JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A major court ruling has opened the door to open carry in Florida.
Florida’s ban on openly carrying firearms in most public places is unconstitutional, according to the new ruling from a state appellate court.
That means soon, firearm owners will be able to carry and openly display their guns in most public places.
Eric Friday is the civil rights attorney specializing in 2nd Amendment cases who litigated the open carry lawsuit.
“The legislature does not have to take any action in the next session. Once the decision is final, 790.053 is dead and an unconstitutional law and it goes away,” said Friday, who also serves as General Counsel of Florida Carry.
Already, the Jacksonville Beach Police Department, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, and Baker, Clay, and Nassau County Sheriff’s Offices have indicated they will no longer enforce the state’s open carry ban.
Official statements can be seen here.
All of those law enforcement agencies also indicated restrictions on carrying firearms in certain protected spaces like schools, including college and university campuses, police stations, jails, courthouses, certain government buildings and more all still apply.
Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan’s office said it is working to determine the ruling’s effect on government buildings.
“As we have stated many times previously, the City of Jacksonville will always follow the law. We are working with the Office of General Counsel to review the court ruling and state statutes to determine the impact to city building policies moving forward.”
Private businesses and property owners are also allowed to set their own restrictions.
But State Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) argued more clarity will likely be needed to come to ensure the ruling is interpreted uniformly throughout the state.
“This is creating a piecemeal policy approach across the State of Florida with sheriffs operating based on their own guidance from their legal counsels,” said Eskamani.
One of the big questions: What does improper open carry look like?
State law is vague on that question, defining illegal improper exhibition as wielding a weapon in a “rude, careless, angry, or threatening manner”.
“It makes the job of law enforcement much more difficult because they don’t know who is breaking the law and in what way. What is that charge?” said Eskamani.
But Friday said he expects gun owners to act responsibly.
“As a general rule, those people that carry a firearm everyday tend to be pretty responsible citizens and very responsible about how they exercise that right,” said Friday.
Florida first banned people from being able to openly carry guns back in 1987.
Since then, there have been countless legislative efforts to repeal the law, but even with the backing of Governor Ron DeSantis, they all failed.
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Eskamani said she views the court ruling as a coordinated effort to sidestep the legislature.
“The Attorney General of Florida, whose job is to defend Florida laws, really didn’t do that in this case,” said Eskamani.
She noted law enforcement was one of the biggest opponents of open carry and helped defeat recent efforts to repeal the ban.
Now, she said she worries how their personal safety and efforts to protect the public could be put at risk.
“A mass shooting, for example, not only do we now have more guns involved, but it’s harder to identify who the perpetrator is because more and more people are going to be openly carrying their firearms,” said Eskamani.
But Friday argued with 36 states already having open carry laws on the books, the counterarguments just don’t hold up.
“It just never comes to pass. History shows up those arguments are made up, fear-mongering,” said Friday.
And Friday argued the court was clear in its decision that the law violated Floridians’ 2nd Amendment rights.
“Even if the majority of the people don’t like it, it’s still a right that we all have, and in a moment where you find yourself in a situation, you’re gonna be glad you had that right or that somebody else had that right to protect you,” said Friday.
Short of the state appealing, which, given Florida’s current Attorney General applauded the ruling, doesn’t seem likely, the open carry ban will be unenforceable starting September 26th.
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