DeSantis lashes out at audience member over Jacksonville shooting https://t.co/uoeYBbOHr2

— POLITICO (@politico) September 7, 2023

MIAMI — Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis got into a heated argument during a press conference on Thursday with an audience member who blamed him for a recent racially motivated mass shooting that left three Black people dead. …

The roughly three-minute exchange … started out cordial[ly], with both men thanking each other for their military service. The man, who wasn’t pictured in the video but according to the governor’s office was standing in the back near journalists, accused the governor of backing policies that “hurt people like myself” and said weapons go to “hateful people.”

He then raised the mass shooting, but DeSantis stopped him and shot back: “I’m not going to let you accuse me of committing criminal activity. I am not going to take that.”

DeSantis summarized the charges in a single word, and that word is, “Nonsense.”

“You don’t get to come here and blame me for some madman,” DeSantis said, raising his voice and becoming visibly angry. “That is not appropriate and I’m not going to accept it.” [Emphasis added.]

This, Politico (and Forbes and the Orlando Sentinel and HuffPost) characterized as “lashing out.” Oh, because he gestured. And raised his voice. He lashed out, because, having been accused as an accessory to murder, DeSantis didn’t respond with a Reagan-like shrug and a folksy, “Heh, there you go again.”

So many other words were more appropriate, not just because they are less weighted, but because they are more accurate. Here are just a few.

Scolds? Yes. Rebukes? Absolutely. Chides? Yup. Admonishes? Certainly. Corrects? No question.

Lashes out is an entirely different species of nomenclature. Lashes out suggests irrationality, as in “angrily loses control because of anger, fear, or fried nerves.”

We’re not inventing this distinction for clicks. Here’s Jelena Kecmanovic, a clinical psychologist and Georgetown University adjunct professor on the topic last summer:

As a psychologist, I hear from my clients about how they find themselves lashing out at people around them because their nerves are so fried. Feeling scared, irritable or sad is uncomfortable. Verbally and physically acting out might bring temporary relief, but ultimately it harms our relationships and the people we care about and makes us feel even worse.

So, DeSantis broke? He behaved unreasonably? Get a grip.

At least partly at issue here is Florida’s implementation of “constitutional carry” laws, effective July 1. Just like the other 25 states with similar provisions on the books, this does not mean firearms are suddenly falling out of palm trees like frozen iguanas in January. Certain — to borrow a phrase — commonsense restrictions continue to apply.

Here are assorted myth-busting facts compiled by the Sarasota Police Department and distributed by the area’s ABC affiliate, WWSB:

• Open carry by civilians is still illegal in Florida under most circumstances.

• Your firearm still must be concealed.

• This does not change who can purchase a firearm, possess a firearm, or the waiting period to purchase a firearm.

• To carry a concealed firearm in Florida, you still must be a U.S. citizen, at least 21 years old and not be a convicted felon or other disqualifying condition.

• You still may not carry a firearm anywhere outlined in Florida Statute 790.06, including schools, colleges and universities, polling places, bars, courthouses and government meetings.

Also still in place: Florida’s red flag laws, which allow law enforcement to intervene when they receive notice (a risk-protection order) that someone in possession of firearms is acting irrationally. For better or worse, reported CNN last year:

Since its creation, Florida judges have acted more than 8,000 times to keep guns out of the hands of people authorities deemed a risk to themselves or others, according to data maintained by the Office of the State Courts Administrator.

Stipulated: There are some due process problems here. Nonetheless, the law remains on the books, and may occasionally be a useful tool. Like in the case of Ryan Christopher Palmeter. Maybe someone should have tipped authorities to the unemployed college dropout who, behind his locked bedroom door in his parents’ Clay County house, spent months nurturing his demons before maniacally acting on them at that Jacksonville Dollar General.

Clearly, the system has its flaws. Potential bad actors hide in plain sight, irradiating warning signs and no one privy to their spirals intervenes. That certainly seems to have happened here: Palmeter, just 21 and already a dead-ender, toted tactical gear and weapons bearing swastikas and left behind what  Sheriff T.K. Waters called “the diary of a madman.” Tick. Tick. Tick.

But critics blame DeSantis because he led the Legislature to eradicate critical race theory from K-12 public schools, saved New College from leftist excesses, opposes indoctrination training in the private sector, won’t acknowledge activists (probably) masquerading as Nazis, something, something, something, book burnings.

And also because he’s a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination. So there’s that.

You’d lash out, too. Except that’s not what DeSantis did. He objected. He chastised. He castigated and he took to task.

In all honesty, DeSantis was far more measured than certain elected officials have been when confronted with far less.

President Joe Biden was caught on a hot mic calling Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a 'stupid son of a bitch' when pressed about inflation at a White House event pic.twitter.com/OfsSBsXseO

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 25, 2022