Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is drawing a sharp line between dangerous criminals and non-violent offenders when it comes to gun rights \u2014 and he\u2019s putting his office\u2019s legal weight behind it.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier recently stated that firearm ownership is a fundamental American right, arguing that government restrictions on Second Amendment protections must meet a high constitutional threshold.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirearm ownership is an American tradition and a God given right to self-defense in enshrined on our constitution by the Second Amendment,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cFor the government to restrict Second Amendment rights, the U.S. Supreme Court has held that the Constitution and American tradition requires that an individual must pose a credible threat to the physical safety of others.\u201d<\/p>\n
He offered a specific example to illustrate his position.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance, a man who is convicted of carrying a firearm without a permission slip from the government in another state who poses no danger to the community should not be disarmed or dragged to prison as a felon for exerting his right to self-defense,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Uthmeier made clear that defending constitutional rights is a core obligation of his office. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs attorney general, I\u2019m required to support and defend your rights before all else. No matter the cost,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s why we submitted legal briefs defending the second amendment against certain past state prosecutions of non-dangerous felon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The attorney general also addressed the nuance between Florida\u2019s existing firearm laws and the constitutional limits of those laws.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile Florida law barring dangerous felons from possessing firearms is constitutional, it may only be required to those who are a danger to the public. Not someone who should have never been a felon in the first place,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy office will continue to enforce the law. We will hold wrongdoers accountable, and we will step in when the government infringes on your constitutional rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is drawing a sharp line between dangerous criminals and non-violent offenders when it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184232,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8232,28,30,29,7910],"class_list":{"0":"post-213605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida","8":"tag-attorney-general","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-headlines","11":"tag-florida-news","12":"tag-uthmeier"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=213605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/213605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=213605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=213605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=213605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}