Gun Rights

An appeals-court decision this month striking down the state’s ban on openly carrying firearms has affected another law establishing places where guns are off-limits, according to law-enforcement officials and some gun-rights proponents.Attorney General James Uthmeier quickly embraced the Sept. 10 open-carry decision by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal as “the law of the state” and issued guidance for prosecutors, police and sheriffs warning them not to arrest or put on trial “law-abiding citizens carrying a firearm in a manner that is visible to others.”The decision overturned a 1987 law that made it a misdemeanor to visibly display guns. While people were barred for decades from openly carrying guns, they could get concealed-weapons licenses.

People with guns can begin carrying them openly on streets and inside businesses or restaurants where owners don’t object, from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle, the attorney general says.Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier clarified Monday the ruling by the 1st District Court of Appeals in Tallahassee – whose jurisdiction runs from Gainesville through the Panhandle. Uthmeier said the court’s ruling was effective “now,” but his spokesman said there was a 15-day window to exhaust an opportunity for an appeal that will never happen.

A proposal to ban merchant codes for gun and ammunition sales in Florida is ready for the full House. It’s already been approved by the Senate, largely along party lines.

The concealed weapons bill Governor DeSantis signed Monday will do away with a decades-old licensing process, which has included requiring that people undergo firearms training and background screening to carry concealed weapons. The bill will require people carrying concealed firearms to have valid identification and “display such identification upon demand by a law enforcement officer.”

Democratic lawmakers say the bill would eliminate the firearms-training requirement. Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri calls current training requirements tied to the licensing process “meaningless.”

Republican state lawmakers have filed legislation that would allow people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.

A handful of Florida Gulf Coast University students walked around campus with empty holsters Tuesday. It was planned by the university’s College…

As we head into the final week of Florida’s 2018 lawmaking session, our legislative roundtable series continues today with a series of conversations about…

As we enter the eighth week of Florida’s annual legislative session, state and federal lawmakers are under pressure to address school shootings after the…

Monday marks one year since a gunman opened fire at Pulse, the LGBT nightclub near downtown Orlando. The deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history…