Florida Shooters Network

FIRST ON FOX: Gun rights activists are taking up the fight to strike down Florida's ban on openly carrying firearms after the Republican-controlled legislature rejected an repeal effort.

Gun Owners of America (GOA) is filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida that seeks to have the 1893 gun restriction declared unconstitutional and a court order to block enforcement of the law. The challenged statute makes it "unlawful for any person to openly carry on or about his or her person any firearm or electric weapon or device."

"Despite its reputation as a largely gun-friendly state, Florida inexplicably continues to prohibit the peaceable carrying of firearms in an open and unconcealed manner," the complaint obtained by Fox News Digital states.

"This blatant infringement of the Second Amendment right to ‘bear arms’ runs counter to this nation’s historical tradition and would have criminalized the very colonists who openly carried their muskets and mustered on the greens at Lexington and Concord to fight for their independence."

The arguments advanced by Gun Owners of America assert Florida's open carry ban is outside the history and tradition of firearms regulation in the U.S. – a direct appeal to the Supreme Court's landmark decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen (2022). The high court held that the ability to carry firearms in public is a constitutional right and that any restrictions must fit within the nation's "historical tradition of firearm regulation."

Gun Owners of America points out the Florida open carry ban was adopted decades after Reconstruction and more than a century after the Second Amendment was ratified. "To make matters worse, that 1893 carry ban openly targeted only a disfavored subset of the population – newly freed Blacks – while Whites enjoyed de facto immunity from enforcement," the complaint asserts.

Plaintiffs also say Florida is both a historical outlier and presently one of only a few states that entirely bans the open carry of firearms. The others are blue states California, Illinois and New York, along with the District of Columbia. "In contrast, the vast majority of states permit the open carry of all manner of firearms (both handguns and long guns), by any law-abiding adult and without any sort of permit at all," the complaint states.

"Plaintiffs seek preliminary followed by permanent injunctive relief, as well as declaratory and other relief, to rectify Florida’s infringement of an enumerated right that ‘shall not be infringed.’"

The lawsuit comes after Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a GOP-backed bill last year that eliminated a requirement for state residents to obtain a permit to carry concealed firearms. The law allows eligible citizens 21 years of age and up to carry without asking the government for a permit and without paying a fee. The legislation did not change who is eligible to obtain a carry permit, and those who still wish to get a permit may do so under the law.

A DeSantis administration official told Fox News Digital the governor supported efforts to include repealing the open carry ban in that legislation, but state lawmakers would not come around. Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, a Republican from Naples, said at the time she does not support open carry because the Florida Sheriffs Association (FSA) and other law enforcement groups opposed the effort, according to the Florida Phoenix.

Florida Democrats and anti-gun activists were also against the constitutional carry law, warning that easing access to concealed carry would lead to more violence. Anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety calls open carry a "dangerous policy" that is supported by hate groups and claims it is "exploited by White supremacists and opposed by law enforcement and the public."

Though Second Amendment supporters backed the Florida constitutional carry law, some, like GOA, said it did not go far enough because the reform doesn't apply to open carry.

"Florida lawmakers claim to be pro-gun, but year after year, they’ve refused to repeal the 1987 ban on open carry, leaving Floridians in the very anti-gun company of New York, Illinois, and California where this is also prohibited," said Erich Pratt, GOA's senior vice president.

"GOA has been left with no choice but to sue the state, especially since GOA’s open carry bill was blocked by Republican legislative leadership during the 2024 session's first week.

"This ban has no historical basis and will surely be found unconstitutional under the Bruen precedent. We look forward to making our case and fighting for law-abiding Floridians."

St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson, State Attorney Thomas Bakkedahl and the State Attorney's Office for the 19th Judicial Circuit of Florida are named as defendants in the complaint.

Fox News Digital's Emma Colton contributed to this report.

Chris Pandolfo is a writer for Fox News Digital. Send tips to chris.pandolfo@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @ChrisCPandolfo.

Although Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has voiced support allowing for the open carrying of firearms in Florida, he hasn’t done much to persuade the GOP-led Legislature to actually pass such legislation.

Now two Second Amendment groups say they’re tired of waiting for the state to act and have filed a lawsuit in federal court challenging Florida’s ban on open carry.

