A Florida appeals court ruled on Wednesday that a state law that made it illegal to carry a gun in public was unconstitutional. The court sa...
A Florida appeals court ruled on Wednesday that a state law that made it illegal to carry a gun in public was unconstitutional. The court said that the law went against the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment.
The First District Court of Appeal made a decision in a case that started with the arrest of a man on July 4, 2022, who was seen standing at a major crossing in downtown Pensacola with a gun in his pocket and the U.S. Constitution in his hand.
In Escambia County in the Florida panhandle, Stanley McDaniels was found guilty but the sentence was overturned by a team of three judges. It also throws out his sentence because the state hasn't shown that the law fits with the "historical tradition of firearm regulation" in the country. "Florida's Open Carry Ban is not based on any historical facts." "On the contrary, history shows that the right to carry a gun in public always includes the right to do so openly," Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in a ruling that Judges Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas joined.
The ruling went on to say, "That doesn't mean that open carry is unaffected by reasonable rules." “What the State cannot do, however, is take away the right completely for law-abiding adult citizens.”
In a post on X, Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the choice. He has asked lawmakers to pass a law that lets people carry guns without a permit. "This decision brings state policy in line with what I've always believed and with what the vast majority of states across the union believe," DeSantis wrote. “In the end, the court made the right decision: the Second Amendment's text, which says "to keep and bear guns," says what it means. Gun rights activists in Florida have long wanted to make open carry legal. They are against the limits that the state's mostly Republican legislature put in place after the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
In an X post, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said that he "fully supports the Court's decision" to throw out the state law. It is his office's job to protect the law.
Uthmeier said, "This is a big win for Floridians' Second Amendment rights." He also said, "Our God-given right to self-defense is not optional." DeSantis hired Uthmeier in February, and he has said in the past that his office won't support state gun laws that he thinks are illegal.
Kate Payne works as a volunteer for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that puts reporters in local newsrooms to cover problems that don't get enough attention.