Gun control advocates have likened Florida to the wild west after the state’s attorney general endorsed an appeals court ruling allowing residents to openly carry handguns, a move one Democrat said created a “hot mess” of confusion.
James Uthmeier proclaimed that “open carry is the law of the state” following the determination by the first district court of appeal earlier this month said that a 1987 Florida statute banning the open display of firearms contravened the second amendment of the US constitution.
The panel sided with a Florida man who was arrested at a Pensacola crosswalk in 2022, waving a copy of the constitution with an exposed pistol in a holster.
A succession of sheriffs immediately ceded to Uthmeier’s admonishment and said they would no longer arrest or prosecute anybody seen with a visible sidearm in public after the ruling, which took effect on Friday.
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But several of them also joined gun control activists to point out that the issue is not clear cut. Other gun laws still on Florida’s books prohibit weapons in a variety of places. They include schools, hospitals, courthouses, city and county commissions, and bars, while businesses and private property owners retain the right to ban anyone from their premises with a gun, concealed or otherwise.
Dan Daley, a Democratic state representative, said the situation was “a hot mess” and set up Florida’s Republican dominated legislature for an unwelcome scramble to fix through legislation ambiguities forced upon them by the court ruling.
“This is the dog catching up with the car, and now they don’t know what to do with it,” said Daley, a former prosecutor and gun owner whose district borders Parkland, site of a 2018 high school mass shooting in which 17 people died.
“Every year there’s this fight among the Republicans in Tallahassee to out-conservative one another, a handful of members who file an open carry bill, and the Democrats just kind of sit back and hope that the more reasonable Republicans will prevail,” he said.
“The law enforcement community, which generally leans to the right, don’t want to see it happen either, and will have the quieter conversations with Republicans, and that generally prevails.
“Now the courts have basically forced their hand. We have law enforcement telling us that this is dangerous and there are some places that we shouldn’t permit open carry, so do Republicans file legislation to limit some of where you can carry, and then is that viewed as a gun restriction?
“Republicans know this is bad policy. It’s a whole different world for them and I don’t think they really want the fight.”
Uthmeier, a former aide to and appointee of Florida’s Republican governor, Ron DeSantis, acknowledged in public comments “some inconsistencies” created by the appeals court ruling. He said it was on lawmakers to fix them.
But neither Republican senate president Ben Albritton, or Florida house speaker Daniel Perez, who will determine the agenda for the Florida legislative session beginning in January, have so far made any statement about pursuing it.
Grady Judd, the sheriff of Polk county and a vocal DeSantis supporter, said at a press conference this week that he had spoken to the two politicians and the governor’s chief of staff urging them to act quickly.
“Open carry doesn’t mean open carry, every place in Florida,” he said. “We need to address through the legislative process tightening up the rules.”
Bob Gualtieri, the Pinellas county sheriff who chaired the commission investigating the Parkland shooting, said he would comply with the ruling, but issued a joint statement with police departments and other law enforcement agencies in his county highlighting the multitude of restrictions still in place.
“We respect everyone’s second amendment rights, but ask that everyone please follow the law regarding the possession and carrying of guns in Pinellas county,” the statement said.
The confusion extends to both firearms control activists and gun rights advocates.
Nick Suplina, senior vice-president of law and policy at the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, condemned Uthmeier for endorsing the ruling.
“Open carry escalates tensions, has repeatedly been used by extremists as an intimidation tactic, and introduces ambiguity into moments of crisis that make it harder for law enforcement to do their jobs,” he said.
“Rather than prioritizing the safety of Floridians, attorney general Uthmeier handed extremists a win by pushing for more guns in more places, like concerts, polling places, and churches. If more guns made us safer, America would be the safest nation in the world. Instead, thanks to weak gun laws and actions … the US has 26 times the gun homicide rate of our peers.”
The gun rights group Florida Carry Inc, meanwhile, is urging gun owners to exercise caution and not automatically assume that the ruling authorizes unrestricted open carry, despite Uthmeier’s “law of the state” declaration.
“There is going to be a brief period of time here where obviously the statutes have not caught up to the court rulings,” Sean Caranna, the group’s executive director, told the News Service of Florida.
“We’re advising that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and people should abide by the current set of places that are prohibited … when it comes to all forms of carry.”
A Florida State University criminologist, Gary Kleck, an expert on gun control, said he doubted there was a strong desire in the state legislature to act.
“There’s a solid Republican majority that is opposed to any restrictions on firearms,” he said.
“I’m generally a skeptic on the impact of laws and public policies on human behavior, and I don’t think there’s a lot of open carrying anyway, even if it is legally permitted.
“What really rules is informal social norms. It stands out and puts you in an embarrassing position to be openly carrying a firearm. People stare at you as if you might be the next potential mass shooter.
“The traditional common law distinction way back at the founding of the Republic was that good guys were perfectly willing to openly carry. They had nothing to be ashamed of, and carrying a sword, a dirk, or a firearm openly was perfectly fine because it shows: ‘I have no evil intentions that I’m concealing,’ whereas concealed carrying was something for highwaymen, robbers and criminals.
“So there were severe restrictions on concealed carry and hardly any on open carrying at the founding of the US. Whether or not you should be following 1789 traditions in 2025 is a pretty debatable issue.”
