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DeSantis's Gun Law Proposal Shamefully Exploits Political Divide

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The so-called "Combating Violence, Disorder and Looting and Law Enforcement Protection Act," recently proposed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is essentially a broad expansion of the state’s controversial "Stand Your Ground" law that leans into fearmongering and propaganda in order to play on our deep political divides rather than unite Florida residents on important issues of public safety.

I’ve already written extensively on the many ways in which Florida’s stand your ground law is terrible public policy that is far more likely to escalate a confrontation to deadly violence than it is to offer legitimate protections for a non-existent problem. Prior to its passage, our state was not in some sort of crisis in which law-abiding citizens were being locked up for cases of legitimate self-defense. However, shooting with claims of self-defense nearly tripled in the decade following the laws being passed.

In the United States, 35 states have some sort of stand your ground policy, which essentially removes the requirement that a person retreats–if possible–before using deadly force when they are legally occupying a space. Fifteen states require a duty to retreat when one can do so with absolute safety and it is outside of their home, inside of which they are protected by some form of castle doctrine.

The debate on stand your ground as a whole essentially comes down to whether you think more people will claim the very subjective emotion of "feeling as though their life is in danger" and use that in their defense of deadly force than will be legitimately protected from prosecution by such a law. If you’re a person guided by facts and data, the evidence suggests the former is far more common.

Desantis’s current proposal is a thinly-veiled effort to leverage populist right-wing rage over cultural issues for political gain by way of stoking up the right-wing base and appeasing the party’s sugar daddies at the NRA. Aside from expanding police protections for the use of deadly force, it would expand protections in stand your ground to include the even more-dangerously characterized protection for "law and order" or "protecting property." This is a not-so-subtle wink, nod to those who’ve hailed Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old gunman accused of killing protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin this August as some sort of hero for taking a high-powered rifle across state lines where he ended up in multiple confrontations in which he ultimately shot three people.

In reality, Americans are largely in agreement on firearm policies. A solid majority supports the Second Amendment and the right of Americans to own guns. However, a majority also supports common-sense firearm regulations in terms of the type of weapons and ammunition that should be available to the public, waiting periods, background checks that prevent criminals from purchasing guns, and measures to ensure that citizens suffering from mental illness are not able to abuse that right at the expense of the safety and welfare of others.

Laws like the one our governor is asking the Florida Legislature to pass in its upcoming 2021 session go a long way to manufacture an issue where none exists while picking at the festering scab of our national divide in the wake of one of the most fiercely-contested presidential elections in our nation’s history.

And why? Undoubtedly, because DeSantis feels as though he can score points with his base and leverage the division he sews in his political favor. This sort of cheap, calculated, and deliberate division of our citizenry is not the kind of ploy a true leader even considers and is beneath the dignity of the highest office in our state.

Dennis "Mitch" Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County governmentsince 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University, where he earned a degree in Government. He later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Clickherefor his bio. Dennis's latest novel, Sacred Hearts, is availablehere.

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