FL Republican Leadership Again Kills Pro-Gun Legislation for 2025 Session

[Miami_JBT]

The Republican-controlled Legislature on Tuesday installed Daniel Perez as House speaker and Ben Albritton as Senate president, a move that kicks off a new era where the GOP remains in firm control — but also where DeSantis is about to enter his lame duck period, finishing out his final two years in office following an unsuccessful run for president.

Perez and Albritton didn’t directly criticize or challenge the sitting governor. But after years of a GOP legislature that catered to DeSantis’ every whim, they subtly signaled lawmakers would assert more independence this go-around. They made it clear, for example, that they had no plans to rush into a special session before the end of the year to consider changes to a condominium law that they passed in the aftermath of the Surfside disaster in 2021, where 98 people were killed. DeSantis had called on legislators to act by the end of the year.

Albritton, a Wauchula Republican, for his part voiced opposition to the idea of changing Florida law to allow the open carry of firearms, despite DeSantis saying he was open to it a few weeks ago on a radio show. Albritton said he remained opposed because law enforcement officials remain opposed.

Of the many traditions Ben Albritton is continuing as Senate President, at least one isn’t going to please Second Amendment purists.

He confirmed that like his predecessor, he will not support open carry legislation even if Gov. Ron DeSantis does.

“I’ve supported law enforcement my entire life. It’s the way I was raised. And I’ve been super consistent as a legislator to support law enforcement in Florida, and I encourage you to check that record,” Albritton said during a media scrum immediately after his installation as Senate President.

“They oppose it. I trust my law enforcement officials, and that’s where I stand.”

Albritton’s explanation for opposing open carry is identical to that for former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. She told reporters during a news conference in March 2023 that because the Florida Sheriffs Association was against it, she was too.

The push for looser gun laws like open carry — which, as its name suggests, would allow lawful gun owners to tote weapons in plain view rather than conceal them — has regained traction in recent months.

In August, a pair of gun rights groups and a Palm Beach County resident filed a federal lawsuit challenging Florida’s law prohibiting open carry, calling it a “blatant infringement of the Second Amendment right to ‘bear arms.’”

The following month, Palm Bay Republican Sen. Randy Fine vowed to file legislation to repeal statutes requiring that state college and university campuses be “gun-free zones” after a group of Jewish students were attacked with a glass bottle in Pennsylvania.

DeSantis, who supported and signed the permitless carry measure, indicated this month that he’s open to taking things a step further.

During an on-air segment with radio host Bob Rose of 97.3 WSKY, who said he’d “much rather have open carry than weed,” referring to the since-failed Amendment 3 ballot question, DeSantis said, “You may get that in this upcoming Legislative Session. Stay tuned on that.”

Albritton shot down hopes for such a bill hitting the Governor’s desk next year.

[REDinFL]

There is no logic to Albritton's position. If the issue is the carrying of a firearm, we already have carry, permitless carry. If it's criminals one doesn't want carrying, the law, both Florida and Federal, prohibits most of the types of person one would object to from even possessing; can't carry if one can't possess. Clearly, the only interests who could be against open carry would be the rodent and the overall tourist industry, which is concerned some silly person might get the vapors (actually, I prefer "vapours", the British spelling in Victorian novels, which carries the feeling) upon seeing a firearm. Yes, the republicans (lower case deliberate) are often our worst enemies, as they can't even take a simple or logical step mom repealing a law; we're not asking for some big new project.

Repeal the pointless prohibition.

No, I am not a major activist. It would not affect me in any major way, as I would not open carry, but I would like to avoid LEO confrontations resulting from an aforementioned silly person getting hysterical should my firearm be slightly exposed accidentally. I carry a 1911 IWB, and am 6'4". If I reach up to a higher shelf in Publix, one might see a part of my firearm.

[tector]

These people are going to do what they have done for years and years, which is to come up with any pretextual bullshit they can grasp upon to justify their subservience to the FRF and chamber of commerce RINOs. It's not like OC would be some novel experiment--it has worked in tons of places for many years without all the "parade of horribles" coming true. But again, the Florida GOP sucks because Florida GOP voters are not like GOP voters elsewhere--too many northern Fudd transplants who let them off the hook. Sorry.

[Miami_JBT]

And I shoot back.

Advocates pushing for Florida to join the overwhelming majority of states that allow the ‘open carry’ of guns aren’t happy with state Senate President Ben Albritton after he said Tuesday that he has no desire to cross the Florida Sheriffs Association, which disfavors open carry.

“Let me be clear about this: I’ve supported law enforcement my entire life. It’s the way I was raised. And I’ve been super consistent as a legislator to support law enforcement in Florida, and I encourage you to check that record. And I stand with them today in opposition,” Albritton told reporters in his first media availability after being sworn in as the presiding officer for the next two years.

