Another devastating storm has hit Florida, and with that comes a familiar message from the state's Governor.
In Perry, Gov. Ron DeSantis addressed reports of looting in storm-struck Steinhatchee, saying criminals could be met with the business ends of firearms.
"This part of Florida, you've got a lot of advocates and some proponents of the Second Amendment. And 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.' You never know what's behind that door," DeSantis said.
"If you go break into somebody's house and you're trying to loot, these are people that are going to be able to defend themselves and their families, so I would not do it."
DeSantis added that the state would not "tolerate any looting in the aftermath of a natural disaster," and that looters "would be held accountable from a law enforcement perspective at a minimum."
"You loot, we shoot" was a message deployed after last year's major storm, Hurricane Ian.
Speaking near Fort Myers in the leveled community of Matlacha, he relayed one sight he saw in Punta Gorda.
"They boarded up all the businesses, and there are people that wrote on their plywood, 'you loot, we shoot,'" DeSantis said. "At the end of the day, we are not going to allow lawlessness to take advantage of this situation. We are a law-and-order state, and this is a law-and-order community, so do not think that you're going to go take advantage of people who've suffered misfortune."
He said something similar in St. Augustine last year.
"I can tell you, in the state of Florida, you never know what may be lurking behind somebody's home," DeSantis said. "I would not want to chance that if I were you, given that we're a Second Amendment state."
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Renzo Downey contributed to this report.
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