Florida prosecutor orders police not to restrict public carrying of firearms

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier stated that no appellate court has challenged the constitutionality of openly carrying firearms, so he ruled that it becomes law in the state and instructed law enforcement not to prohibit their display in public.

Because no other appellate court has considered the constitutionality of Florida’s open carry gun ban since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, the First District Court of Appeal’s decision is binding on all Florida trial courts, Uthmeier said on social networking site X.

Call to not restrict public carrying of firearms in Florida

“Which means that as of last week, open carry of guns is law in the state,” he added.

The prosecutor added in X the image of a letter he addressed to law enforcement agencies and prosecutors.

In the letter, he urged them not to consider it illegal to carry firearms in public.

This after a Florida appeals court ruled last week that their open display, previously banned, was fully constitutional.

The court held that the open carry ban was inconsistent with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms.

The above in ruling in favor of a citizen who was arrested in 2022 for posting live on his social networks while loading his pistol in downtown Pensacola.

Florida was one of four states, along with California, Connecticut and Illinois, with such near-absolute bans on openly displaying guns in public.

Prior to that ruling, Florida’s governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, had asked the state Congress for a law to carry handguns in public in Florida, where more than a third of the population, 35%, owns a gun, according to the specialized site Ammo.

In addition, DeSantis last week inaugurated a tax incentive program for residents to buy guns tax-free for the remainder of the year in the state.

The program has been opposed by some Republican senators and the Florida Sheriffs’ Association.

With information from EFE