Constitutional carry would be the final nail in Jim Crow’s coffin | Opinion

By Michael Csencsits

Florida’s current concealed carry scheme has racially motivated roots. Thankfully, Gov. Ron DeSantis and incoming House Speaker Paul Renner have pledged to abolish this Jim Crow era relic by passing “constitutional carry” in the upcoming 2023 legislative session.
The typical opposing arguments have again emerged: hoping to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and undesirables; believing that restricting guns and regulating them via permitting systems reduces crime.
What is interesting, and even ironic due to the public’s lack of historical context, is that the reasons to restrict citizens from carrying arms in public today mirror the same racially motivated talking points made nearly 150 years ago when gun control was first codified in our state.
Florida’s gun control can be traced to the 1880s, when Confederate sympathizers regained control of the Legislature after Reconstruction. The first thing they did was amend the state constitution to regulate the carrying of firearms under law.
The reasoning behind this was to push the Black Codes under Jim Crow. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this 1941 opinion in Watson v. Stone, authored by State Supreme Court Justice Rivers Henderson Buford. In this case, a white man was arrested for carrying without a permit, and

Source: Gun Owners of America