DeSantis hopes red flag laws will help thwart future shootings

TAMPA, Fla. (FOX 13) - Governor Ron DeSantis says the "recesses of the internet" are a factor in our country's uptick in mass shootings.

"I think when you have people that have pathological ideologies," DeSantis said. "If you didn't have places to congregate, they would not have strength in numbers."

Most recently, investigators discovered the gunman in Dayton, Ohio made violent threats on Twitter. So did the man who killed six people in the 2011 shooting that severely injured then-Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

In Florida, the teen behind the Parkland school shooting made disturbing posts on social media, which included gruesome Instagram photos of animals he claimed to have killed.

"Being able to go and trade these ideas in an online community, I think that radicalizes people," DeSantis said.

But the solution, DeSantis says, isn't to have the government policing speech.

"Typically, the government isn't policing or holding people accountable just for speech," he said. "It requires incitement, or to be a threat."

If there is a threat, there are options. Florida's so-called red flag laws allow law enforcement to take away a person's guns temporarily if they determine a person is an immediate threat.

Many, including the governor, are behind it.

"I just want us to be responsive to that. The vast majorities of these instances have had red flags," he said. "The Marjory Stoneman Douglas report made that clear. So I think we need to identify that and do something about it."

Last week, Florida launched a threat assessment portal for schools and law enforcement to share information, which will be confidential. A statewide app called Fortify Florida allows anyone to report suspicious activity anonymously.