By Lee Williams
Whether it’s called constitutional carry, permitless carry or unlicensed concealed carry — which is probably the most accurate — the fact that soon millions of Floridians will no longer need a permission slip from the government to defend themselves has critics frothing at the mouth.
It’s going to happen, and there’s nothing they can do about it – that’s the bottom line.
They’re powerless to stop the massive restoration of our civil rights, regardless of how hard they whine or how absurd their prognostications of impending doom become. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has promised to sign the bill, and leaders in the House and Senate – where Republicans enjoy super-majorities – have promised to put a bill on his desk.
No one is taking the news harder than Frank Cerabino, a columnist for The Palm Beach Post who has enjoyed ridiculing guns, gun owners and civil rights for more than 30 years. As the bill progressed through the legislature, this angry little toad of a man has become positively deranged.
He’s lost what little sanity he once had, and that was never much. Cerabino’s March 7 column, which was titled “The ‘constitutional carry’ lie and why gun advocates don’t love the latest Florida bill,” shows just how toxic his pent-up why-won’t-they-listen-to-me! anger has become.
In his column, Cerabino describes constitutional carry as “political fiction,” and then he completely loses his damn mind.
“‘Constitutional carry’ is like ‘legitimate rape.’ It doesn’t exist,” he actually wrote.
No, Frank, nothing is like rape – nothing – and you should know that. To compare rape to anything is repugnant, morally wrong and massively offensive. It trivializes the horrors sexual assault survivors struggle to live with every single day. It defies belief that this disrespectful and hurtful comparison was actually published by a daily newspaper.
In another tangled line, Cerabino showcases his ignorance of the law, rifles and ballistics.
“Open carry would also allow them to walk around in public with weapons too big to conceal, such as military-style mass casualty weapons like the AR-15, which fires projectiles capable of liquifying body organs and passing through metal,” he wrote.
First, neither the House bill nor the Senate bill allows for the open carry of arms. That’s the problem many of us have with this legislation, and the reason it’s not accurate to call it constitutional carry. Therefore, no one will be walking around with a “military-style mass casualty weapon like the AR-15” in Florida unless they’re hunting, fishing or camping.
As to the AR-15’s magic liquifying abilities – nope. Sorry, Frank, but that’s pure bunk. The 5.56x45mm round was nothing more than a mediocre varmint cartridge until Eugene Stoner put it in his AR. In fact, many states prohibit hunters from using the round to harvest deer because it is too small. Compare the 5.56x45mm round to the two previous military calibers – 7.62x51mm and .30-06 – and you’ll learn the error of your ways, Frank.
Cerabino claims that after Gov. DeSantis signs an unlicensed concealed carry bill, we will want another – and we most certainly will. But his final comparison insults everyone who holds their right to keep and bear arms dear.
“This is what happens when you negotiate with terrorists. You give them one imaginary constitutional right and they’ll demand another,” Cerabino wrote.
Terrorists? Really?
I know more than a few heroes who left chunks of their bodies in foreign countries while fighting actual terrorists, Frank. They’re strong Second Amendment supporters who wouldn’t appreciate being your terrorist label. Also, they never raised their hand and swore to protect and defend any “imaginary” constitutional rights. The only terrorists involved in this fight are those using the First Amendment to encourage further infringements upon the Second.
Friendly fire
Nearly every state that successfully passed constitutional carry experienced some pushback from a small minority of firearms instructors during the legislative process. Unfortunately, Florida isn’t immune from this nonsense. One gun shop here was passing out leaflets titled: “Constitutional Carry (Maybe not such a good idea?)”
“Constitutional Carry (if passed) will allow any Florida resident of legal age, the ability to carry a firearm without any license or training,” the leaflet states. “Unfortunately, a lot of people will look at it as not having to pay for a Florida Concealed Carry class and save money. This is NOT what is good for the public, nor a responsible person.”
It was written by the gun shop’s training division, and signed “because we care.” I’m not naming the shop nor the owner. To his credit, he didn’t post his opinion online, nor did he run to the local media. Though misguided and wrong, his position is not difficult to understand. He’s worried that the end of the state’s mandatory training requirement will lead to a loss of revenue for him and his trainers. However, history shows us this is not always the case.
Many of the 25 states that passed constitutional carry experienced an increased demand for professional firearms training. Florida trainers will likely see the same uptick.
It’s about to become much easier to carry a defensive firearm in the Gunshine State. Gun owners will no longer need to beg permission from the state, pay a $97 fee, submit to background checks, mugshots and fingerprints like a common criminal in order to exercise a basic constitutional right. Most Floridians understand that carrying a defensive firearm is a heady responsibility, so of course they will seek out professional training, if they haven’t done so already.
Constitutional carry, unlicensed concealed carry or whatever else you want to call it will restore the constitutional rights of millions of Floridians. At the end of the day, that’s far more important than anyone’s financial concerns.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
i was amazed in the ’90’s (?) when they granted carry rights to cabbies, then soon after expanded.
