Florida Shooters Network

Reports quickly began coming in from Gun Owners of America members, said Luis Valdes, the group's Florida State director. Even though the order was rescinded, it is still worth talking about, Valdes said.

"It's still a Second Amendment issue. It's the whole thing of the canary in the coal mine," Valdes said. "This happened, this is important and we are a no-compromise national gun-rights organization. That is our entire stance, and we wanted to get to the bottom of this and make sure this never happens again because, as the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions."

Police Department spokesperson Jarret Romanello said Wednesday that Hagan had his own concerns with the language of the order from the beginning, but he was told that the language needed to be included to initiate a local state of emergency.

Local emergency orders are usually issued — usually using a different state statute than the one about riots — to give cities and counties easier access to state resources. Once Hagan began to hear complaints from the public, Romanello said, the process of rescinding the order began.

"Chief Don Hagan had some concerns about the stipulations of the emergency order from the beginning, and once the order was placed in effect, it was in effect for about about 12 hours and we started receiving some emails and phone calls about it, and the chief took a second look at it, took it to our legal team and he said he's terminating it," Romanello said.

The order was never enforced, Romanello said.

"We put the wrong one out. Mistake on our part. And we terminated it right away. What's really, really important for us, that we'd like to get out to the public, is that at no time were any guns seized and at no time did any Okeechobee police officers take any enforcement action pursuant to this declaration," Romanello said.

On Monday, Valdes traveled to Okeechobee to speak at a City Council meeting. He warned city leaders that under state law, government officials can be personally fined up to $5,000 for violating Second Amendment rights.

Mayor Dowling Watford assured Valdes that such a mistake would not happen again.

"I hope you realize that we realize that we made a bad mistake, and we will correct that in the future, I promise you. That will not happen again, I promise you that," Watford said.

The city, and its chief, support gun rights, Romanello said, pointing to a unanimous vote in 2020 declaring the city a "sanctuary city for the Second Amendment."

During their Sept. 30 meeting, the Okeechobee City Council was addressed by Luis Valdes concerning the emergency declaration the council issued on Sept. 26.

Valdes told the council he is the Florida State Director for Gun Owners of America and was there specifically to talk to the council about the emergency declaration,

Valdes said he is a 15-year veteran law enforcement officer and was concerned about the declaration. He said that the provision restricting the sale or use of firearms during an emergency, is only for riots and looters, not for hurricanes.

Mayor Dowling Watford interrupted to say the council does realize that now.

Valdes continued saying it was not enough to just say, “Our bad. We didn’t mean to ban the sale of firearms.”

He said it was never a good idea to disarm the public during an emergency because the criminals do not care and will not be giving up their guns.

Mayor Watford said it was a mistake and they apologize for it. “It will not happen again. We copied an old ordinance, and will not do it again.”

Police Chief Donald Hagan said the ordinance was enacted in 2004 and was based on the laws of that time. It has just not been noticed that there was an issue until now.

The chief said at no time did he exercise any restriction on gun use or sales. He checked with local gun shops later, and all said they were not impacted in any way.

October 03, 2024
By Luis Valdes
This past week, Hurricane Helene left hundreds of thousands of Floridians without power, running water, and in some cases, without a home. But it appears that Hurricane Helene didn’t just leave a physical path of destruction, it also caused a political one, too.

The City of Okeechobee, in the heart of rural central Florida, passed a declaration of emergency as a response to the storm, something that just about every municipality does as a precaution when a hurricane is barreling down. However, this declaration of emergency clearly caused its own emergency.

The city cited state statute §870.044 in its declaration and posted in their notice that gun shops are forbidden from selling guns and ammunition, but more importantly, that the residents are forbidden from carrying firearms in public. That is a major violation of the Second Amendment, and a major screw up on the city itself because the law they cited wasn't even related to hurricanes.



Statute §870.044 is in place for riots and looting, not for hurricane recovery. The enabling statute for such an act is §870.043 and it clearly states that it can only be enacted when there has “been an act of violence or a flagrant and substantial defiance of, or resistance to, a lawful exercise of public authority.” Hurricanes don’t fall under such, but going further into the city’s notice, they cite the entirety of the §870.044 except for the final sentence, which states the following:

“Nothing contained in this chapter shall be construed to authorize the seizure, taking, or confiscation of firearms that are lawfully possessed, unless a person is engaged in a criminal act.” This was added to the statute after the infamous incident that occurred in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck the Big Easy. Plus, you have the federal Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006, which prohibits the confiscation of legally possessed firearms during a disaster situation like a hurricane. In fact, the entire chapter where this law exists is titled “AFFRAYS; RIOTS; ROUTS; UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLIES.” Not once in the entire chapter are the words “hurricane,” “storm,” or “disaster” even mentioned.

Gun Owners of America (GOA) was notified of this declaration by its members and upon being informed, GOA immediately reached out to the city to find out what was happening. But GOA just doesn’t send emails, letters, or make phone calls. Oh no, GOA shows up in person to get answers.

That’s what exactly I did. On September 30, Okeechobee was scheduled to have their city council meeting and I made sure I was there to address this issue and get answers for what happened.

I spoke directly with Mayor Dowling Watford and Police Chief Donald Hagan. Both profusely apologized and explained that at no point was it their intention to strip the residents and business owners of their Second Amendment rights.



I made sure to point out to the mayor that while their public statement admitted a mistake and was a good first step, it needed to go further. After all, one of the key issues wasn’t just the fact that the declaration barred the sale of firearms and ammunition, it also barred the law-abiding public from being able to carry outside of their homes. All forms of gun control have been an absolute failure since, by definition, criminals are criminals because they break the law.



