FL: Open Carry Bill Introduced by New Judiciary Committee Chairman

Gun Watch ^ | 14 December, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Greg Steube was recently elected to the Florida Senate from the Florida House. In the same 2016 election where Donald Trump won Florida, one of the few Republican losses was Senator Miguel Diaz de la Portilla of Miami.  Portillia had been the face of opposition to open carry and campus carry in the Florida legislature.  Greg Steube has been a staunch Second Amendment, and open carry, supporter. Steube has been appointed to Portilla's former chairmanship of the Judiciary Committee. That was where Portilla stymied open carry and campus carry legislation that had strong support. Stuebe recently introduced open carry reform, with a few other incremental reforms thrown in for good measure. From jaxdailyrecord.com:

Steube’s bill (SB 140), which is filed for the 2017 legislative session, also would expand the places where people with concealed weapons licenses are allowed to carry guns.

It would allow them to be armed at legislative meetings, local government meetings, elementary and secondary schools, airport passenger terminals and college and university campuses.

License holders would still be prohibited from carrying weapons at locations such as police stations, jails, courtrooms, polling places and most bars. 

SB 140 is a minimal reform to Florida's firearms law. It brings Florida into alignment with the 45 other states that do not entirely ban the open carry of holstered pistols in most public areas. The only other states that do so are California, Illinois, New York, and South Carolina. Florida's ban is fairly recent, from 1987, when former state attorney Janet Reno became incensed at the adoption of Florida's incredibly successful shall issue concealed carry law.

Unable to stop the shall issue law, she successfully lobbied for a special session which banned the open carry of handguns in most places. At the time, the police and sheriff associations had argued that open carry was to be preferred over concealed carry.

The proposed reform removes the restriction on open carry from individuals that have a concealed carry permit. The permit would become a simple "carry" permit, with no requirement to conceal the weapon.

The ban on open carry is being challenged in court. The case has been appealed to the Florida Supreme Court, which has not yet issued a ruling.


©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Licensed open carry has a good shot in Florida in 2017.

[chris37]

I would love to be able to open carry while I am hiking in the woods.

We got bears here in Floridia Land!

[umgud]

I prefer CC, but am fine with OC. It prolly even deters some crime. Criminals will prefer CC.

[deoetdoctrinae]

The permit would become a simple "carry" permit, with no requirement to conceal the weapon.

Sounds like it would mimic what we have here in Tennessee. Our permits are HCPs (Handgun carry permits) and don't restrict to one or the other. Sure simplifies things.

[CurlyDave]

Even in liberal-infested Oregon permitless open carry is allowed and only concealed carry requires a license.

This actually seems very reasonable to me and certainly removes the problems associated with possible “printing” or accidental exposure of a concealed handgun.

[trebb]

I will often OC when outside and in uncrowded areas - part to help desensitize folks (even some cops) to seeing weapons and partly because it is more likely to deter folks in that environment. I always CC when in stores/restaurants, etc.