By Aalayah Eastmond, Team ENOUGH Co-Founder and Gun Violence Survivor
When people say high school is a time for making memories, I assume they’re referring to pep rallies, friendships, and big dances. But that’s not my story. I remember my high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., as the place where I saw a gunman shoot and kill two of my classmates in front of my face. High school is where I hid under my classmates’ body to survive a shooter who killed 14 fellow students and three staff. And while my trauma made the news, there are too many others, many of them Black and Brown, whose childhood is also marked by gun violence.
With so many young Floridians traumatized, grieving, injured, or dead, you would think that the state legislature would prioritize protecting us from future gun violence. But instead, they are preparing to do the opposite.
Gov. Ron DeSantis and the Florida legislature are proposing a deadly permitless carry bill, which would likely make it easier to carry concealed loaded guns in public places. Unlike the books and Black history that DeSantis and the legislature are so eager to ban, permitless carry is dangerous and will lead to more gun violence deaths. States that have already enacted similar laws have seen an increase in crime and deadly shooting incidents. For example, Texas saw a 62% increase in mass shootings after enacting a permitless carry law in 2021. In Missouri, a similar law saw a 58% increase in the state’s firearms death rate as of 2019, while “officer-involved shootings” increased by 13% in 10 states that had passed permitless carry laws from 2014 to 2020.
If Florida were to follow these states’ examples, all of us would be at risk, but I am particularly concerned about the deadly consequences this legislation will have on Black & Brown Floridians.
Data shows that gun homicide disproportionately hurts Black Americans, and permitless carry will only exacerbate that disparity. Not only are we three times more likely to be killed by law enforcement during encounters, but we also face the threat of armed vigilantes. Florida is all too familiar with this reality, as we have seen with the tragic deaths of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis. These examples illustrate the systemic failure of the criminal justice system to protect Black Americans, and permitless carry legislation will only exacerbate this problem here in Florida. Gun violence is a complex and pervasive problem that requires comprehensive solutions, but permitless carry is not the answer and will only make our communities less safe.
If Gov. DeSantis truly wanted to protect Floridians, he would focus on comprehensive solutions to combat gun violence, instead of fighting political culture wars. He would embrace common-sense, evidence-based measures like universal background checks and safe storage laws, which have been proven to reduce gun violence. He would invest in communities suffering from the public health crisis of gun violence. Instead, Gov. DeSantis is pushing for a bill that will only lead to more harm, crime, and loss of life in Florida.
Aalayah Eastmond is a Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School alumni, a student at Trinity Washington University in Washington D.C., and co-founder of Team ENOUGH — the youth-led program of Brady.
