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OPINION: Florida’s imminent permitless carry law will only highlight gun-safety ignorance

OPINION: Florida’s imminent permitless carry law will only highlight gun-safety ignorance

OPINION: Florida's imminent permitless carry law will only highlight gun-safety ignorance

My last opinion piece outlining my disdain and opposition to Constitutional Carry–which, truth be told is merely a kinder and gentler way of saying open, permitless carry–led to finding some common ground with friends and acquaintances who have disagreed with me in the past.

It was this line that grabbed many the most:

“I am very much pro-Second Amendment. I am equally very much anti-gun violence and even more so against gun-safety ignorance.”

Now that we’ve established that commonality, it’s time to harp on that horrid gun-safety ignorance.

One of my concerns about every “non-criminal” person being able to carry a firearm either concealed or openly carried is that there is no gun safety education that goes along with it.

As I have previously stated, “non-criminal” may just mean you have not been caught yet and does not necessarily equate with “ not dangerous.”

So how I can I illustrate this point so that it makes perfect sense to you?

What example can I give that will show you just how very ignorant gun owners can be, and, I would add, they are probably just keeping them in their houses for now and not carrying them around freely , unless they have a concealed permit to carry?

To further micro-focus this point, I will use South Florida as an example, though I am certain I can use the entire nation.

I can attest to this fact for as long as I have been living in South Florida up to and including law enforcement related:

Morons, who haven’t figured out that bullets and far more expensive than fireworks, decide every New Year’s Eve to show their machismo by firing endless round after round into the air from a variety of handguns and/or rifles.

Ignoramuses are firing their weapons indiscriminately in the air.  Why?  Just because they can.

Every year, police, clergy, and other good people have to hold press conferences to plead with people not to fire their firearms up in the air.

Again, we need to plead with people not to do extremely dangerous and stupid things with deadly weapons?

Sadly, in South Florida, it’s as customary as Christmas carols or a roasted pig in the backyard.

We recently saw some Neanderthal recently arrested for riding on the Palmetto Expressway, firing his gun out a window and probably having an orgasm while doing so.

Remember, my point here is not so much about the merits of open carry and/or permitless carry, but rather, a subsection highlighting the incredibly high numbers of ignoramuses who haven’t the slightest clue about gun safety, imbeciles who think their car is a gun safe.

How intelligent can you be if you leave your gun in the car, glove box, console?

I mean, if your Apple iPhone 14 Pro was left there, you would make a beeline knocking over people to retrieve it.

Not so much with a gun–not quite as important.  It can wait. BUT . . .

“Oh  I have kids in the house. It is not safe.”

Yeah?  If you do not know how to safeguard children in a sensible way that does not endanger others, you should not have a firearm.

You say you have a gun for protection.

Ok, great.

Now you are in your house and your gun is in your car.

How is it protecting you?

And these are the fools that we will allow to carry the weapon conceals or strapped to their side?

Understand, there will be plenty of places where one cannot bring their gun inside.

The gun-toting Napoleonic complexed John Wayne will not be wise enough to figure this out before they leave the house (and leave it a secure place).

Instead, they will leave it in the car.

Don’t think for a moment, the criminal element will not be hip to that too.

Even if you have no weapon in your car (the criminal does not know that), the risk of car break-ins in certain locales will skyrocket.

It’s coming.

Again, it is all about lack of gun safety education.

This is the special, unintended consequence of what will take place once legislation is passed in Tallahassee come April for that ridiculously ill-defined “thing” called Constitutional Carry or permitless carry.

Whatever you call it, it’s downright dangerous.

David Magnusson is a retired police chief with 36 ½ years of law enforcement experience having spent 30 of these years with the Miami Police Department retiring as an assistant chief. He was chief of the Havelock Police Department in the Marine Corps City of Havelock, North Carolina, home to Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station. He returned to South Florida as chief of the El Portal Police Department.

He chaired the COVID and Domestic Violent Extremism Committees for the Association of Miami Dade County Chiefs of police. He teaches about Hate Crimes, Violent Extremism, and Inclusive Policing to law enforcement agencies.

A historian, Magnusson has written on military and presidential history topics. He is a diehard baseball (St. Louis Cardinals) and boxing fan. Magnusson resides in South Florida with his wife. Their children and grandchildren are never too far away.

David Magnusson
is an opinion writer, historian and former Police Chief of El Portal, Florida and Havelock, North Carolina who served in the Miami Police Department for 30 years.

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