The Gun Owners of America (GOA), Gun Owners Foundation, and Palm Beach County resident Richard Hughes filed a 40-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on Tuesday, alleging that the ban on open carry of firearms violates the Second and Fourteenth amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

During the 2023 legislative session, the Florida GOP-controlled Legislature passed a law allowing residents to legally carry concealed weapons without having to obtain a permit through the state, a measure known by supporters as “constitutional carry” and by everyone else as permitless carry.

But several prominent gun rights advocates were outspoken during the legislative committee process last year that the state wasn’t going far enough, and that it needed pass an “open carry” provision as well. Although the state has a national reputation as one of the strongest advocates for Second Amendment rights, only three other states — California, Illinois, and New York, along with the District of Columbia — ban the open carry of firearms.

During the 2024 legislative session held earlier this year, Hillsborough County Republican Mike Beltran filed legislation to allow open carry, as well as allowing lawmakers to carry concealed guns to legislative meetings and in the state Capitol building.

But neither House Speaker Paul Renner or Senate President Kathleen Passidomo showed any enthusiasm for the bill, and it died without a committee hearing. DeSantis, who was on the campaign trail in Iowa in the months leading up to the session, never pushed those leaders to schedule the bill.

“You have a Republican House Speaker state that he and his Republican colleagues don’t have an ‘appetite’ to debate and vote on open carry. You have a Republican Senate President state that repealing the under-21 purchase ban is a ‘non-starter.’ Yet both have the nerve to campaign that they’re pro-gun,” said Luis Valdes, Florida state director of Gun Owners of America, in February.

“Florida lawmakers claim to be pro-gun, but year after year, they’ve refused to repeal the 1987 ban on open carry, leaving Floridians in the very anti-gun company of New York, Illinois, and California, where this is also prohibited,” said Erich Pratt, GOA’s senior vice president, in a written statement announcing the filing of the lawsuit.

“GOA has been left with no choice but to sue the state, especially since GOA’s open carry bill was blocked by the Republican legislative leadership during the 2024 session’s first week. The ban has no historical basis and will surely be found unconstitutional under the Bruen precedent. We look forward to making our case and fighting for law-abiding Floridians.”

George W wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 6:14 am It's good to see this being pushed out through the courts. Our legislature is owned by Disney, Publix, the FRF, and the FCOC and will never do this unless forced.

Miami_JBT wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 9:42 am

George W wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 6:14 am It's good to see this being pushed out through the courts. Our legislature is owned by Disney, Publix, the FRF, and the FCOC and will never do this unless forced.

I ain't stopping at just this by the way. This is just the start.

While Republican leaders in the Legislature supported a permitless carry law last year that allows people to carry concealed weapons without a government-issued license, House Speaker Paul Renner and especially Senate President Kathleen Passidomo resisted loosening other gun regulations in the Sunshine State during their two-year reign in power.

One such proposal is known as “open carry” — the wearing or carrying of a firearm in a clearly visible manner. Florida is one of four states that bans open carrying of guns.

Gun-rights advocates, weary of fighting the Legislature for that idea, filed a lawsuit in federal court this week attempting to overturn Florida’s open carry ban, but those same advocates also say that they’re reaching out to members of the House and Senate about getting a bill filed for the 2025 legislative session that would do the same thing.

“We’re already talking to lawmakers to introduce legislation next session,” said Luis Valdes, Florida state chair of Gun Owners of America. “We never give up the fight.”

The effort comes with renewed optimism with new leadership taking over the Florida Legislature later this year: Miami-Dade’s Daniel Perez in the House and Central Florida Republican Ben Albritton in the Senate.



“We’ve been having conversations with the new incoming Senate president and, while he’s not made any commitments, I think he’s going to be much more open to at least allowing pro-Second Amendment legislation to be heard,” said Bob White, chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus.

“And of course last session and the session before, President Passidomo just had an almost outright ban on Second Amendment bills even being heard, much less passed. So I’m optimistic that we might see some progress next year.”

Senate reluctance

Passidomo’s resistance was reflected in the fate of proposals that attempted to chip away at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act, passed just weeks after the tragic shootings in Parkland that killed 17 people in February 2018.

In both 2023 and 2024 sessions, the Florida House passed bills that would have lowered the age for Floridians to buy a long gun from a federally licensed dealer from 21 to 18. On both occasions, not only did the Senate not follow suit, but no members even filed a companion bill.



