California Gov. Gavin Newsom might be trying to build a nascent presidential campaign by lobbing cross-country bombs at his fellow governor in Florida over the Sunshine State’s stance on Second Amendment rights.
But the father of a girl who died in a notorious school shooting had a news flash for Newsom this week:
Criminals don’t really respect the law.
Ryan Petty’s daughter, 14-year-old Alaina Petty, was one of 17 students and staffers who were killed in the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
As the father of a shooting victim, as well as a member of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Commission, which was established with a mandate to investigate the mass killing and recommend improvements that could prevent such crimes in the future, it’s safe to say Petty has a personal grasp on the issue of gun safety that eludes the well-coiffed chief executive of the once-Golden State of California.
And he’s got no time for Newsom’s opportunistic criticisms of a bill moving through the Florida legislature to allow state residents to carry concealed weapons without a permit. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a staunch proponent of Second Amendment rights, has said he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
On Monday, the California governor made time to publish a Twitter post blasting legislation under consideration in the Florida state capital of Tallahassee — more than 2,500 miles away from his own seat of government in Sacramento.
FACT: Permitless carry does not make you safer. States that allow concealed carry have higher gun homicide rates.
DeSantis’ bill would remove:
-background checks
-instruction
-training+oversightAnd he’s proposing it near the 5th anniversary of Parkland https://t.co/N4W3GLAt6V
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) January 30, 2023
“Fact: Permitless carry does not make you safer,” Newsom wrote with the condescending arrogance Americans have come to expect from California liberals. “States that allow concealed carry have higher homicide rates.”
Petty blasted back with a “Fact” of his own. It’s the liberal fetish of “gun-free zones” that don’t make people safe. In 2018, The Washinton Times reported on a study that found that almost 98 percent of mass shootings occur in “gun-free zones” — a number that’s both astounding and almost to be expected, given that “gun-free zones” are where potential victims are least able to fight back, and killers know it.
Hey Gavin, my daughter Alaina was killed at Parkland and I support permit-less carry in Florida. If my daughter were alive she’d be carrying, because she would be defenseless in a gun free zone.
Sit this one out. https://t.co/htDcUnVK73
— Ryan Petty (@rpetty) February 1, 2023
“Hey, Gavin, my daughter Alaina was killed at Parkland and I support permit-less carry in Florida,” Petty wrote. “If my daughter were alive she’d be carrying, because she would be defenseless in a gun free zone.”
And he added some advice for the Ken doll of California politics: “Sit this one out.”
In an interview published by Fox News on Wednesday, Petty pointed out that the progressive politics of California — and its draconian gun-control laws — haven’t prevented mass shootings there either.
“California has enacted what you could only call ‘the dream’ for gun-control advocates, and it is not proving to make Californians any safer,” Petty told Fox.”The reason is simple: Criminals don’t obey gun laws.” It’s a statement that’s self-evident, though the logic continues to elude liberals.
“The only thing Gavin Newsom and the California legislature have accomplished is curtailing the rights of law-abiding Californians, and in doing so they have made no one safer,” Petty said.
It appears they haven’t in California. For all of Newsom’s preening and preaching, his own state isn’t exactly an Eden of gun- and crime-free harmony.
January alone saw three mass shootings in California, as The Associated Press reported.
But Newsom feels the obligation to weigh in on what’s happing on the other side of the continental United States.
Obviously, the governor has presidential ambitions and has said he would run if President Joe Biden did not seek another term.
Do you think Florida should enact permitless carry?
Yes: 99% (86 Votes)
No: 1% (1 Votes)
The doddering Biden might be making noises about running again, but the octogenarian’s weakness is evident — physical and mental — and in the words of the great sage Rocky Balboa: “Time takes everybody out. Time’s undefeated.”
So Newsom is clearly reminding Democrats nationally that he’s On Their Side when it comes to guns.
And he’s doing it by implicitly attacking Ron DeSantis, a Republican who just won overwhelming support from his voters in the November election and, besides former President Donald Trump, is the most widely talked about potential GOP candidate in 2024.
(It isn’t Newsom’s first attack on DeSantis and Florida either, but others haven’t gone much better.)
The Florida bill wouldn’t make the state an outlier. According to a Washington Times report Tuesday, citing the National Rifle Association, the bill would make the state the 26th in the nation to enact permitless concealed carry — for those who know racist, white supremacist math, that would make a majority of the 50 states.
Newsom’s transparent pretension might play well politically on the left, and get him predictably positive attention from the ever-attentive mainstream media, but it’s not going to go down well with Americans who cherish the rights guaranteed to them by the Constitution.
And when those Americans include a man who lost his own daughter in a school shooting massacre, maybe Newsom might want to take his advice: And sit this one out.
