Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday offered his support to Iowans but declined to say if he would support any federal policy change after a sixth grader was killed and five others were wounded by a 17-year-old suspect in a shooting inside a small-town Iowa high school.
"We obviously, you know, have a responsibility to create safe environments. The federal government is probably not going to be leading that effort," DeSantis said during a joint interview with NBC News and the Des Moines Register.
"I think it is more of a local and state issue. But we've shown how it's done in Florida. The things that we've done have been very, very effective."
The shooting occurred in the backdrop of Iowa's first-in-the-nation presidential caucuses. GOP candidate Vivek Ramaswamy had a campaign event scheduled in Perry at 9 a.m. about 1 1/2 miles from the high school but canceled it to have a prayer and intimate discussion with area residents.
Mass shootings across the U.S. have long brought calls for stricter gun laws from gun safety advocates, and Thursday's did within hours. But that idea has been a nonstarter for many Republicans, particularly in rural areas and GOP-leaning states like Iowa.
DeSantis told journalists he didn't support "infringing the rights of law-abiding citizens with respect to the ability to exercise their constitutional rights," when asked if there were any changes he would support at the federal level if elected president in 2024. "I know these things can be used to try to target things, and a lot of the things that are proposed would not have even prevented any of these things.
"And that's typically, I think, what we've seen in the cycles" after a shooting, DeSantis continued. "But people can count on me to hold criminals accountable — be very serious about holding accountable people that represent a dangerous society — but at the same time protecting their constitutional rights."
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Solange Reyner ✉
Solange Reyner is a writer and editor for Newsmax. She has more than 15 years in the journalism industry reporting and covering news, sports and politics.
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