Similarly, a measure that would have repealed a part of the 2018 legislation requiring that there either be a mandatory three-day waiting period to purchase a firearm from a licensed dealer or a forced wait for a completed background check was also passed in the House, but never received a committee vote in the Senate earlier this year.

The permitless carry bill was part of the wish list that Gov. Ron DeSantis supported during the 2023 session, which saw major reforms passed by the Legislature in other areas in the months leading to the governor’s presidential run. But not open carry, much to the consternation of the gun-rights groups.

In the middle of that session, then-Hillsborough County Republican House member Mike Beltran filed an open carry amendment but immediate pushback from GOP leaders forced him to withdraw his bill the next day.

“I had the [GOP] leadership and my caucus and the NRA who were all against the open carry amendment. They were all against it,” Beltran recounted. “In fairness, they thought the [permitless concealed carry] bill was going to the Senate and then Passidomo wasn’t going to hear it, and it was going to upset this very delicate deal that they made” for the Senate to pass permitless carry — a deal, he added, that neither he nor other House members were consulted about.

Speaker Renner told him he should withdraw the bill and then run it during the 2024 session, Beltran said. Which is what Beltran did but, he said, again there was no support from House leadership. “He didn’t return my call. And so obviously the bill didn’t go through.”

Missing in this discussion is where exactly Gov. DeSantis was in all of this back and forth. The governor was captured in an audio recording telling Valdes in March 2023 that while he “absolutely” supported open carry, he didn’t think the Legislature would vote for it.

“The point is, if DeSantis had said to do it, I think Renner and for that matter Passidomo would have been hard pressed to say no,” said Beltran, who decided earlier this year not to run for re-election to his Hillsborough County House seat.

“And he didn’t lean in at that point, and that was when he was at the height of his power. It wasn’t like they were going to draw a big line in the sand at that. He was getting all kinds of things at that point. They certainly could have done it.”

Sheriffs’ opposition

Historically on this issue, one reason the Legislature has been hesitant to support open carry is because of opposition from the powerful Florida Sheriffs Association.

Former St. Johns County Sheriff David Shoar, now running in the Republican state Senate primary election in Senate District 7 in Northeast Florida, said he used to be against open carry but now supports the idea.

“I actually used to be firmly against it, and part of that was that back in the day a great deal of law enforcement officers were being killed by their own handguns,” he said. “Now, that changed as our holstering and our training changed. So, I was leery of it for that purpose, but I’m really not now.”

“If Republicans want to prove how pro-gun they are, they could pass legislation and moot our case,” Valdes said. “But they haven’t passed open carry over the years, so we’re going to fight it tooth and nail, no matter what.”

The Phoenix reached out to incoming House Speaker Perez and incoming Senate President Albritton, but did not receive responses.

The Gun Owners of America (GOA) from Florida has filed a lawsuit looking to have a 1893 law overturned that bans citizens from openly carrying a firearm.

GOA Florida Director Luis Valdez says the lawsuit is needed because the Republican lawmakers wont repeal it.

Valdez says the 1893-gun restriction law is unconstitutional. The law states, “it’s unlawful for any person to openly carry on or about his or her person any firearm or electric weapon or device.”

Florida is a pro-gun state. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed pro-gun legislation doing away with a state mandate that said residents 21 and up would need a permit to carry concealed firearms. The law is gone and so are the permits and the fees associated with it.

While Valdez acknowledges some things have moved forward with improving gun rights within the state, it’s not enough.

This year, the Florida GOA lobbied to repeal a 2018 bill that increased the age limit from 18 to 21 when purchasing a long rifle. Some Republicans supported the repeal, but the state GOP controlled Senate wouldn’t bring it up for discussion.

Those within the Governor DeSantis’ office have said he would get behind legislation to repeal the 1893-gun ban on open carry ban in that legislation, but state lawmakers haven’t brought it up.

Valdez has been critical of state GOP lawmakers. He accused Florida Republican Senate President Kathleen Passidomo of acting no different than state democrats on this issue.

Passidomo says she didn’t support open carry because law enforcement groups like the Florida Sheriffs Association wouldn’t back it.

“I think the timing on an open carry proposal may come up sooner rather than later,” said former Florida State Rep. Matt Caldwell. Caldwell was one of the few Republicans who voted against raising the age limit to purchase a rifle.

Caldwell says the state has moved in the right direction on addressing more pro second amendment legislations.