OPINION: While gun rights activists in Florida and across the country are giving Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis high marks for his call to re-evaluate Sunshine State gun control laws during his state-of-the-state address, they should remain vigilant following Tuesday’s embarrassing performance by Congressional Democrats during President Donald Trump’s Capitol speech.
DeSantis, according to the Tallahassee Democrat, may have set the stage for “what may become the most memorable gun fight in state Capitol history.”
“Second Amendment rights and gun safety advocacy groups are going all-in,” the newspaper reported.
During his address, the governor—who may already be laying the groundwork for a 2028 presidential campaign since Trump cannot run for a third term—said this to the Florida Legislature:
“The free state of Florida has not exactly led the way on protecting Second Amendment rights. We have some of the more weak laws on the country compared to our other states who consider themselves conservative. I would ask you to protect people’s Second Amendment rights. Look back in instances where legislation may have been passed in recent years, such as shifting the burden on red flag laws, such as taking away the right of young adults to purchase firearms, such as limiting somebody’s ability to both keep and to bear arms as our Constitution does.
“We need to be a strong Second Amendment state,” DeSantis declared. “I know many of you agree with it, and so let’s get some positive reforms done for the people of the State of Florida.”
The newspaper quoted Florida State Sen. Shevrin Jones (D-Miami), whose comment underscores what his party thinks about Second Amendment rights, as he criticized the governor’s apparent pro-open carry remarks: “I think the governor is absolutely on the wrong side of history on this. There’s no need for expansion (of gun rights). We don’t need to keep up with Texas or any other state. Let Florida be Florida.”
In the firearms community, restoring the Second Amendment isn’t about a “need,” it’s about necessity. All rights are equal, and government erosion of those rights, say gun rights activists, must be reversed.
But Sunshine State Democrats appear poised to fight the effort, which brings the discussion around to how Capitol Hill Democrats behaved during Trump’s address Tuesday.
Rather than dismiss their stone-faced silence, refusing to even applaud a young cancer patient’s appointment as an honorary Secret Service agent (a moment which should have left not a single dry eye), as a “debacle,” the nation should be alarmed at the Democrats’ display of lockstep discipline during Trump’s speech. The scowls, fixated eyes, rigid jaws; America saw elected representatives in one party on live television who did not appear to be politicians with disagreements, but partisan fanatics.
Perhaps the best warning signal about this exhibition of extremism came from Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman, a Democrat who is showing increasingly strong signs of disillusion with his own party.
Posting on “X,” Fetterman called Tuesday night’s performance by his colleagues “A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance. It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained. We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message,” according to Fox News.
A sad cavalcade of self owns and unhinged petulance.
It only makes Trump look more presidential and restrained.
We’re becoming the metaphorical car alarms that nobody pays attention to—and it may not be the winning message. pic.twitter.com/hNgX7ouLjX
— U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) March 5, 2025
The removal of cane-waving Texas Congressman Al Green from the House Chamber only underscored how serious Democrats are, and part of their agenda is citizen disarmament.
While Florida’s DeSantis is proposing what WPLG News described as a “roll back” of “key provisions of Florida’s gun laws, including reversing red flag laws and lowering the minimum age to purchase a long gun from 21 to 18,” Democrats are digging in to stop it.
At the far corner of the U.S., in Washington state, Democrats are pushing Substitute House Bill 1163, requiring a permit-to-purchase before a citizen can exercise his or her right to bear arms under the state and federal constitutions. Ammoland News reported on this earlier.
The Washington Senate has passed Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5098, which restricts the possession of weapons on the premises of state or local public buildings, parks or playground facilities where children are likely to be present, and county fairs and county fair facilities.” The vote was 28-21 along party lines.
This fight, pitting hardline anti-gun Democrats and their constituents against Republicans, conservatives, gun owners and evidently language in both state and federal constitutions may be the acid test for the entire nation. Washington has become something of a petri dish for gun prohibitionists to test just how far they can go. It is important political ground because the state is home to both the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. The National Rifle Association, despite what many perceive as being a shadow of its former self, has a strong presence in the state.
The discipline to toe the line displayed by Congressional Democrats during Trump’s speech has permeated state legislatures. The “Party of Gun Prohibition” displayed what might be a genuine threat to democracy, which is the ability to coldly ignore a moment of triumph for a cancer-fighting child while adhering to an agenda that treats constitutional rights as government-regulated privileges, and law-abiding citizens as casualties of a culture war they are determined to win at any cost.
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