The Biden administration spoke out against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ decision to sign a bill Monday that allows residents to carry concealed firearms without a permit.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the Republican governor’s quiet move “shameful” for occurring so close to the Covenant School mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, last week.
“It is shameful that so soon after another tragic school shooting, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a permitless concealed carry bill behind closed doors, which eliminates the need to get a license to carry a concealed weapon,” Jean-Pierre stated.
“This is the opposite of commonsense gun safety,” she continued. “The people of Florida — who have paid a steep price for state and Congressional inaction on guns from Parkland to Pulse Nightclub to Pine Hills — deserve better.”
Jean-Pierre also called on Congress to follow through with President Joe Biden’s plan to reinstitute a federal assault weapons ban, including the prohibition of high-capacity magazines and elimination of gun makers’ immunity.
Other features of Biden’s proposal would mandate the safe storage of firearms and background checks for all gun sales, she explained.
DeSantis approved the legislation, which additionally removes the permits for public training and background checks, during a private ceremony in his office. He later issued a news release about the event.
“Constitutional Carry is in the books,” DeSantis stated about House Bill 543.
It comes after 28-year-old Audrey Elizabeth Hale, who identified as a female-to-male transgender person, killed six individuals and injured one with an AR-15 style rifle and a Kel-Tec SUB-2000 handgun on March 27.
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