by Mitch Maley

In 2018, a school shooter murdered 17 children and injured 18 others at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Weeks later, then-Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 7026 into law, hoping to curb, if not prevent, such tragedies going forward. During his “State of the State” speech on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis suggested we had gone too far and need to do more to make guns available to our young folks.

SB 7026 banned bump stocks, raised the minimum age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21 and enacted red flag laws that allow judges to deem someone a danger and remove their firearms through extreme risk protection orders, which the governor called a “huge due process violation” in his speech.

DeSantis told the crowd, “The free state of Florida has not exactly led the way on protecting Second Amendment rights. We need to be a strong Second Amendment state.” He also claimed that 18-year-old soldiers can carry a rifle in battle but can’t even buy a rifle to use for hunting when they come home to Florida, which was a bald-faced lie. Florida law allows service members, law enforcement and correctional officers to purchase rifles and shotguns beginning at 18. DeSantis knows this.

As per red flag laws, this is just an NRA talking point that Republicans reliably fall back on even though their party line following every school shooting is that it’s a mental health crisis, not a gun problem. You cannot have it both ways. If gun control is not the answer because someone has to have mental health issues to commit a mass shooting, it is essential that we empower mental health professionals to determine when someone could be a threat and intervene. Putting the burden on the state, as DeSantis suggested, is going to result in more dead kids who the slow wheels of such bureaucracy did not move swiftly enough to save.

DeSantis has already made guns more dangerous in the state via the constitutional carry law he approved in 2023. Under that law, citizens 21 years and older who do not have a disqualifying felony charge or certain misdemeanor domestic violence charges, have not been dishonorably discharged from the military, or have been adjudicated mentally defective are permitted to conceal carry without first applying for a state license or completing gun training. I mean, why should someone have to learn to properly use a gun before carrying one in public?

What’s more, DeSantis actually pushed for open carry because if there’s one thing we need in the current political climate, it’s a bunch of Floridians walking around with guns openly strapped to their hips. I’m a veteran and a gun owner who believes in the 2nd Amendment. However, I also agree with common sense gun regulation. I am willing to endure a bit of inconvenience to help make sure that people who shouldn’t have guns don’t get them and that the visible presence of firearms does not needlessly escalate potentially volatile situations.

DeSantis is becoming increasingly irrelevant in GOP politics as he enters the lame-duck quarter of his two terms in office. Tuesday’s speech seemed like a desperate attempt to get back in the news cycle for something other than a gaffe. In the wise words of the character Omar Little from HBO’s The Wire, “You come at the king, you best not miss.” DeSantis took his shot in challenging Donald Trump in the GOP presidential primary. I don’t know that he missed so much as the gun misfired in his hand.

DeSantis is probably imagining some sort of Richard Nixon-like comeback, but in today’s GOP, that just isn’t happening. In the best-case scenario, he’ll get to remain in the governor’s mansion as Florida’s first man, provided his wife can best Trump-endorsed Congressman Byron Donalds in the 2026 Republican gubernatorial primary. More likely, he’ll end up a lobbyist at Ballard Partners and serve on a few corporate boards. Easy work for big bucks, but no more ego boosts via Fox News appearances.

What was missing in Tuesday’s speech was real talk about issues that truly matter to everyday Floridians. DeSantis offered nothing more than vague window dressing regarding our crippling property insurance crisis or the public finally finding out that he knew insurance companies have been screwing us via “affiliate companies” for years.

Likewise absent from the speech were assurances as to how the state would react in light of the massive budget cuts to FEMA, NOAA, and the National Weather Service his party is forcing on us from Washington. If DeSantis wants to stand out among Republicans, he should show that he has the stones to stand up to the White House and the self-enriching South African immigrant it is allowing to dismantle essential services in our government. We’re just months away from the next hurricane season, and we’re still not even close to having recovered from the last one. I think Floridians would like to hear more about these matters than whether or not we’re doing enough to make it easier for teenagers to acquire guns.

Leadership is about accountability, and DeSantis has been accountable to little more than tossing red meat to his base. From his ridiculous culture war battle with Disney and his obsession with drag queens (ironic from a man who loves to wear high heels) to his shameless dismantling of our state honors college as the cherry on top of his War on Woke, DeSantis’ legacy will be little more than an embarrassing footnote in our state’s history. He has two years left to make an honest mark, and judging from Tuesday’s speech, it does not look like our governor has it in him.

Dennis “Mitch” Maley is an editor and columnist for The Bradenton Times and the host of our weekly podcast. With over two decades of experience as a journalist, he has covered Manatee County government since 2010. He is a graduate of Shippensburg University and later served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Click here for his bio. Mitch is also the author of three novels and a short story collection available here.