Florida city police chief bans guns after declaring state of emergency, prompts swift reaction

A Florida police chief’s hurricane-related decision on the Second Amendment prompted a reaction from the governor after the “mistakenly enacted” ban found the community up in arms.

(Video Credit: CBS12)

In preparing for Hurricane Helene late last week, the Okeechobee City Police Department Chief of Police Donald Hagan was quick to declare a local state of emergency to facilitate a response if devastation were to occur. However, haste made waste of the Constitution when the order given detailed a ban prohibiting the sale, display, or possession of a firearm in public making it unlawful for the duration of the storm.

Amid backlash over the declaration that was rescinded the same day, OCPD public information officer Det. Jarret Romanell told CBS12, “This is something that was just mistakenly enacted.”

“Once we learned that the emergency order was not the order that we intended to declare, we immediately terminated it,” he added.

Likewise, a statement from the city explained the reason behind the termination of the order was that the hurricane did not have a “substantial impact” on the city and because “a provision prohibiting the sale of firearms and ammunition was inadvertently included in the Emergency Ordinance. Upon discovering this, the City and Police Chief acted expeditiously to terminate the Emergency Ordinance.”

It was also stated that “At no time did the City, or the Police Chief, contemplate, nor take any action, to prohibit, confiscate or otherwise regulate firearms or ammunition.”

However, according to the non-profit Second Amendment group Firearms Policy Coalition, the order was only rescinded after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office learned of the overreach.

“We just spoke with someone in the @RonDesantis administration,” wrote the organization in a post shared by DeSantis’ Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern. “Not only was this local declaration illegal and unconstitutional, we were told that as soon as the Governor’s office was aware they directed the Police Chief to rescind the order.”

In their own statement to CBS12, FBC asserted in part, “Times like these are when people most need access to their individual right to keep and bear arms. The office of Governor DeSantis informed us this morning that they not only addressed this error with the police chief but will support a legislative repeal of this outdated and unconstitutional law so that this cannot happen in the future. FPC fully supports Governor DeSantis’s efforts to eliminate this statute and prevent errors and abuses by local authorities.”

Believing that the declaration under Chapter 870 of Florida Statutes was meant to ban firearms in cases of riots or public disorders, Romanello further told CBS12 that Hagan was “not here today because he was subject to personal attacks all day from all over this country. Most of the noise is coming from people that live outside the city of Okeechobee.”

That “noise” was a resounding call on social media to not only see the repeal of the unconstitutional statute but to see that those who violate the God-given rights of Americans “be prosecuted.”

Kevin Haggerty

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