{"id":4054,"date":"2025-10-15T05:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T05:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/4054\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T05:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T05:01:12","slug":"can-you-openly-carry-guns-at-publix-in-fort-myers-cape-coral-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/4054\/","title":{"rendered":"Can you openly carry guns at Publix in Fort Myers, Cape Coral? What to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you openly carry a gun<\/a> at Publix grocery stores in Fort Myers, Cape Coral and across Lee County, Florida?<\/p>\n

Florida’s open carry ban was ruled unconstitutional<\/a> in a Sept. 10 decision by a state appeals court.<\/p>\n

“Open carry is the law of the state,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said in a Sept. 15 post on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The ruling applies only to those legally permitted to possess firearms and does not affect any other restrictions in Florida’s gun laws.<\/p>\n

And while state and federal restrictions on carrying guns at specific locations, including bars, schools and government buildings, still apply, private businesses, such as Publix, set their own policies on what’s permitted on their properties.<\/p>\n

Publix has not explicitly said it would allow customers to openly carry firearms in its stores, but implied that it would in a statement to Florida Today<\/a>: “Treating customers with dignity and respect is a founding belief at Publix. In 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 to protect our customers and associates.”<\/p>\n

In similar statements to other outlets, including the Orlando Sentinel, Publix opened with this sentence: “As of Sept. 25, 2025, Florida law allows the open carry of firearms. Publix follows all federal, state and local laws.”<\/p>\n

What does open carry mean?<\/p>\n

Open carry means anyone can publicly carry a legally owned firearm in plain sight or partially concealed.<\/p>\n

Can you open carry in Walmart, Costco, Aldi, Target stores in Florida?<\/p>\n

Aldi: “We are asking that our customers\u00a0refrain from openly displaying firearms in any of our stores, except for authorized law enforcement personnel,\u201d the company has said. They do authorize concealed carrying.<\/p>\n

BJ’s Wholesale Club:\u00a0It does not have a straightforward firearms policy listed on its main website, but it notes that it reserves the right to refuse entry to anyone at any time.<\/p>\n

Costco: Costco does not allow open or concealed carry of firearms and prohibits all firearms in its warehouses.<\/p>\n

Sam’s Club:\u00a0Sam’s Club does not allow open carry of firearms and prohibits all firearms in its warehouses.<\/p>\n

Sprouts:\u00a0Sprouts Farmers Market prohibits all firearms and dangerous weapons on its premises, and it posts signage at store entrances to indicate this policy.<\/p>\n

Target:\u00a0Since\u00a0July 2014, Target has requested that\u00a0firearms not be brought into its stores. \u201cWe \u2026 respectfully request that guests not bring firearms to Target \u2013 even in communities where it is permitted by law,\u201d the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Trader Joe’s:\u00a0\u00a0Officials said in 2019 that they follow local laws, but they “do not welcome weapons of any kind in our stores and never have.”<\/p>\n

Walmart: Walmart does not allow open carry of weapons in any of its stores, but\u00a0they do allow the concealed carry of weapons in accordance with state laws. If a customer is observed openly carrying a firearm at a Walmart location, it is up to the discretion of the store management to decide what to do.<\/p>\n

Whole Foods:\u00a0Whole Foods has a longstanding policy that prohibits firearms from its stores, regardless of local laws.<\/p>\n

Winn-Dixie:\u00a0\u201cOur priority is creating a safe and welcoming shopping experience for all customers and associates,\u201d a spokesperson for the parent company, Southeastern Grocers, told the Orlando Sentinel. \u201cAs a private business, our policy remains unchanged: We do not permit open carry of firearms inside our stores. We respectfully ask customers to secure firearms safely before entering, and we appreciate the continued cooperation that helps us maintain an environment where everyone feels comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Publix locations in Lee County<\/p>\n

There are at least 30 Publix stores<\/a> in Lee County.<\/p>\n

A newly renovated Fort Myers Publix located in the Daniels Crossing Plaza<\/a> opened Sept. 11.<\/p>\n

Contributing: C.A. Bridges and Samantha Neely, USA Today Network-Florida.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Publix open carry policy? What to know for Fort Myers area stores<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Can you openly carry a gun at Publix grocery stores in Fort Myers, Cape Coral and across Lee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,4505,28,356,4507,2231,4506,4508],"class_list":["post-4054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-concealed-carry","tag-florida","tag-lee-county","tag-open-carry","tag-publix","tag-target-stores","tag-the-orlando-sentinel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054","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=4054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}