TAMPA, Fla. — Niki Carraway knows what guns can do in the wrong hands. Her husband, Willie Carraway, was killed in a Tampa shooting last year.
“He was an innocent bystander,” she said. “It’s still hard to believe that he lost his life to gun violence. I never would have believed that.”
Now, she fears the amount of gun violence could grow because of a bill signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis Monday which enacts permitless carry in Florida.
Starting in July, legal gun owners will now be allowed to carry concealed firearms without the currently required permit and training.
“It’s definitely heartbreaking because you have to have a license to do everything else. You have to have a license to be able to drive,” Carraway said.
Tuesday afternoon, Carraway was one of the dozens who protested the law in downtown Tampa in a demonstration organized by the Hillsborough/Pasco County chapter of Moms Demand Action.
Even though the law includes public safety provisions — like more law enforcement training and expansion of the guardian program to private schools — Moms Demand Action and its allies worry the new law will mean more gun violence.
Gail Powell-Cope, with the group, points to a 2022 study from Johns Hopkins University that suggests relaxing concealed carry restrictions can cause an increase in assaults with guns.
“We’re here...to tell the legislators and the governor that we’re fed up,” she said ahead of the demonstration. “The bill is going to make us less safe in Florida.”
Ryan G. Thomas disagrees with Powell-Cope’s assessment. Tuesday, he celebrated the new law.
“I think it’s great,” he said. “I don’t think we should ever have to ask the United States government for permission to exercise our Constitutional rights, so I think it’s awesome.”
However, the Second Amendment advocate whose company — Warrior Cloud — has helped train thousands of gun owners across Tampa Bay does agree with the Moms Demand Action protesters about one thing: training is still key, even if it’s not required under the new law.
“There’s a reason when you go to a gun range that there are bullet holes all over the wall, all over the wall, and all over the ceiling,” he said. “It’s because people walk in and own a gun, and they think they’re just going to figure it out. Firearms can be extremely dangerous in the hands of somebody who lacks the proper training, and we owe it to ourselves, our family, and our children to make sure we know what we can and cannot do with that gun.”
He is concerned that permitless carry might mean some gun owners opt to skip that training.
From personal experience, Thomas said many clients come to his training sessions with “false beliefs,” so the training also provides instructors an opportunity to teach clients about gun laws and proper decision-making.
“If people are no longer going through that training, they will believe that they’re allowed to shoot people if they get punched in the face, they will think that they’re allowed to shoot somebody for stealing their lawn mower out of their garage, they will think that they’re allowed to shoot somebody for breaking into their car — which are all situations that you can absolutely never use a gun in the State of Florida,” he said, in part. “Owning and possessing a firearm for self-defense is a very big decision that requires a lot of time, effort, and energy to make sure you really understand the consequences of what you can and you cannot do with that gun.”
