and universities and protests outside the same Capitol building against, among other concerning developments, DeSantis’s opposition to an Advanced Placement (AP) course for high-schoolers in what was termed African American Studies.

The proposal allowing covertly carrying weapons without a permit for otherwise eligible Floridians would mirror policy moves undertaken by Republican officials in other states like Texas and Georgia. A recent poll done by the University of North Florida notably found that some three-fourths of the state was opposed to implementing the idea in Florida, although it looked set for enactment anyway. Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis has even expressed support for allowing open carry in the state without a permit, although provisions making that idea a reality weren’t included in some of the key legislation on guns that was put under consideration for this year’s Florida legislative session.

Even Florida sheriffs have, at least in part, expressed opposition to the idea of open carry without a permit, and the leader of a legislative committee at the Florida Sheriffs Association expressed as much to the GOP state Senator currently leading the state’s upper legislative chamber. Although Republicans have sometimes liked to allege that changing some of the rules around guns wouldn’t even be reasonably effective, the facts just don’t bear that out. The mass shooter who attacked an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, last year used a gun he purchased legally. Having changed the rules could’ve helped stop that atrocity — and similar incidents — from happening.

 



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