Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri warned Friday that openly carrying firearms is not yet legal in Florida despite an appeals court ruling issued this week.
“There are two very important things that people in Pinellas County need to know about the court’s decision,” Gualtieri said in a prepared statement, referencing the Florida 1st District Court of Appeal’s ruling issued Wednesday that the state’s open carry ban conflicts with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms.
The first, as noted in a Tampa Bay Times story published Thursday about the ruling, is that there is a 15-day window for the state to seek a rehearing. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier will not seek a rehearing or ask the Florida Supreme Court for review, meaning the court’s decision will likely stand. On social media, Uthmeier said he fully supported the ruling.
“That means the law prohibiting open carry is not yet affected and open carry in Florida is still prohibited,” Gualtieri said. “Nobody should now open carry in Pinellas County.”
The second fact to keep in mind, Gualtieri said, is that the decision handed down Wednesday from was the 1st District Court of Appeal, and Pinellas County is under the jurisdiction of the 2nd District Court of Appeal and the Florida Supreme Court. Gualtieri noted that there is a previous decision by the Florida Supreme Court holding the statute prohibiting open carry of guns as constitutional.
“As a matter of well-established law a lower court, especially one in another district, cannot overrule the law established by the Florida Supreme Court,” Gualtieri said. “We must consider whether the Supreme Court’s prior decision is the law in Pinellas County.”
Gualtieri said his office is working with Uthmeier’s office and the Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney’s Office to determine the scope of the decision and how to proceed on Sept. 25, the effective date of the 1st District Court of Appeal’s decision.
“We will follow the law and respect statutes and court decisions,” said Gualtieri, a longtime opponent of open carry. “However, we have to know ‘what’ the law is and where it is applicable before we can decide ‘what’ and ‘how’ we enforce the law.”
Gualtieri said his office would release further guidance to the public before Sept. 25, “but in the meantime please remember, the open carry of guns in Florida is still unlawful.”
State law still bars people from carrying firearms in any capacity to certain places, including police stations, courthouses, polling places and college campuses. And in an interview earlier this week, Gualtieri emphasized that people should also know the ruling doesn’t negate a private property owner’s ability to restrict people from carrying firearms on their property, like in certain grocery stores or in restaurants.
The open carrycase originated from the 2022 arrest of Stanley McDaniels in Escambia County. McDaniels, before the arrest, had livestreamed himself with a visible holstered pistol and a copy of the U.S. Constitution in downtown Pensacola.
The state appeals court said that under the U.S. Supreme Court’s new framework for evaluating restrictions on the Second Amendment, Florida’s ban didn’t pass muster.
The Florida Supreme Court in 2017 upheld Florida’s open carry ban, but the 1st District appeals court said a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case takes precedence. That case, referred to as the Bruen decision, says that laws restricting the Second Amendment must be rooted in historic gun regulation.
“No historical tradition supports Florida’s Open Carry Ban,” the court wrote in its opinion. “To the contrary, history confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly.”
Gun rights advocates who have long pushed for open carry in Florida applauded the ruling. Groups that oppose open carry said the decision will endanger Floridians and tourists.
Times staff writer Romy Ellenbogen contributed to this report.
