In the aftermath of a triple murder in Jacksonville, Florida over the weekend, allegedly motivated by racism, blame is being affixed to firearms and the state’s gun laws, as is clear by reading a report in The Guardian.
Only three paragraphs into the Wednesday report does correspondent Joan E. Greve write, “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.”
The gunman—identified by Newsweek as 21-year-old Ryan Christopher Palmeter—was carrying an AR15-type rifle, and it was not concealed. He was also armed with a pistol, but Florida’s new permitless carry law may not even be relevant, since images appear to show the suspect primarily used the rifle.
The next paragraph notes, “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.”
Criminals have been carrying guns in Florida, and everywhere else, without permits for generations, a fact pointed out repeatedly by Second Amendment activists tired of being blamed for crimes they did not commit.
The Guardian story acknowledges, “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 reported by Ammoland, Jacksonville Sheriff J.T. Waters told reporters that the firearms were legally purchased and that the retailers followed the law.
The Guardian quoted Samantha Barrios, identified as the Florida state director for Giffords, the gun control lobbying group. She contended that the state’s “weak gun laws” have contributed to too many mass shootings.
But what about Chicago? Many gun rights activists have noted there are lots of shootings involving more than one victim in the Windy City, and the gun laws in Illinois are much stricter. Last year, Florida reported 1,468 homicides, according to the CDC, while Illinois logged 1,487 slayings.
In Jacksonville last year, there were 166 slayings, according to the Florida Times-Union. For 2022, Chicago posted 695, according to WTTW News.
What about Baltimore, Maryland? According to WMAR News, in 2022, that city—with even tighter gun control laws—recorded 333 homicides. The population of Baltimore was 576,498 in 2021 yet last year the city chalked up more than twice as many murders as Jacksonville, where the population was 954,614 in 2021, the most recent year for which TGM could find data for either city.
For some reason, or a multitude of reasons, gun prohibitionists rarely—if ever—bring up Chicago ore Baltimore in their discussions. Is it because the murder statistics in both cities tend to unravel arguments that more gun laws lead to reduced violence?
