https://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/2024/05/21/the-days-of-concealed-means-concealed-are-increasingly-coming-to-an-end/
As a gun owner in Florida, I grew up with the mantra, "concealed means concealed." Meaning that if a place banned the carrying of firearms, but is legal under the law, what they don't know won't hurt them.
That was the way things were (and still are frequently) done. I recall plenty of places that had signs stating they were a gun-free zone. But the thing about Florida is those signs don't carry the weight of law. We just shrugged and kept right on carrying.
It was much like the street corner and the brown paper bag. Public drinking is illegal. But a civic compromise was made. As long as an adult beverage was in a brown paper bag, there was no issue. The authorities looked the other way as long as the guy on the street corner holding the brown paper bag wasn't acting the fool.
That's been the way of things regarding concealed carry. Corporate establishments like Dadeland Mall in Miami or even Disney used to post signage stating they're gun-free zones. But as long as you were civilized and didn't act the fool, they didn't care if you carried as long as they didn't know about it.
Prior to the pandemic, I carried multiple times at what is now Disney Springs, back when it was originally known as Pleasure Island and later, Downtown Disney. That was all legal at the time, of course.
Because I was a permitted license holder and while they had signs, they never checked me, told me to secure my piece, or told me outright that I wasn't allowed to carry there.
With the pandemic, that all came to an end. Disney turned the area to Disney Springs and they closed off all the various pedestrian paths that allowed you to simply walk in and enjoy. You now have to go through a screening location for "public health" screenings.
Part of that is a weapons check. But it isn't a standard metal detection system. Oh no, it was a fancy new AI driven system called Evolv Express.
I bring this up because it isn't just Disney any more that's using this kind of scrutiny of the public. As a gun owner, I'm seeing these systems spring up everywhere. Local governments are getting trigger happy with them. In fact, the City of Orlando has set up a similar system on public streets, screening law-abiding people who are simply going about their business.
The Mayor of Orlando says that the system is "voluntary" and complained about Florida's state preemption laws that restricts him from declaring the entire city a gun-free zone. But in reality, when the system was enacted, it was enacted wasn't voluntary at all. If you wanted to enter the downtown Orlando area, you had to walk through the checkpoints and be scanned.
I take that as a huge affront to my Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. Orlando Police now have a reason to stop you if you trip their system and they want to determine if you're carrying legally.
This is what our future is becoming places where you're recorded, scanned, digitally analyzed, cataloged, and electronically searched without any practical consent. The days of concealed actually being concealed are increasingly over.
With the United States Supreme Court stating that you and I have the inalienable right to keep and bear arms outside of the home, gun-grabbers have thrown anything and everything against the wall in an attempt to see what will stick constitutionally regarding limits on the right to keep and bear arms. We've seen New York practically declare all of the outdoors a gun-free zone, including Times Square.
But since forever, people had the mindset that "concealed means concealed" and kept right on carrying while not drawing attention to themselves. As technology and AI become cheaper and more widely available, that will be coming to an end. Expect more and more locations to electronically violate your personal space, track you and possibly even have you banned from locations you used to visit freely.
Private property owners, of course, have that right. City and other government entities can expect court challenges based on violations of state preemption laws, where applicable, not to mention individuals' civil rights.
The goal here, of course, is to ensure that more people are disarmed more of the time. This will also inevitably lead to more gun thefts as individuals are forced to disarm and store guns in their cars in order to enter certain venues. Criminals are smart enough to know that people entering and leaving those well-established "gun-free" zones will be disarmed and make easy targets, as will their vehicles.
This currently is likely our future as the Fourth Amendment gently weeps. If you want to minimize this, be loud now with local businesses and government authorities and tell them you oppose this.
