{"id":260352,"date":"2026-05-06T09:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/260352\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:16:08","slug":"did-publix-just-ban-open-carry-in-florida-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/260352\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Publix just ban open carry in Florida stores?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The Florida-native grocer Publix may have just reversed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/florida\/2025\/10\/08\/publix-now-allows-open-carry-in-florida-stores-heres-why\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/florida\/2025\/10\/08\/publix-now-allows-open-carry-in-florida-stores-heres-why\/\">its prior policy allowing open carry in Florida stores<\/a>, News 6 learned on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The issue first cropped up after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/viewpoints\/2026\/05\/05\/publix-open-carry-policy-florida-guns-firearms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/viewpoints\/2026\/05\/05\/publix-open-carry-policy-florida-guns-firearms\/\">Tampa<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/viewpoints\/2026\/05\/05\/publix-open-carry-policy-florida-guns-firearms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tampabay.com\/viewpoints\/2026\/05\/05\/publix-open-carry-policy-florida-guns-firearms\/\"> Bay Times<\/a> reported that the open carry policy may have been quietly done away with.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">News 6 reached out to the company\u2019s customer service number to confirm those details. A representative explained that new guidance had been issued on Tuesday that only law enforcement would be allowed to openly carry in Publix stores.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The company\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publix.com\/contact\/chatbot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.publix.com\/contact\/chatbot\">online chatbot<\/a> mirrored that response when asked about the grocer\u2019s Open Carry rules.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cPublix kindly asks that only law enforcement openly carry firearms in our stores,\u201d the chatbot states.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Publix originally announced it would allow customers to open carry firearms in its Florida stores back in September, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/25\/open-carry-now-officially-legal-in-florida\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.clickorlando.com\/news\/local\/2025\/09\/25\/open-carry-now-officially-legal-in-florida\/\">when the state officially permitted the practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">[PREVIOUSLY: Publix now allows open carry in Florida stores. Here\u2019s why]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The move came shortly after a landmark court ruling that found a statute prohibiting open carry in Florida violated the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">In a statement to News 6 after the initial decision, Publix officials said that the company follows all federal, state, and local laws.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cTreating customers with dignity and respect is a founding belief at Publix,\u201d the company\u2019s statement read. \u201cIn any instance where a customer creates a threatening, erratic or dangerous shopping experience \u2014 whether they are openly carrying a firearm or not \u2014 we will engage local law enforcement and protect our customers and associates.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">News 6 has reached out to Publix for more details on the change and is awaiting a response. No additional information is available at this time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kNAFkD cuqaEv article-text\">[RELATED: Publix responds after News 6 \u2018Pub Sub\u2019 drama]<\/p>\n<p>Breaking News Alerts<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 kiwhtN\">Get breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 The Florida-native grocer Publix may have just reversed its prior policy allowing open carry in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[558,28,30,29,575,2231],"class_list":["post-260352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-business","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-food","tag-publix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260352","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=260352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}