“This is the opposite of commonsense gun safety, » White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
The White House on Monday sharply criticized Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) for signing into law a bill that makes Florida the 26th state in the nation to allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.
DeSantis signed the bill in a private ceremony Monday. “Constitutional Carry is in the books,” he said in a brief news release afterward.
In a subsequent statement, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre alluded to last week’s mass shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, in which six people were killed, including three 9-year-old students.
“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 said. “This is the opposite of common-sense gun safety.”
She then cited three high-profile mass shootings that had occurred in Florida, including the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 people were killed; the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, where 49 people were killed and dozens more wounded; and a shooting in February that killed a television reporter, a 38-year-old woman and a 9-year-old girl.
