A.G. Gancarski
In the wake of a mass killing in Maine that has seen 18 confirmed deaths, Gov. Ron DeSantis says it’s not the guns that cause mass shootings in America.
Rather, the 2024 presidential candidate is contending blame should be placed on “soft on crime” judges.
“A lot of the guys who commit violent crime and yes, less than what we saw in Maine, a lot of these people go in and out of the justice system because of liberal, soft on crime policies. You do a crime, you should do the time. Stop cycling people back out, that will make communities safer,” DeSantis said Friday morning on “Fox and Friends.”
Florida, of course, has not been free of mass shootings. From the Pulse massacre of 2018 that saw 49 casualties to a more recent racist murder of three people at a Jacksonville Dollar General, it’s clear that even in a state without “liberal” policies, mass murders happen.
The Governor’s arguments came as DeSantis argued against an assault weapons ban proposed by President Joe Biden, who DeSantis called a “fierce opponent of the Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens” who sees mass murders not as tragedies with policy solutions but as a “pretext to advance an agenda.”
Biden wants a “bill banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to enact universal background checks, to require safe storage of guns, and end immunity from liability for gun manufacturers.”
For DeSantis, such restrictions are simply a way to “nuke the rights of every law abiding citizen.”
Meanwhile, this interview was just the latest in a series of exculpatory remarks for the gun industry and enthusiasts in the wake of the Lewiston slaughter.
During an interview on CNN Thursday evening, the Florida Governor argued for a “involuntary commitment” of indeterminate length and not “red flag” laws as the mechanism that would have stopped Robert Card, the U.S. Army Reservist who authorities say shot up a bowling alley before heading to a nearby bar to shoot at more people on Wednesday.
DeSantis also posted on X Thursday on the subject, arguing that the mass murder in Maine “could be another example of a failure of our nation’s mental health system.”
30 comments
Fluvsguns
October 27, 2023 at 8:41 am
Blame blame blame by the Governor that has expanded access to guns with no need for background checks or training. This could have been another tragedy in Florida Mr Tough on crime.
Thomas Kaspar
October 27, 2023 at 8:42 am
Politicizing slaughtered innocent American bodies with manipulated information for political SEO spam is sicko cash grubbery .
Tom
October 27, 2023 at 8:43 am
So it’s not gun owners with mental health issues but politics? Sure ronnie – everyone is buying that BS. How much did you take from the NRA to get permitless carry through and why are a-holes shooting up our neighborhoods lately? Why do you feel the need to have metal detectors at your rallies? I know plenty of responsible gun owners but stop with the BS already and go solve mental illness (only kidding – solving real problems is not what we do – we just blame someone else and move right along).
Dont Say FLA
October 28, 2023 at 2:24 pm
Is murder less legal in Florida than whatever amount of illegal it is in Maine? Or is Rhonda recommending gun laws should be stricter or, really, should exist whatsoever in Maine and Florida? He is right on that, but he is so dumb he doesn’t realize he’s advocating for strict gun laws, and with enforcement
Michael K
October 27, 2023 at 8:45 am
Every time he opens his mouth he demonstrates how unfit he is to serve.
My Take
October 27, 2023 at 8:57 am
Similarly, his Nazi friends blame typhus for all the concentration camp deaths.
SteveHC
October 27, 2023 at 9:08 am
This brain-dead individual has become nothing but boringly tiresome.
Greg B,
October 27, 2023 at 9:20 am
Florida’s firearm death rate is four times that of liberal Massachusetts (Florida’s 12.7 per 100K vs Massachusetts’ 3.4 per 100K). DeSantis may want to familiarize himself with the data that destroys his narrative before making a fool of himself … again.
Source: CDC, 2019 statistics
My Take
October 27, 2023 at 9:34 am
Observers two centuries ago wrote of the more-murderous character of the south.
(Some blamed it on the Celtic background of early residents.)
MH/Duuuval
October 27, 2023 at 2:48 pm
Others lay the blame for the South’s affinity for violence to the centuries of enslavement, which was accompanied by the gentrification of all white men and their women. Unfortunately, the white men too often violated enslaved Black women and simultaneously tortured or murdered Black men who even thought of doing the same to whites.
rbruce
October 27, 2023 at 11:19 am
If firearms are the problem, then why isn’t the number of deaths higher? There are hundreds of firearms within blocks from my house (St Pete), but yet there has only been one murder within five blocks in 23 yrs.
Your stats are misleading. FL murder rate by firearm is 3.4. MA murder rate is 1.8 (2021). Your stats include suicides.
Silly Wabbit
October 27, 2023 at 3:31 pm
You kwazy.
Biscuit
October 27, 2023 at 3:49 pm
Your sample of “…hundreds of firearms within blocks from my house (St Pete)..one murder within five blocks in 23 yrs.” is far too small and therefore statistically irrelevant.
There are 5 dogs on my block but only two of them bark in the middle of the night and only one of them prefers to poop in the middle of the road instead of on grass. See? it proves nothing about how many dogs bark in the middle of the night in America. Or how many are road poopers.
Humans, what would they do without us?
Arf.
Dr. Franklin Waters
October 30, 2023 at 3:23 pm
Now do Europe.
MH/Duuuval
October 27, 2023 at 10:00 am
Governors of two states have successfully sued the primary manufacturer of ghost guns, which now comprise 25 percent of firearms associated with criminal activity.
