{"id":268632,"date":"2026-05-12T22:36:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/268632\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T22:36:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T22:36:38","slug":"james-uthmeier-sues-jacksonville-for-5m-over-illegal-gun-registry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/268632\/","title":{"rendered":"James Uthmeier sues Jacksonville for $5M over ‘illegal gun registry’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attorney General\u00a0James Uthmeier is suing the city of Jacksonville for keeping lists of people carrying firearms\u00a0into\u00a0City Hall<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Yates Building<\/a> from 2023 to 2025, arguing the practice was contrary to state law.<\/p>\n

He seeks $5 million, which is the maximum amount for the infraction allowed by Florida law.<\/p>\n

In a video posted to social media, Uthmeier said the practice began in July 2023, after Democratic Mayor\u00a0Donna Deegan was sworn in.<\/p>\n

\u201cCity management approved and implemented a logbook, a gun registry, that required security officers to screen visitors and record the visitor\u2019s name, age, state-issued ID number, and the weapon type of anyone found to be carrying a firearm,\u201d Uthmeier said.<\/p>\n

\u201cJacksonville continued this practice until April 2025, when an individual attempted to enter a city building while legally carrying a firearm. The individual was unlawfully denied entry by security officers on duty when he would not provide the requested information.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The relevant law, Florida Statutes\u00a0790.335<\/a>, bans registries under threat of criminal and civil penalties, including potential \u201cfelony of the third degree\u201d charges and \u201ca fine of not more than $5 million\u201d via a civil action from the Attorney General.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier has been hinting at imminent action<\/a> for several months, and has been willing to challenge members of his own party in the process.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, he took issue with local State Attorney\u00a0Melissa Nelson<\/a>\u00a0for missing the mark in her own report on the controversy, which absolved the administration of legal responsibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cIgnorance of the law is no defense,\u201d he said in January, responding to Nelson\u2019s Office attributing the practice to \u201cpoor communication and a lack of legal review\u201d rather than \u201cdeliberate misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n

But even Nelson\u2019s Office acknowledged Uthmeier\u2019s \u201cauthority to evaluate potential civil remedies.\u201d Uthmeier can\u2019t pursue the felony charges, but he can try to exact a financial penalty.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/a>\u00a0and others have pilloried the\u00a0gun registry<\/a>\u00a0as a violation of constitutional rights by the\u00a0Deegan<\/a>\u00a0administration. The \u201cCheck Points and Perimeter Security<\/a>\u201d memo\u00a0was drafted June 30, 2023, during the transition between the outgoing\u00a0Lenny Curry\u00a0administration and Deegan\u2019s incoming group. It was revised in July after Deegan was sworn in.<\/p>\n

State Attorney Nelson\u2019s Office noted that the city \u201cstopped the practice immediately once it was discovered,\u201d but not before \u201cmore than 140 entries recording the names, birthdates, ID numbers, and firearm types of over 100 individuals\u201d were memorialized.<\/p>\n

Contacted Tuesday, the Deegan administration said it had yet to receive the lawsuit and reserved comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General\u00a0James Uthmeier is suing the city of Jacksonville for keeping lists of people carrying firearms\u00a0into\u00a0City Hall\u00a0and the\u00a0Yates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5890,116,115358,84334,118,117,4260],"class_list":["post-268632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-donna-deegan","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-gun-registry","tag-jacksonville-gun-registry-dispute","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-james-uthmeier"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268632","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=268632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}