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DeSantis Warns Would-Be Hurricane Opportunists: ‘You Loot, We Shoot’

The governor’s stern ultimatum was issued just four days after a gunman killed three people at a dollar store in his state.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had a stern warning to any would-be thieves taking advantage of the havoc wreaked in the state by Hurricane Idalia: “You loot, we shoot.” At a Wednesday news conference held in Perry, the governor explained, “People have a right to defend their property. This part of Florida, you got a lot of advocates and 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.’” He qualified that looters would at the very least be held “accountable from a law enforcement perspective,” but that he couldn’t speak for “what’s behind that door, if you break into somebody’s house.” DeSantis’ remark—a near-verbatim echo of a proclamation he issued in the wake of 2022’s Hurricane Ian—comes just four days after a gunman killed three Black people in a racially-motivated shooting at a Jacksonville dollar store.