“They oppose it. And I trust my law enforcement officials. And that’s where I stand.”

A spokesperson for the Florida Sheriffs Association told the Phoenix last year that the group did not have a position on open carry, “since there isn’t any formal legislation on Open Carry specifically.”

However, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, at the time chair of the FSA, told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in February 2023 that he is a “staunch opponent of open carry. We don’t need open carry in Florida.”

Although long thought of as a state with few gun restrictions, Florida is one of only four in the nation that ban the open carrying of a firearm either with or without a permit (the others are California, New York, and Illinois). That’s a limitation that gun rights advocates have been unsuccessful in overturning, and Albritton’s comments left a sour taste in the mouth of one prominent Second Amendment supporter.

“He just smacked Florida’s gun owners in the face after those gun owners gave him the very office he holds because they installed a Republican supermajority into power that put him in that office,” said Luis Valdes, Florida state director of Gun Owners of America (GAO), in a text message to the Phoenix Wednesday.

Hopes for a bill

Valdes said his organization has been working with state lawmakers over the summer to draft open carry legislation for the 2025 session, which begins in March. They’ve filed a federal lawsuit against the state’s ban, and they’ve pressed Gov. Ron DeSantis to support open carry.

Speaking on the Bob Rose show on Nov. 4, the day before Election Day balloting on Amendment 3 on recreational cannabis, Rose told the governor, “I’d much rather have open carry than weed, but that’s just me, governor.”

“Well, you may get that in this upcoming legislative session, so stay tuned on that,” DeSantis responded.

It should be noted that DeSantis said he would sign such legislation in 2023 but that it would be up to legislative leaders to send him a bill. He later amended his response to say that he didn’t believe that state lawmakers were going to pass such legislation.

“Clearly, Sen. Albritton is against Gov. DeSantis, Floridians, and the Second Amendment,” Valdes said Wednesday. “GOA will not stop pressing the issue, and we will get open carry legalized, PERIOD.”

[Miami_JBT]

These people are going to do what they have done for years and years, which is to come up with any pretextual bullshit they can grasp upon to justify their subservience to the FRF and chamber of commerce RINOs. It's not like OC would be some novel experiment--it has worked in tons of places for many years without all the "parade of horribles" coming true. But again, the Florida GOP sucks because Florida GOP voters are not like GOP voters elsewhere--too many northern Fudd transplants who let them off the hook. Sorry.

Ben Albritton is a good old southerner. Most push back I've gotten are southerners fighting open carry because they don't want minorities to be openly armed.

[tector]

These people are going to do what they have done for years and years, which is to come up with any pretextual bullshit they can grasp upon to justify their subservience to the FRF and chamber of commerce RINOs. It's not like OC would be some novel experiment--it has worked in tons of places for many years without all the "parade of horribles" coming true. But again, the Florida GOP sucks because Florida GOP voters are not like GOP voters elsewhere--too many northern Fudd transplants who let them off the hook. Sorry.

Ben Albritton is a good old southerner. Most push back I've gotten are southerners fighting open carry because they don't want minorities to be openly armed.

OK, man--it's the rednecks calling the tune on this. Like they have no rednecks in Oklahoma or wherever. Sure.

Starting with a fundamental category error is not auspicious. Good luck.

[Miami_JBT]

These people are going to do what they have done for years and years, which is to come up with any pretextual bullshit they can grasp upon to justify their subservience to the FRF and chamber of commerce RINOs. It's not like OC would be some novel experiment--it has worked in tons of places for many years without all the "parade of horribles" coming true. But again, the Florida GOP sucks because Florida GOP voters are not like GOP voters elsewhere--too many northern Fudd transplants who let them off the hook. Sorry.

Ben Albritton is a good old southerner. Most push back I've gotten are southerners fighting open carry because they don't want minorities to be openly armed.

OK, man--it's the rednecks calling the tune on this. Like they have no rednecks in Oklahoma or wherever. Sure.

Starting with a fundamental category error is not auspicious. Good luck.

I've had good old boy in the RPOF flat out tell me they're against it because they don't want Blacks and Hispanics armed.

I'm just stating facts.

[tector]

I presume you have been to open carry states. Do they not have blacks and Hispanics, sometimes in larger numbers than here? Why did their rednecks (which they frequently have in numbers larger than here) not have this same concern? I mean, they have open carry in Mississippi. It's like 35% black. Florida is like 16% black. So how does that work again?

Man, the "it be racist!" BS is tiresome enough coming from the other side. Just stop. If THIS is the enemy you think you need to overcome, you've lost already.

