Gun rights group demands return to open carry in Florida

Give us back open carry, the National Foundation for Gun Rights is telling Gov. Ron DeSantis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and state lawmakers. In a late Monday afternoon press release, the group – the legal branch of the National Association for Gun Rights – called on state officials “to address the state prohibition on open carry of firearms.”

“For years, the state of Florida has unconstitutionally banned the exercise of the open carry of firearms. Florida recently had the opportunity to correct this statutory error and bring Florida’s Code of Laws into alignment with the Second Amendment … by repealing the open carry prohibition along with the enactment of permitless concealed carry, but Florida’s lawmakers failed to do so,” association president Dudley Brown said in a letter. 

If the state doesn’t bring back open carry, the group will “explore all legal options to force … Florida to comply with the Second Amendment,” he added. The association bills itself as “the nation’s largest ‘no compromise’ pro-gun organization, with 4.5 million members nationwide.” 

Florida allowed open carry from 1892 to 1987, according to Marion Hammer, the National Rifle Association’s legendary lobbyist in Tallahassee who retired last year. As she told Influence magazine in 2017, licensed concealed carry passed in a special session and open carry was still legal: “A TV spot that went statewide said, ‘Why would anybody want to pay for a license to carry concealed when anybody can carry openly?’ ” State officials “panicked,” she added, and they repealed open carry.