California Gov. Gavin Newsom is picking a fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over gun laws to raise money for his new political action committee.
Mr. Newsom, in a fundraising pitch Friday, took aim at Mr. DeSantis for signing permitless carry legislation, warning states “with open carry laws have higher gun violence rates.”
“Florida has significantly higher firearm death rates, violent crime rates and property crime rates than California,” Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said in the email blast. “Strong gun laws work.”
“Don’t believe the GOP nonsense,” he said. “What Ron DeSantis is doing is weak, pathetic pandering.”
On Monday, Mr. DeSantis signed a bill allowing Floridians to carry concealed weapons without a permit, burnishing his pro-Second Amendment credentials ahead of a likely bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
The signing came a week after six people were shot and killed at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Mr. DeSantis’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Newsom last week launched the Campaign for Democracy PAC, vowing to take on “authoritarian leaders” in the Republican Party who “are so hellbent on gaining power and keeping it by any means necessary that they are directly attacking our freedoms in state after state.”
Mr. Newsom said he plans to take the fight on the road to highlight how Republicans have, among other things, banned books, “kidnap migrants, target trans kids, stoke racism, condone anti-semitism,” and “force victims of rape and incest to carry their attacker’s baby.”
“They fan the flames of culture wars to distract from the fact that blue states have lower murder rates, better healthcare outcomes, and higher GDPs,” he said in a launch video that flashed clips of former President Donald Trump, Mr. DeSantis, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“All across the country, rights are being rolled-back in real-time by Republicans with a zest for demonization,” Mr. Newsom said in the fundraising email. “We are going to go on the road and on offense — in red states too — and take the fight to statehouses, local communities, and electoral battlegrounds to save our democracy.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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