A version of this story appeared in the On Background newsletter from The Washington Times. Click here to receive On Background delivered directly to your inbox each Friday.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has a stark warning for persons who try to steal during the recovery from Hurricane Idalia: “You loot, we shoot.”
Mr. DeSantis, a Republican candidate for president, said potential thieves should be aware that parts of Florida are passionate about the Second Amendment and have a right to defend their homes and other property.
“You never know what’s behind that door if you go break into somebody’s house,” he said Wednesday at a press conference in Perry.
“This part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and proponents of the Second Amendment,” the governor said. “I’ve seen signs in different people’s yards in the past after these disasters, and I would say it’s probably here, ‘You loot, we shoot.’”
Hurricane Idalia hit Florida at midweek as a Category 3 storm. Two car crash deaths were attributed to the storm.
While the devastation wasn’t as bad as feared, many Floridians lost power and some towns have a long road back from flooding and other damage. Idalia weakened to a tropical storm and is bringing heavy rains to Georgia and the Carolinas.
Mr. DeSantis paused his presidential campaign days ago to respond to a racially motivated shooting in Jacksonville that left three Black people dead and to prepare for the storm.
The recovery from Idalia will be viewed as a key test for Mr. DeSantis, who is trying to close a wide polling gap with the GOP presidential front-runner, former President Donald Trump.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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