“…if negroes were citizens, they would be able to keep and carry arms from state to state”
DRED SCOTT 60 US 393…AT PAGE 417, CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY.
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So a decade before the 14th amendment applied the Bill of Right to the states, the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court ruled that, Citizens could “keep and carry arms from State to State” and this would be Article 4 “full faith and credit” and the Second Amendment.
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The 11th Cir Crt of Appeals in a Florida gun litigation over age to buy a gun, said the Bill of Rights only applied to the States after the 14th Amend was ratified.
I WONDER IF CHIEF JUSTICE TANEY KNEW THIS????
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Oh, a federal district court judge in Western Missouri ruled, that State gun laws do NOT supersede federal gun laws. but in Florida, State gun laws there supersede acts of Congress in regards to age to buy a gun.
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Use this information wisely.
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if it’s working in half the country…then one would conclude it’s working and to just accept the inevitable…besides getting a Florida permit was overpriced and a pain in the ass…dropped mine years ago….
drats are worried about their constituents & relatives getting shot up by the law-abiding
try to get control of the obiden population 1st, assholes
The left needs to come up with new talking points. It is always the same outrage when it comes to constitutional carry right now half the country is constitutional carry and it’s always the same fake outrage every single time.
He!! Dims did the same BS in ILLANNOY when CCL was ordered & constitutional carry in Indiana. I don’t blame gunshops for the bottom line. A bunch are closing in Illinois from the Dimscum© ANTI-2A efforts🙄
Part of their effectiveness re propaganda is the repetition. They have used many of the same talking points for longer than many posters/readers here have been alive. They are running into a situation where the overwhelming majority of data no longer supports their narrative and many of the population that believes the narrative are ageing out (read dying). Within the next 10-20 years they will need to change the narrative or be more irrelevant than George Bush republicans.
that same faux “outrage” was heavy whenever each new state developed some system for “allowing” the Mother May I Cards for individuals to carry concealed in public. “there will be shootouts in parking lots, at stoplights, whenver someone gets “cut off” in traffic” and everywhere else.. NONE of which materialised. Which proved to me the ones on the loudest whinges are just the emotionally driven and unstable ones that should NOT have guns. Theywere projecting their own infantile lack of emotional control and retaliation on the rest of us.
Ignore them and walk on… well armed. T
The root of the problem: “They were projecting their own infantile lack of emotional control and retaliation on the rest of us.”
They can’t control themselves, so obviously no one else can either.
they count on the fact the average citizen isn’t aware of just how widespread this is or how well its been working…
Wisconsin was the 49th state to get legal concealed carry. The left lost their minds claiming the streets would run red with blood; there would be gunfights at high noon and shootouts over a dozen eggs. None of that happened.
Weird, it’s almost like the majority of the people are not mentally deranged like they are.
It was the same here in Florida in the late 1980s, the local paper had letters to the editor predicting gun battles in Wal-Mart parking lots for parking spaces, and the streets would run with rivers of blood…
Same b s was said in Texas. Same old tired talking points. I haven’t been in a gunfight in 73 years.
I’m 73 but my last gunfight was only about 43 years ago during the big coal miners strike in Beattyville KY (I owned a coal bucket) …
AR-15s are Mindbogglingly Safe > https://hwfo.substack.com/p/ar-15s-are-mindbogglingly-safe
more people “die by masturbation”…than by an AR-15?…..now that’s a stat worth noting…
I’ve said it for years. The US will have constitutional carry nationwide by the end of Trump’s second term.
And we owe a debt of gratitude to folks like dacian and miner49er for keeping us focused on the end game.
Between the 1984 and brave new world and farinheight 451 enthusiasts, covid cultists, BLM crazies, antifa, groomers, and misc government karens I have seen more people take an interest in firearms, privacy, border security, and homeschooling than I ever thought existing in NY. Dunno if Trump will get a second term but the ripple effects of his presidency will be felt for generations.
If Trump doesn’t get a second term my prediction will still happen. Bruen was a gift to the nation made possible by his first term.
But making sure he gets that second term and at least 50 friendly senators will be important re district courts to reduce the running of the clock that we see when challenging infringements.
If there were a dictionary definition for pasty mouth poop for brains rapist azz kisser it would certainly be frank cerabino. His disgusting insane newspaper butt spew has for a long time been used to keep women from having the ability to defend themselves, the time has come for frank and his ilk to go pound sand.
I doubt Cerabino has the technical skills or equipment to properly pound sand. It’s a rather complex job to get it right. 😉
anti-gunners always freak out when they don’t get their way.
The Illustrated Guide To Gun Control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtTn45Y9ebc
Thx. I just downloaded a copy of this vid for future use. 🙂
the NFA was a period piece…and had some degree of popular support because most people couldn’t relate to it and gangsters were the terrorists of their times…but as for the rest?….well…nibble nibble….
Why do people keep using the phrase “Constitutional carry” when the bill is about permitless restricted carry?
