Former Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Moises Cobo learned about universal background checks for a debate competition in ninth grade.
A year later, when a shooting in Parkland took the lives of 17 people at his school, Cobo’s perspective on life changed — but his stance on the right to bear arms didn’t.
“The shooting itself didn't really change the way I thought about guns, but it opened my mind into evaluating what was going on in the country a lot more than before,” said Cobo, a 20-year-old UF business sophomore.
Since the Parkland shooting in 2018, Florida legislators raised the legal age to buy a gun from 18 to 21, funded millions of dollars for school security efforts and created a red flag law that allows judges to take away someone’s guns in certain situations.
Now, Gov. Ron DeSantis and many Florida lawmakers are working to decrease gun restrictions across the state.
DeSantis signed the permitless carry bill into law April 3, which will eliminate the required application and training to carry a concealed firearm. The new law and a recent school shooting at a Nashville private school has prompted mixed views from Florida residents on gun legislation.
Cobo isn’t a gun owner; some of his relatives in Venezuela owned them while he was growing up for self defense. He believes owning firearms for self defense can be helpful but requires some regulations, he said.
Cobo thinks permitless carry could potentially help decrease crime, but a lack of permits could cause other issues, he said.
“Owning weapons for self defense, if needed, is important,” Cobo said. “But a level of proper regulations when being able to carry a firearm are needed.”
Resli Ward, an 18-year-old Gainesville High School senior, said she believes permitless carry could create more safety issues for high school students. Ward plans to hold a school walkout in April to advocate for stricter gun legislation.
Ward wants to walk out to show lawmakers students are fed up and have no other choice, she said. Students are effecting change by walking out of school and protesting, she said.
“This is life and death for us,” Ward said. “It’s not just policy.”
Students aren’t the only ones impacted by Florida’s gun legislation.
Lynn Van Susteran, a 69-year-old Gainesville resident, spoke at the Moms Demand Action Alachua County rally April 4 to urge lawmakers to protect students from guns. Moms Demand Action volunteers were prompted to hold statewide rallies because of permitless carry legislation and recent school shootings.
As a retired teacher with children, school shootings have become personal for Van Susteran. Van Susteran is upset children feel they must speak up for their safety because adults aren’t protecting them, she said.
“With each new horrific headline about children and teachers being gunned down in schools, I feel so much anger at what teachers have to face in America’s schools,” Van Susteran said.
Other Florida residents are unhappy with state gun legislation — not because there isn’t enough, but because it’s too strict.
Luis Valdes, the Florida director of advocacy group Gun Owners of America, is unhappy with the permitless carry bill. He thinks it’s a step in the right direction, but gun restriction should be looser, he said.
“It wasn’t the full constitutional carry the governor has campaigned on and promised us,” Valdes said. “But that’s the fault of the legislature.”
Valdes worked as a law enforcement officer for 15 years and considers himself a second amendment activist. From his experience, he knows law enforcement can’t immediately help in situations such as school shootings, and less gun restrictions can help, he said.
“Law enforcement tries to do the best they can with the circumstances, resources and the time,” Valdes said. “But still — even in Tennessee — it took those officers [a few] minutes to get there.”
Contact Claire at cgrunewald@alligator.org. Follow her on Twitter @grunewaldclaire.
Claire Grunewald is a fourth-year journalism major and the Spring 2024 Editor In Chief of The Alligator. In her free time, she likes to go to concerts and attempt to meet her Goodreads reading goal.
