The Gun Owners of America (GOA) has filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a 19th-century Florida law banning the open carry of firearms. The organization hopes to use the recent ruling in Bruen to overturn the law.
The old law “made it unlawful for any person to openly carry a firearm,” according to the lawsuit. It was enacted during Reconstruction after the Civil War and “openly targeted only certain disadvantaged groups, such as newly freed blacks, while whites enjoyed virtual immunity from enforcement.”
Florida, long known as the “gun state” for its early support of the Second Amendment, recently passed a “permitless carry” law for those who wish to carry concealed firearms, making it the 26th state to do so.
The bill was passed by Republican supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature and Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, but the GOA said it didn't go far enough.
From the complaint:
Despite Florida's reputation as a generally liberal gun state, it inexplicably continues to ban the open carrying of guns.
This blatant violation of the Second Amendment right to “bear arms” runs counter to the historic traditions of our nation and would criminalize the very colonists who gathered in the town squares of Lexington and Concord and openly carried muskets to fight for independence.
The law also cannot stand in light of the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen decision, which overhauled the judicial framework, requiring the government to show “historical parallels” to support a violation of the Second Amendment. The law in question was passed in 1893, a century after the Second Amendment was ratified and decades after the 14th Amendment was applied to the states.
Currently, 38 states allow “permitless carry,” or “constitutional carry,” meaning citizens are free to carry without having to get prior permission from local authorities. By leaving its 1893 law in place, Florida would join other heavily Democratic states, such as California, New York and Illinois, in violating the Second Amendment.
Eric Pratt, GOA's executive vice president, noted that Florida's unsavory relationship with the far-left, deep blue state keeps its onerous restrictions in place, saying, “The Florida Legislature claims to be pro-gun, yet year after year, it refuses to repeal the open carry ban, putting Floridians in the league of deeply anti-gun states like New York, Illinois and California, where open carry is also prohibited. … This ban has no historical basis and will surely be found unconstitutional in light of Bruen precedent.”
In 2017, the ban was challenged in the case Norman v. Florida, but the state Supreme Court ruled it constitutional, citing the Supreme Court decisions in Heller and McDonald.
We hold that the 1893 law does not unconstitutionally infringe upon the Second Amendment right to bear arms, as interpreted by the United States Supreme Court in Heller v. McDonald, or upon the independent right to bear arms under the Florida Constitution, nor does it frustrate the exercise of the fundamental right to bear arms.
The Bruen decision has changed the legal landscape and is likely to succeed not only in Florida but in many other places where violations were meted out to law-abiding civilian gun owners prior to the Bruen decision.
