Just hours after numerous people were wounded and two were killed in the FSU shooting, Florida state Sen. Ileana Garcia (R) defended her vote against a bill that would have allowed college students to be armed for self-defense, saying, “I have zero regret.”
Breitbart News followed the movement of campus carry legislation, SB 814, through the Florida legislature, noting that it would be taken up on March 25, 2025, and would give Republicans the opportunity to allow college students to carry firearms on campus for self-defense.
Then-state Sen. Randy Fine (R) sponsored SB 814 and issued a press release on the bill in February, saying:
Adults should have the right to protect themselves on campus, particularly after so many universities across America chose to protect Muslim terror advocates over their own students. There is no magic force field that keeps criminals from carrying a gun onto campus; this bill will ensure that students have the same rights on campus as they do off.
On March 26, Breitbart News reported Garcia crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats, joining with Democrats three weeks before the FSU shooting to reject legislation designed to allow students to be armed for self-defense.
Six people were wounded and two people were killed in the shooting, which was carried out by a 20-year-old armed with a shotgun and a handgun.
Hours after the shooting, during which time Garcia’s vote against campus carry received focus, Garcia put up a lengthy post on X directed in part at former state Sen. Fine. A portion of the post said, “I have zero regret. Proud to have voted against your moronic campus carry bill, that didn’t have a house companion. This decision wasn’t about partisan politics; it was rooted in common sense.”
Garcia defended her vote against the campus carry bill as one “based on reason rather than partisan politics.”
She also referred to Fine as a “racist.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