Mayor Watford was extremely apologetic for what happened and admitted that they did screw up, which is extremely rare for an elected official to do. In all my years of dealing with public officials, hardly ever do you see someone in public office admit they made a mistake. He promised that the City of Okeechobee will never do such a thing again, and he was personally appreciative that GOA came to the meeting to explain the issues in a professional manner. Afterwards, I stepped out of the council chambers and spoke with Chief Hagan.

The Chief told me that he's one of the biggest pro-gun guys in town and even supports open carry being legalized and that he personally rescinded the order when he realized that it violated the Second Amendment. He further clarified that the mistake happened because he was signing a number of documents before the storm, and he didn't proofread the emergency declaration when it crossed his desk. Plus, he said that the declaration template had been on the books going back several years, and no one really paid any attention to it. Hagan said that he would never have personally enforced such an order, which is why he rescinded it when he realized it was wrong.

Regarding Okeechobee itself, the people who make up the place are very pro-gun. The town has a hardworking, salt of the earth, pro-freedom loving mindset. The county it’s in literally has more cattle than people. It is the type of place where you’d think freedom would be the number one priority.

However, what happened is not excusable and gun owners deserved an answer for what happened. That’s why GOA went to Okeechobee, to get to the bottom of this and make sure it never happens again. All evidence is pointing to this happening due to institutional incompetency within the city’s government, but a benign incompetence, even something that was done without malicious malfeasance, can still result in tyranny. As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

We cannot let our guard down, no matter what. Mistakes caused via incompetency are not excusable, because the civil rights at stake are freedoms that American men and women have sacrificed for, bled for, and died for.

As a former police officer, I know that culpable negligence is no excuse under the law. And if I made an honest mistake on the job that still resulted in me harming someone or violating their civil rights, I would still be held accountable.

Mr. Hagan is the Chief of Police and Mr. Watford is the mayor; the buck stops with both of them. It is their responsibility to make sure that the people under their care have their rights respected. Again, a benign incompetence, even something that was done without malicious malfeasance, can still result in unconstitutional loss of rights.Hanlon's razor says it best: “never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Let the City of Okeechobee serve as an example to every other city and town across Florida. No matter what, GOA is watching and will spring into action, go in person, and make sure the Second Amendment is respected and protected.

Luis Valdes is a former law enforcement officer and detective, and is currently the Florida State Director, Outreach Director of Puerto Rico & US Virgin Islands, and National Spokesman for Gun Owners of America. You can follow Luis on X via @RealFLGunLobby.

OKEECHOBEE — After an emergency ordinance was issued by the Okeechobee City Council in preparation for Hurricane Helene, it was discovered that the ordinance mistakenly included some provisions limiting and even restricting the gun rights of Okeechobee citizens.

Luis Valdes, the Florida State Director of Gun Owners of America, explained why this is a really big deal.

During a recent city council, Mayor Dowling Watford explained the ordinance is a boilerplate used for emergencies since 2004. They never noticed or realized it contained the restrictions on the sale or carrying of firearms. He apologized for the mistake and explained that even though the police chief signed the ordinance, it was not his fault in any way. The police chief does not write or pass ordinances, he just enforces them, and in this case, the police did not enforce that portion of the ordinance, and it was canceled approximately 12 hours after it was issued.

To some, it might seem like a small mistake that did not hurt anyone, but Valdes said, “The big issue with it is that any action government takes, even if it’s accidental, the end result is either the loss of civil rights or someone could actually get individually harmed physically or even lose their life.”

As a former police officer, Valdes understands the law is very strict. “You either do it right, or you don’t do it at all. You can’t make mistakes.” He said while he was an officer, if he did something, even without malicious intent, that violated someone’s civil rights, he would have to face the consequences. “It’s not just an oops, my bad.”

After Hurricane Katrina, the mayor of New Orleans outlawed guns and wanted law enforcement officers to confiscate guns. After this happened, a series of laws were passed on the state and federal levels across the country “Basically saying, nope that ain’t happening here, Bub,” said Valdes. The state of Florida passed a law stating that the law-abiding public will not have their rights deprived. They will continue to be allowed to possess and carry firearms even in states of emergency.

He said in this particular instance, the ordinance they used had nothing at all to do with hurricanes or disaster but was about riots and looting. Valdes said Florida legislators added to the law Okeechobee City quoted in their ordinance a sentence specifically stating that the law-abiding public was not included in the gun restrictions. But the city council did not include that sentence in the ordinance.

“Part of that comes down to basically incompetence, because they drafted this template of a declaration, from what they told me, something like 20 years ago, and they’ve been using it forever. No one has reviewed it. No one has updated it. No one proofread it, and that’s a very serious allegation,” he said. “It comes down to, these are our elected officials, whether it is a small town, state government or the people in D.C., this is of great importance, because we are talking about people’s civil rights here… It’s saying, do you guys not know what you’re doing?”

Valdes asked what would have happened if an Okeechobee City police officer had enforced the law that day. What if he ran into a man carrying a gun? What if there was an altercation, and someone was killed or injured?

During the city council meeting, Valdes told the council they could potentially be sued individually, up to $5,000. “This is not money that comes out of the city’s coffers,” he said. “it’s them. They are sued, and they can be removed from office.”

Mayor Watford said, “It was a mistake that we all made. The police chief is getting a lot of flack, but he did not enact the ordinance. This is an ordinance we’ve been using since 2004, and it just slipped through our legal staff. It was just a mistake and will never happen again. Nobody's perfect, and we aren't either.”