TALLAHASSEE, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A pair of court rulings declaring some of Florida\u2019s gun restrictions unconstitutional are creating some confusion in the notoriously firearm-friendly state \u2014 and fueling activists\u2019 calls for Republican legislators to take action to update state statutes so they abide by the new legal landscape. <\/p>\n
Despite Florida\u2019s history of being a gun-supporting climate, Florida\u2019s GOP-dominated state Legislature took steps to restrict gun laws in the wake of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Since the day the measure was signed into law, gun rights advocates have been pushing to unravel it. <\/p>\n
Now, activists say recent court rulings are fueling their push to expand gun rights in the state, emboldened by U.S. Supreme Court\u2019s updated standards for evaluating gun laws based on the nation\u2019s historical tradition of firearm regulation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLeaving unconstitutional laws on the books creates nothing but confusion,\u201d said Sean Caranna, executive director of the advocacy group Florida Carry.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what to know. <\/p>\n
Judge finds age restriction on concealed carry unconstitutional<\/p>\n
A ruling by a circuit court judge in Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, found that Florida\u2019s prohibition against people under the age of 21 from carrying a concealed firearm is unconstitutional, at least as it relates to the case in question. <\/p>\n
Last week, Judge Frank Ledee tossed out the conviction of 19-year-old Joel Walkes, who was charged with a third-degree felony for carrying a concealed handgun. Florida statutes currently allow people between the age of 18 and 20 to possess a firearm, if they legally receive it as a gift or an inheritance, but they are barred from purchasing guns or carrying them concealed.<\/p>\n
Ledee found the state\u2019s prohibition is incompatible with the Supreme Court\u2019s historical test, and inconsistent with a recent appeals court ruling that found a state law banning the open carrying of firearms is unconstitutional. In his decision, the judge pointed to the Legislature\u2019s role in codifying and clarifying the changes.<\/p>\n
\u201cDistilling these inconsistencies into a framework of firearm regulations compatible with the guarantee to bear arms pursuant to the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution is best left to the wisdom of legislative debate,\u201d Ledee wrote.<\/p>\n
Open carry ruling sparks questions<\/p>\n
Florida\u2019s First District Court of Appeal issued its ruling last month in a case stemming from the July 4, 2022, arrest of a man who stood at a major intersection in downtown Pensacola carrying a visible, holstered pistol and a copy of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n
The decision legalizes open carry, though there are preexisting limitations against carrying in a threatening manner or in certain restricted spaces like government meetings, schools and bars. The ruling has prompted some Florida sheriffs to urge caution among gun owners and seek clarity from lawmakers. <\/p>\n
Legalizing open carry has long been a major focus of gun rights activists in the state, who oppose the slate of restrictions that Florida\u2019 lawmakers implemented in the wake of the Parkland school shooting, which killed 17 people and injured 17 others. Among the law\u2019s provisions was raising the legal gun-buying age to 21.<\/p>\n
Bob Jarvis, a law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said the recent court decisions put more onus on lawmakers to enact state statutes that line up with recent judicial rulings. <\/p>\n
\u201cI would not be surprised if in the next session the Florida Legislature doesn\u2019t just take care of this by amending the statute to say, \u2018clean it up.\u2019 And then that\u2019ll end all these lawsuits and possible lawsuits,\u201d Jarvis said of the age-related prohibition. \u201cAnd that\u2019s really now what should happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Advocates push for expanding gun laws<\/p>\n
In the years since the 2018 Parkland shooting, lawmakers\u2019 efforts to lower the gun-buying age to 18 have advanced in the Florida House but ultimately failed in the state Senate.<\/p>\n
Now some advocates say the recent court rulings should force the hand of legislators who have opposed expanding gun rights in the past. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been telling the Legislature since 2010 that this was going to be a problem for them if they didn\u2019t act. And they chose not to act,\u201d Caranna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that given some of the recent decisions from the United States Supreme Court and the Florida courts, that they will finally see that the Second Amendment is not a second-class right,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Representatives for Florida\u2019s House speaker and Senate president did not immediately respond to inquiries Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Payne writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0A pair of court rulings declaring some of Florida\u2019s gun restrictions unconstitutional are creating some confusion in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26719,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[20067,20066,7920,9497,28,1116,30,29,20070,20065,2785,20064,1443,992,20068,914,20069],"class_list":["post-26718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-age","tag-court-ruling","tag-decision","tag-firearm-regulation","tag-florida","tag-florida-gun-law","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gun-restriction","tag-gun-right-advocate","tag-judge","tag-lawmaker","tag-legislature","tag-people","tag-prohibition","tag-state","tag-state-statute"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26718","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=26718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}