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‘Florida is different!’ Sheriff’s advice to homeowners if intruders break in goes viral

March 25, 2024 | | Print Article

When it comes to the enforcement of law, there’s just something different about the state of Florida.

At a time when squatting has become a national story, at least in many Democrat-run areas of the country, where the possibility of police protecting the criminal-minded who have broken into homes and established residence while sending the homeowner to jail for taking corrective measures is very real, a Florida sheriff had a somewhat unique thought process these days.

In a video making the rounds online over the weekend, Santa Rosa County Sheriff Bob Johnson is holding a press conference and talking about the arrest of a habitual criminal with a history of breaking into homes and advised, “If someone is breaking into your house, you’re more than welcome to shoot. We prefer you to do that, actually.”

The press conference is actually from April 2022, but it strikes a nerve given the unsettling news about people losing their homes to squatters. Of course, there’s a major difference between shooting someone as they are in the act of breaking into your residence and discovering after the fact that someone has taken up residence in one of your properties.

“We don’t know what homeowner shot at him. I guess they think they did something wrong, which they did not,” Johnson told reporters.

“Whoever that was, you’re not in trouble,” he added. “Come see us. We have a gun safety class we put on every other Saturday. If you take that, you’ll shoot a lot better, and hopefully, you’ll save taxpayers money.”

Florida is also home to Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, who was once asked about a fugitive gunman accused of killing one of his deputies being shot 68 times by officers.

“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Judd told the Orlando Sentinel at the time, adding, “I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that’s all the ammunition they had.”

Speaking of Sheriff Judd, he offered this message during the height of the George Floyd riots in response to rumors about residential neighborhoods being targeted: “If you value your life, you probably shouldn’t do that in Polk County. Because the people of Polk County like guns, they have guns, I encourage them to own guns, and they’re going to be in their homes with guns loaded. And if you try to break into their homes tonight and try to steal, to set fires, I’m highly recommending they blow you back out of the house with their guns.”

Here’s a quick sampling of responses to the story from X, beginning with Elon Musk himself:

Tom Tillison
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