Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is reopening an investigation into the City of Jacksonville’s previous use of gun logs at government buildings months after the State Attorney’s Office closed it.
“I am directing Deputy Attorney General (Enforcement) Jason Hilborn to retrieve all evidence in this case for the purpose of potentially commencing civil proceedings,” Uthmeier said in a March 2 letter to State Attorney Melissa Nelson.
The State Attorney’s Office initially launched the probe after it was revealed that for two years, the city kept records of guns that came into the Yates Building and Jacksonville City Hall. The binder logs were discovered after a citizen made a report to the city in April 2025 that he was told that security needed his personal and firearm identification information before he entered.
While the SAO found it was a clear violation of Florida’s long-standing law against gun registries, the agency announced in December that it would not be pursuing criminal or civil penalties in the matter.
The agency found that the logs were ordered by a single city Public Works manager for security purposes without approval from the administration or legal review. It was also found that the manager did not “knowingly and willfully” break the law and had no criminal intent. The SAO concluded that the logs’ creation was allowed through a “breakdown in communication and oversight.”
Uthmeier argues that none of those mitigating factors negate the alleged crime, and that the SAO misinterpreted the law. “Whether the person had a specific criminal intent is irrelevant here. Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” Uthmeier wrote.
He argues that the city also bears responsibility for the logbook, regardless of how it was created,
“Either city leadership was fully aware of the firearm logbook practice and did nothing, or they failed to adequately train and supervise their employees. In either case, such institutional failure exposed law-abiding firearm owners to the very dangers that the registry prohibition was designed to prevent,” Uthmeier wrote.
He pointed out that the city could face a fine of up to $5 million if the city was knowledgeable or complicit in the use of the logs, according to the statute.
The Mayor’s Office issued a response following Uthmeier’s announcement, calling it a politically-motivated move for a case that has already been settled.
“As we have stated from the very beginning, the records will show that Mayor Deegan and her leadership team were unaware of this action taken by an individual employee concerned about building security – and that the practice was immediately ended once it became known,” her office said in a statement. “The State Attorney, who comes from the same party as the Attorney General, conducted a thorough, eight-month investigation into this matter and concluded there was no deliberate misconduct. As the state pursues politically motivated deflections that waste taxpayer dollars, the mayor remains focused on addressing affordability challenges for the people of Jacksonville. It would be nice to have a state partner that is doing the same.”