Because half the population is stupider than the other half.
I appreciate you using the term stupider and thank you for your efforts to bring it into common usage. 😎😎😎😜😜😜
stupider is as stupider does…
5.56, at the right velocity, is a pretty nasty little round.
Below 2,600 fps it just kinda pokes holes.
So try not to be disingenuous in your statements either – we’ve been killing people with 5.56 for decades.
Men (and women) have been killing each other with ALL sorts of stuff since they first walked upright, it’s the nature of the beast, and NO law is going to change that. If whatever you have isn’t “big” enough hit em, stab em or shoot em until the desired effect has been achieved… Bigger is better but how you do it is equally important…
5.56 at a distance sucks…as we’ve recently discovered…..
Recently?
Do they lack the ability to see that hasn’t happened in other states?
Or do they just think the rest of us lack the ability to see that hasn’t happened in other states?
Maybe it’s just default programming and they cannot deviate.
it’s highly dependent on people’s ignorance of what is going on in other states…
When you can snatch the weapon from my hand, then you can have it grasshopper.
The biggest “unspoken” concern of ALL these ignorant “gun haters” is that their BIG LIEs about “rivers of blood in the streets” and “the return of the Wild West” will once again be proven to be false and once again they will be shown for the Chicken Littles that they are and that eventually their failures will cause their handlers to pull their source of abundant easy money…
The return of the Wild West is a fiction. The $.10 novels and western silent films, talkies and T.V. shows is what they are talking about. The fiction of everyone having a horse or a pony and trap, or carriage is just that, FICTION! The same can be said about gun fights every Saturday night, when the truth is that firearms were very expensive, important tools, used by cowboys, mountain men, buffalo hunters, U.S. Marshals, and bounty hunters and a few desperados. Most people never shot a firearm, the ammunition was expensive and time consuming. They were just too busy plowing and praying for rain(or for it to stop), to worry about firearms(unless they were hunters/trappers). If you wanted to live off the land, traps and fishing was much cheaper and easier to get home.
shotguns were pretty common…and quite useful….people acquired what they thought they needed…
Seems like the Karens are going nutzo again.
still……. and they will never stop. It is woven deeply into what passes for their DNA
And their bank accounts…
I mean, if you want to talk about granting fictional “rights” to terrorists, we can discuss abortion all day long.
“This is what happens when you negotiate with terrorists.”
Isn’t that a perfect description of the gun control zealots? As soon as they pass one gun control scheme, it’s time to move on to the next.
What does this passing mean for non-residents?
Constitutional carry has worked out great in Iowa. All that blood in the gravel roads has really kept the dust down.
“You give them one imaginary constitutional right and they’ll demand another”
What, like the camels-nose-under-the-tent type of gun control attrition that the anti-2A movement has been subjecting RKBA to for something like 4 decades?
I’ll be pretty darned pleased if we can start rolling back infringements to our rights – imaginary or otherwise!
Concealed carry without a permit will change nothing. The only thing that changes is those who were strapped before will no longer be criminals. The law abiding will still be law abiding and those with criminal intent will still act accordingly.
Yahtzee…
Florida doesn’t have constitutional carry, it’s got hide n seek, same constitutional carry all the outlaws have.
my dad had a pistol…never had a permit….nobody cared….
“This is what happens when you negotiate with terrorists. You give them one imaginary constitutional right and they’ll demand another,”
imaginary?
apparently he can’t read… its written right there in the Bill of RIGHTS. No one imagined it.
if its imaginary then why are you trying to take away something that doesn’t exist?
terrorists?
oddly enough that’s kinda what the British called us when we had to go to war with them to kick your kind of tyranny out of here.
the only thing imaginary here is your depraved mentality that makes you think you can decide who has constitutional rights or not.
seriously, you need to be dragged out back and have your ass kicked soundly like we kicked the asses of the British then have a copy of the Bill of RIGHTS shoved up your ass to show you its not imaginary at all.
~ It was written by the gun shop’s training division, and signed “because we care.” I’m not naming the shop nor the owner. ~
It should be expensive to take a stand AGAINST liberty. Why not share the name of their business?
permits are a bit of a racket for some when training is required…bit of a cash cow…
I was told by a liberal that when it comes to guns: “Facts do not matter.” Their fear is totally as result of brainwashing by the media. You will get no where reasoning with them. Besides the 2A, Illinois has violated the 4th, 5th and 14th amendment rights.
Money bags running Sickonoise just wants yall to understand who makes the rules and who follows the rules…who makes them do not follow them…
How would this new law affect non-Floridians? While some or even many may seek training from firearms instructors, some won’t. Then they’ll be in the public, armed but untrained.
There are plenty of people carrying firearms in public that are untrained. Mostly they are gang members or others with nefarious plans.
Florida will add more untrained people without nefarious plans.
I don’t think you have any concerns about these people unless you have nefarious plans, then that may be worrisome.
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