Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) said the state will not follow the Surgeon General’s new public health recommendations on gun violence, calling the measures “unconstitutional.” post X on Wednesday.
“We will not comply,” DeSantis wrote. “The State of Florida will always reject the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional power grab.”
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Tuesday declared gun violence a public health crisis, citing a consistent increase in firearm-related deaths.
“Gun violence is a public health crisis,” Mursi said in a statement. “Our failure to address it is a moral crisis.”
Governor DeSantis has indicated he will treat the new recommendations with the same resistance he showed toward pandemic-era measures during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, unelected bureaucrats used ‘public health’ to disenfranchise residents, and I signed a bill to protect Floridians from government overreach,” DeSantis wrote on X.
“Now Biden’s Surgeon General is attempting to violate the Second Amendment through his ‘public health’ bureaucracy.”
The DeSantis campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Among his recommendations, Murphy called on the government to implement universal background checks, require safe storage of firearms and ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines for civilians, and called on lawmakers to “create a safer environment in public places for the use and carrying of firearms.”
In April, Governor DeSantis signed a bill allowing Floridians to carry concealed firearms without a permit, a move White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blasted at the time as “a violation of common sense on gun safety.”
DeSantis wasn’t the only one to criticize the administration over the recommendation: The National Rifle Association also issued a statement shortly after Mursi’s announcement, similarly arguing that the rule threatens Second Amendment rights.
“This is an extension of the Biden administration’s war on law-abiding gun owners,” NRA Executive Director Randy Kozuk said. statement About X.
The Surgeon General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
