After legislative inaction, Second Amendment advocates have gone to court to see a more than 130-year-old law repealed in Florida.
While often referred to as the Free State of Florida, it was only last year that the Sunshine State became one of nearly 30 states in the union to allow constitutional concealed carry. Now, after the legislature bucked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) support for open carry, the Gun Owners of America have filed a lawsuit to secure their rights.
Reviewed by Fox News Digital, the filing from the GOA named State Attorney Thomas Bakkedahl, the State Attorney’s Office for the 19th Judicial Circuit of Florida, and St. Lucie County Sheriff Keith Pearson in their complaint seeking to have an 1893 gun restriction deemed unconstitutional.
“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 stated. “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 restriction was cited as stating in part that it is “unlawful for any person to openly carry on or about his or her person any firearm or electric weapon or device.”
In addition to their contention that the ban violates the Constitution, the Gun Owners of America contended it was rooted in racism, and their filing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida said, “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.”
A statement from GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt expressed, “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.”
“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,” Pratt continued. “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.”
The GOA executive referenced the 2022 Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen that bucked an Empire State rule that citizens need to have “proper cause” in order to obtain a firearms license.
Showing how Florida’s open carry ban aligned it with only a small number of Democrat-run states, the filing noted, “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.”
“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 complaint stated.
Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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