The murder of three Black people in a racist killing in Jacksonville, Florida, has devastated the community and stoked renewed outrage over the state’s increasingly loose gun regulations.
The white gunman who perpetrated the Jacksonville shooting appears to have legally acquired the weapons used in the attack, a Glock handgun and an AR-15-style rifle emblazoned with swastikas. The US attorney general, Merrick Garland, announced on Sunday that the justice department would investigate the attack as “a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism”.
The Saturday shooting came four months after Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican and now a presidential candidate, signed a law enacting permitless carry in Florida. The law eliminated Florida’s previous requirements mandating that those wishing to carry a concealed gun must complete safety training and undergo a background check.
It remains unclear whether a more thorough background check would have impeded gun purchases for the shooter, who had no criminal arrest history but was once held involuntarily in a mental health facility. As authorities continue to investigate the shooting, gun safety advocates and racial justice leaders have called for a re-examination of Florida’s firearm regulations. They fear that more tragedies like that which occurred in Jacksonville will prove inevitable if the state remains awash with guns in the hands of unpermitted owners.
“Gun violence has been a serious problem in Florida, and with the passage of permitless carry earlier this year, it will undoubtedly rise,” said Samantha Barrios, Florida state director for the gun safety group Giffords. “Florida’s weak gun laws have made us home to too many mass shootings. If Governor DeSantis is serious about stopping future tragedies he would support overturning permitless carry and work to strengthen Florida’s gun laws.”
The Jacksonville chapter of the NAACP similarly urged the Florida legislature to reconsider the permitless carry law.
“We are committed to supporting efforts that safeguard our communities from these acts of racial violence,” the chapter said in a statement. “Together, we must work towards a future where hate has no place and where all individuals can live without fear of senseless attacks.”
The shooting has sparked additional criticism of DeSantis and his policies on guns and education, after the governor signed a bill restricting the discussion of race in Florida’s schools. As DeSantis attended a vigil for the three victims of the Jacksonville shooting on Sunday, he was met with loud boos from the crowd. Videos of the event showed one attendee yelling at DeSantis, “Your policies caused this!”
The grief and outrage over the Jacksonville shooting may prompt DeSantis and his Republican allies in the Florida legislature to reconsider the permitless carry law. But there is some warranted skepticism of that possibility, given that DeSantis already signed the bill in April over loud objections from his constituents. One survey conducted earlier this year by the University of North Florida’s Public Opinion Research Lab showed 77% of Florida voters, including 62% of Republicans, do not support permitless carry.
Despite the many challenges to overturning the law, gun safety activists expressed commitment to ensuring the safety of Florida’s residents and holding DeSantis accountable. As the Jacksonville community grieves, the Democratic congressman Maxwell Frost said he hoped DeSantis would sit down with gun safety advocates to discuss how to prevent the next shooting.
“Activists and organizers have been asking him to travel the state and sit down with people since he’s gotten into office, and he never does it,” Frost told CNN on Sunday. “What I would tell him is, ‘Governor, we need a special session on gun violence. We needed it when you first started, and we need it now more than ever.’”