For years you have refused to accept the simple proposition that the unique influx of RINO northeasterners here means that the FL GOP can get away with shit that won't fly in other GOP states. Instead, you offer up the proposition that Floridians are somehow especially racist, which is why we can't get what other GOP states have long had. That's both insulting and dumb.

[Miami_JBT]

I presume you have been to open carry states. Do they not have blacks and Hispanics, sometimes in larger numbers than here? Why did their rednecks (which they frequently have in numbers larger than here) not have this same concern? I mean, they have open carry in Mississippi. It's like 35% black. Florida is like 16% black. So how does that work again?

Man, the "it be racist!" BS is tiresome enough coming from the other side. Just stop. If THIS is the enemy you think you need to overcome, you've lost already.

For years you have refused to accept the simple proposition that the unique influx of RINO northeasterners here means that the FL GOP can get away with shit that won't fly in other GOP states. Instead, you offer up the proposition that Floridians are somehow especially racist, which is why we can't get what other GOP states have long had. That's both insulting and dumb.

I've been all over the US.

I'm talking about FL, not AL, GA, MS, SC, etc.

Within the RPOF, I have faced a lot of push back for open carry from southerners. It is what they tell me in my face.

When I attend RPOF meetings and a guy from Desoto County tells me in his southern drawl "I can't have my wife go to the local Walmart and see a Black guy carrying a gun."

I ain't making it up.

Same goes for when I was in Gadsden County, when at the REC, a member told me "I'm against open carry because my Grandpappy was a overseer on a turpentine camp. The local Blacks, they'd get liquored up and go cause trouble, we can't them have armed."

That's the shit they openly tell me.

Florida Republicans are 1980s Blue Dog Democrats. They think of gun rights as having the O/U shotgun for bird hunting and the bolt gun for deer. They don't like the idea of the hired help having access to arms.

It is what it is.

Again, I'm just stating fact here. Plenty of FL Southerners aren't pro-gun for everyone. You can even ask my Deputy Director, he lives up in Havana and the shit he deals with on a daily basis.... it is the same. And he's from there.

And when are you actually going to show up to the Capitol?

[Miami_JBT]

Florida gun rights advocates expressed feelings of betrayal and abandonment after new Florida Senate President Ben Albritton seemingly snuffed out any open carry and campus carry legislation in 2025.

At the conclusion of Tuesday's organization session, Albritton voiced opposition to the idea of changing Florida law to allow the open carry of firearms as at least 39 other states permit, according to the Everytown USA gun research organization. Florida allows people to carry concealed firearms but does not allow openly carrying guns.

Albritton, R-Wauchula, told reporters that as a life-long and consistent supporter of law enforcement, he will oppose any open carry legislation in 2025: "I trust my law enforcement officials. They oppose it ... and I stand with them today in opposition."

The remarks infuriated gun rights advocates who want legislation that will repeal Florida's prohibition on the open display of firearms in public and repeal "gun-free" zones for college and university campuses.

The new Senate president seemingly parted ways with Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has previously signaled support for open carry. And as recently as the day before the November election, in an appearance on Central Florida radio host Bob Rose's show, he suggested 2025 would be the year the ban would be lifted.

When Rose remarked he was more interested in open carry than he was in a recreational marijuana constitutional amendment, DeSantis said, "You may get that in this upcoming legislative session, stay tuned on that."

A spokesperson for Florida House Speaker Daniel Perez, R-Miami, said he has not "prejudged" any issue lawmakers may consider but the House will "take the Senate's position on things very seriously."

The comments were a big let down for gun rights advocates who have been working for at least 10 years to get what they call "constitutional carry" through the Florida Legislature. It especially stung coming two weeks after DeSantis' radio appearance and the GOP scoring supermajorities in the House and Senate.

Both Albritton and Perez have scored more than 90% on the NRA's gun rights scorecard, according to the Vote Smart 'Facts for All' database.

"We feel very betrayed but we're not going to drop this issue," said Luis Valdes, Florida Director of Gun Owners of America (GOA), a 48-year-old gun lobbying group active in all 50 states.

"For ... Albritton to announce that open carry is dead on arrival, (that) smacked Florida gun owners in the face after those gun owners gave him the very office he holds when they installed a Republican supermajority that put him in office," Valdes added.

In August, GOA filed a lawsuit in federal court to overturn the ban and Valdes said they are reaching out to members of the House and Senate to sponsor a repeal of the ban in 2025.

Valdes said GOA is also working with lawmakers to draft open carry legislation for a legislative session that begins in March. "We will not stop pressing the issue," Valdes said. "We will get open carry legalized, period."