Gov. Ron DeSantis reacted Friday to the news of an ongoing investigation into whether Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan and city officials allegedly kept an illegal registry of gun owners carrying firearms into city buildings
"Having a gun registry is unlawful, and it is a violation of people's Second Amendment rights," DeSantis said. There needs to be consequences for it, and I was surprised to see that would happen. But our laws in Florida are very clear, our constitution is very clear. Doing these secret gun registries is completely unacceptable."
According to Florida Statutes 790.335, "a list, record, or registry of legally owned firearms or law-abiding firearm owners is not a law enforcement tool and can become an instrument for profiling, harassing, or abusing law-abiding citizens based on their choice to own a firearm and exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under the United States Constitution."
Back in 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed permitless carry into Florida law. At the time, Florida was the 26th state to allow Constitutional Carry.
The controversy has gone through a bit of a blame game between Mayor Deegan and former Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry over the past several days. Deegan, a Democrat, accused Curry, a Republican, of starting the policy during his administration.
Curry was Jacksonville's mayor from 2015 to 2023. Deegan took over on July 1, 2023. The policy is said to have kicked in more than 3 weeks after Deegan took office.
The former mayor has since demanded an apology from Deegan over the allegation. Florida GOP Chairman Evan Power also called out Deegan over the policy.
"I know you have Republicans on the city council that are pursuing this. I know others will likely pursue, but there will need to be accountability absolutely," DeSantis added.
