Editorial: Gun violence strikes downtown Orlando again. Do we doubt the root cause?

At first, the videos capture a routine scene: Partygoers milling around near the intersection of Central Boulevard and Orange Avenue in downtown Orlando just after 1 a.m. Friday morning — checking out each others’ costumes, focused on having fun.

But seconds later, the image shifts. A lanky young man in a yellow t-shirt — who had been pushing his way through the crowd and singing, according to one witness-turned-victim who spoke with WESH Channel 2 — pulled out a gun and shot someone behind him, nearly at point-blank range. Due to the Halloween holiday, there were more than 100 law enforcement officers in the area, and when more shots rang out near the corner of Washington Street and Orange Avenue minutes later, officers were able to quickly subdue and arrest 17-year-old Jaylen Dewayne Edgar.

But just in those fleeting minutes, a total of 10 people had been wounded — four women and six men, most by gunshot, and one who was trampled as the crowd split and scattered. Two of those shooting victims — UCF student and Weston resident Timothy Schmidt Jr., 19, and Lake County resident Tyrek Hill, 25, are dead.

The worst thing about these shootings? We suspect many Orlando law enforcement officers, city leaders and downtown business owners have been wondering when something like this would happen again. If so, they have their answer: Two years and three months, to the day. On July 31, 2022, nine people were shot by a gunman who was never apprehended in downtown Orlando.

City officials tried to make things safer in the aftermath of that shooting. First, they cordoned off part of downtown, establishing police checkpoints. Later, they shifted to a plan that required extra permits for bars that wanted to serve alcohol past midnight. But the futility of any of these plans was cemented when the Florida Legislature passed a law that essentially did away with any need for a permit when carrying a gun. As a result, the Orlando Police Department gave up on trying to screen downtown partiers for weapons possession, Police Chief Eric Smith told reporters this weekend.

Orlando’s downtown entertainment area is back under lockdown, at least through Thursday. But that’s not a long-term solution. The vast majority of U.S. society shouldn’t have to live under the close eye of the police, enduring barricades and curfews, just to stay safe. But Gov. Ron DeSantis — who helped pave the way for Florida’s overly permissive gun laws — also broke up an attempt by State Attorney Monique Worrell to identify solutions to the incidents of gun violence that have sent ammo flying in residential neighborhoods as well as downtown.

Before that initiative could really get moving, DeSantis suspended Worrell last year, based on claims that had little to do with her actual performance. That included aspersions that she failed to keep another teen — 19-year-old Keith Moses — behind bars after a series of juvenile offenses. After Moses shot five people in Pine Hills, killing three, the governor waited only a few days before blasting the allegation that Worrell had been derelict in her duty by failing to keep Moses incarcerated, though that probably would have been impossible. But now that the governor’s hand-picked replacement for Worrell is in the same position (Edgar had a former auto-theft charge, which was resolved by DeSantis appointee, acting state attorney Andrew Bain, by releasing him to the custody of his parents) we suspect DeSantis will hold his tongue.

And that’s good — because this can’t be solved by finger-pointing either.

The answer today is the same as it’s ever been: Society must act rationally to keep guns out of the hands of people who have no business carrying them. And it should explore every legal means of stemming the easy flow of untraceable guns into the neighborhoods, downtowns and communities across Florida.

Smith is among the law enforcement leaders who are unafraid to say that. But Orange County Sheriff John Mina has been even more courageously outspoken. In a 2023 op-ed pleading with Florida lawmakers not to enact permitless carry, he wrote:

In a world where my deputies’ heads are on a pivot, constantly looking out for active shooters, doing all they can to protect this community from violence, permitless carry would make their jobs exponentially harder.

I have patrolled the streets here in Orange County. I have walked a beat in downtown Orlando as the bars and nightclubs let out at 2 a.m. Anyone who has done the same would tell you that allowing people to carry guns openly, or without a permit, is a recipe for disaster.

We already have too many violent encounters because of simple disagreements. Throwing more guns into the mix will only increase shootings and deaths by gunfire.

We’re not sure Florida’s current leadership will ever adopt a culture that regards guns as the dangerous instruments of death and destruction that they have become. But maybe that just means it’s time for new leadership — people who truly are pro-life, and understand the deadly toll of random, unstoppable gun violence.

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The Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board consists of Opinion Editor Krys Fluker, Editor-in-Chief Julie Anderson and Viewpoints Editor Jay Reddick. Contact us at insight@orlandosentinel.com