Quote:
Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive
The Florida legislature is even now considering "constitutional carry" (House Bill 543, Companion Senate Bill 150) for the state of Florida. Briefly stated, constitutional carry would allow any Floridian of legal age and not otherwise forbidden to own a firearm, to carry one in public without having to obtain a permit to do so. The current permitting system would remain in effect however for those who wish to access it, most probably because of reciprocity agreements between Florida and other states.
What many people don't realize is how common constitutional carry is in America. Fully half the states already allow it. Besides Florida, the states of Nebraska, South Carolina, and New Mexico are also considering going that route as well.
I confess to being of two minds on the issue. After all, it is called "Constitutional carry" for a reason. But merely OWNING a gun does not guarantee that the owner will be able to USE it in a lawful and safe manner. The current system in Florida does provide a way to assure that a permit holder has demonstrated at least a minimum knowledge of the law as well as showing he/she has basic skills in how to use a firearm in a self-defense situation.
Is this something we want to see come to The Villages?
|
While The Villages has an extremely low crime rate, Florida—including some of the surrounding towns—has a very high rate of violent crimes, one of the highest in the country. I’ve never seen a Villager carrying either open or concealed, but I know a very large percentage of Villagers have guns. If more of them started carrying them, I would feel a bit nervous, but it wouldn’t scare me.
However, arresting people for illegal concealed carrying of firearms is one of the major ways that law enforcement officers get the Criminal Element off the streets and into prison where they belong, at least for a day or two. There are certainly parts of Florida that will have more gun-carrying criminals on the street if this were passed, and it would be harder to get them off the street. If they want to shoot each other, I don’t care, good riddance, but I don’t want them shooting at the rest of us.