Florida AG James Uthmeier says open carry is now “the law of the state.” What that means for gun owners.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday said open carry of firearms is now “the law of the state,” after the 1st District Court of Appeal last week struck down a longstanding ban as unconstitutional.

Uthmeier issued guidance to prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, noting that some had already stopped enforcing the ban following the Sept. 10 ruling.

In a post on his X account, he said no other Florida appellate courts had reviewed the constitutionality of the open-carry ban since two closely watched U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2022 and 2024. As a result, he wrote, “the First District’s decision is binding on all Florida’s trial courts.”

Florida’s history with open carry laws

Florida first enacted the open-carry prohibition in 1987, making it a misdemeanor to visibly display firearms. Exceptions existed, such as for hunting, and residents could carry concealed weapons.

In his guidance, Uthmeier instructed prosecutors and police not to arrest or prosecute “law-abiding citizens carrying a firearm in a manner that is visible to others,” saying Florida courts could not convict under the overturned law. He also emphasized that gun owners remain responsible for using firearms safely.

“Nothing in the decision permits individuals to menace others with firearms in public, nor does it undermine the state’s authority to prohibit felons from possessing firearms,” the guidance said.

Appeals court strikes down Florida open-carry ban

The ruling stemmed from a challenge by Stanley Victor McDaniels, who was convicted of openly carrying a gun on July 4, 2022, in Pensacola.

Citing U.S. Supreme Court precedents in Second Amendment cases, a three-judge panel of the Tallahassee-based court concluded that Florida’s ban conflicted with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

“No historical tradition supports Florida’s open carry ban,” Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in the 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.”

The Florida Supreme Court upheld the open-carry ban in 2015. But in last week’s decision, Ray said the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen governs the issue.

Reaction from Florida officials and Democrats

Uthmeier stressed the ruling does not affect restrictions on guns in sensitive locations such as police stations, courthouses, polling places, government meetings and schools.

Democrats criticized the opinion. State Sen. Shevrin Jones, D-Miami Gardens, called it “tone deaf given the state of violence in this country.”

“Florida’s current laws already robustly protect Second Amendment rights, even to the point of being a Stand Your Ground state. This ruling goes against the common-sense protections that keep our communities safe,” Jones wrote.