A Florida appeals court declared the state’s ban on openly carrying firearms unconstitutional after the law was challenged by a former Escambia County commission candidate.
Stan McDaniels was campaigning on July 4, 2022, for the Republican nomination for the Escambia County Commission District 4 seat in downtown Pensacola by waving at cars while openly carrying a handgun.
Officers with the Pensacola Police Department confronted McDaniels and told him he had to conceal the handgun, and when McDaniels refused, he was arrested and charged with violating the state’s open carry law. Much of the exchange was livestreamed on McDaniels’ Facebook page at the time.
McDaniels was convicted of violating the open carry law and was sentenced to probation and community service. His sentence was suspended pending his appeal.
However, McDaniels is currently in the Escambia County Jail until January, serving a sentence for a contempt of court conviction for violating an injunction in a domestic violence case, according to court records. He was not available for comment.
He told the News Journal at the time that he didn’t plan to get arrested, but the demonstration was in protest of the state’s open carry laws.
“I would’ve hoped the officers would have upheld the Constitution,” McDaniels said.
A screen capture shows Escambia County Commission District 4 candidate Stan McDaniels talk with Pensacola Police Department officers while openly carrying a handgun. McDaniels livestreamed the encounter with police on his campaign Facebook page.
At the time, he said he would take the case all the way to the Supreme Court even after he lost his race to Robert Bender, who is now Escambia County Supervisor of Elections.
The Florida First District Court of Appeal on Sept. 10 agreed with McDaniels and declared the law banning open carry as unconstitutional under the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms.
A three-judge panel unanimously ruled in favor of McDaniels and cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2022 that found firearm regulations must be consistent with the “historical tradition” of firearms regulation when the Second Amendment was adopted.
“No historical tradition supports Florida’s Open Carry Ban,” Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in a 20-page opinion joined by Judges Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas. “To the contrary, history confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly. That is not to say that open carry is absolute or immune from reasonable regulation. But what the state may not do is extinguish the right altogether for ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens.”
At this point, the ruling is only applicable to the First District, which encompasses most of North Florida from Pensacola to Jacksonville, but it opens up the law to challenge across the state.
It doesn’t appear likely the state of Florida would appeal the ruling, as Attorney General James Uthmeier was among a chorus of Republicans across the state praising the ruling.
“Our office fully supports the Court’s decision,” Uthmeier wrote on X. “This is a big win for the Second Amendment rights of Floridians. As we’ve all witnessed over the last few days, our God-given right to self-defense is indispensable.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis also praised the ruling in a post on X.
“This decision aligns state policy with my long-held position and with the vast majority of states throughout the union,” DeSantis said. “Ultimately, the court correctly ruled that the text of the Second Amendment — ‘to keep and bear arms’ — says what it means and means what it says.”
The Florida Legislature has declined to pass a repeal of Florida’s open carry ban, but this ruling may add fuel to that effort as even Republican who’ve been at odds with DeSantis are praising it.
Pensacola Rep. Alex Andrade, who has been at odds with DeSantis and Uthmeier, told the News Journal he was excited to see the ruling.
“This is a huge win for the Second Amendment and Floridians’ rights,” Andrade said.
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Florida’s open carry ban overturned on Escambia candidate’s challenge