Florida, which is involved in Woke lawsuits throughout the nation has ignored this opportunity to shut off one important source of unregulated firearms.
Bwj
October 27, 2023 at 10:13 am
I guess Florida isn’t tough on crime.
MH/Duuuval
October 27, 2023 at 2:50 pm
As one wag put it: Florida is tough on drag queens.
James L Wilson
October 27, 2023 at 10:53 am
Britain and France and Japan and Germany and Canada anns Australia are lucky they have no people with mental illness. Why do only the US and Brazil have crazies? Odd that “liberal” policies cause shootings, since most gun deaths occur in Alabama and Oklahoma and West Virginia and Wyoming and Mississippi, while lower gun deaths occur in Illinois and New York and California. Liberals must go South to shoot people.
PeterH
October 27, 2023 at 11:58 am
A DeSantis narrative is fueled with the intellectual curiosity of a ten year old. He has nothing new to offer. I’m sure he would blame the recent Maine massacre on the dangerous proliferation of drag queens if they didn’t pull the plug on him at Fox News.
rbruce
October 27, 2023 at 12:03 pm
Misleading stats. Should not include suicides. Gun murders per top ten states are (2010);
population total per 100,000
California 37,253,956 1,257 3.37
Texas 25,145,561 805 3.20
Florida 19,687,653 669 3.40
New York 19,378,102 517 2.67
Pennsylvania 12,702,379 457 3.60
Michigan 9,883,640 413 4.18
Georgia 9,920,000 376 2.64
Illinois 12,830,632 364 2.84
Louisiana 4,533,372 351 7.74
Missouri 5,988,927 321 5.36
TJC
October 27, 2023 at 3:39 pm
Don’t know where you are getting your stats from, but I trust the Pew Research Center, 2021 stats:
“The results are somewhat different when looking at gun murder and gun suicide rates separately. The places with the highest gun murder rates in 2021 included the District of Columbia (22.3 per 100,000 people), Mississippi (21.2), Louisiana (18.4), Alabama (13.9) and New Mexico (11.7). Those with the lowest gun murder rates included Massachusetts (1.5), Idaho (1.5), Hawaii (1.6), Utah (2.1) and Iowa (2.2). Rate estimates are not available for Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont or Wyoming.”
Sure looks like the South has pretty damn high gun murder rates. Unless you don’t think Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama are south enough.
ScienceBLVR
October 27, 2023 at 2:19 pm
So, I just saw Ron bloviating on local channel saying Red flag Lawson Florida are wrong as the process is misused and all you need to do is file a complaint and they take your gun! He goes on to explain, using his great legal prowess and knowledge, to state this not only denies someone’s second amendment rights, but also takes away their fifth amendment “Due process” rights?? I’m thinking, ok, I watch Law and Order, and Due process comes from the 14th, not the 5th!! You’d think a Harvard lawyer would know the amendments. I even played it back to be sure I heard correctly. DeSantis must have faked that law degree or he is pretty ignorant about the Constitution.
MH/Duuuval
October 27, 2023 at 2:54 pm
It’s tricky::
“The Fifth Amendment says to the federal government that no one shall be “deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law.” The Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868, uses the same eleven words, called the Due Process Clause, to describe a legal obligation of all states.”
The Fifth protects civll liberties; the 14th protects civil rights of African Americans originally.
Elmo
October 27, 2023 at 3:45 pm
It is sad that mental health issues are confined to the United States. Just imagine what a safe place it would be if the liberals were smart enough to lock them all up before they snap.
MH/Duuuval
October 28, 2023 at 9:43 am
Elmo: Not sure where you’re coming from, but today’s headlines in Duval newspaper say Ron Dee wants more preemptive state action taken against potential shooters. Dee doesn’t seem concerned that a crazy person can get a weapon of war, high-capacity magazines, body armor, ghost guns, etc., without much difficulty.
Florida ranks low in mental health access and high in military weaponry access.
TJC
October 27, 2023 at 4:06 pm
Such a deeply serious subject being taken on by such a shallow politician. And again it begs the question: does this man have an original thought in his head?
“You do a crime, you should do the time.”
“…’liberal, soft on crime policies.”
“soft on crime” judges.
I’m old enough to remember that Richard Nixon and Spiro T. Agnew ran on their “Law and Order” campaign promises to eradicate crime in America. Agnew, of course, had to step down from the vice-presidency because he was taking bribes, and Nixon resigned rather than be impeached for his crimes. So I guess you could say they did take care of two criminals.
I can’t trust a politician like DeSantis when he sounds so much like “Law and Order” Nixon and Agnew — or like a 14 year old Valley Girl version of them, anyway.
My Take
October 27, 2023 at 6:04 pm
Rightwing hate radio and Net have more to do with it.
No one commits mass murder with the idea, “They’ll go easy on me too.”
Lawlib
October 27, 2023 at 6:52 pm
A good candidate for involuntary civil commitment – the dude who claims that soft on crime judges are responsible for mass shootings.
My Take
October 27, 2023 at 9:52 pm
The NY Post reports he used a ” hìgh caliber” weapon.
A .50 caliber machine gun or even bigger musket?
A long-barreled artillery piece or naval gun?
Or maybe they really mean “high-powered.”
Andy
October 31, 2023 at 10:00 am
No the GOP and DeSantis are owned by the NRA, the group that embezzled dues monies, then received a ‘cash cow’ from Russian alliances. Making America Great again!
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