A Florida appeals court on Sept. 10 unanimously struck down the state’s law banning the open carry of firearms.
The ruling by the state’s First District Court of Appeal reversed the conviction of Stanley Victor McDaniels. He was found guilty under a 1987 state law that makes it “unlawful for any person to openly carry on or about his or her person any firearm or electric weapon or device.”
Florida Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican, signed the law in 1987, after state lawmakers discovered that a recently passed concealed carry law created a legal loophole that allowed people to walk around in public with guns. Legislators worried that national reports on the loophole could hurt tourism in the state. The Florida Supreme Court upheld the law in 2017 in a case known as Norman v. State of Florida.
Appeals Judge Stephanie Ray said in the court’s opinion on Sept. 10 that Florida is “an outlier” that, along with Illinois, Connecticut, and California, generally forbids the open carrying of guns.
McDaniels argued that the open carry ban violated the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms, the judge said.
“Guided by the Constitution’s text and this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, we agree,” Ray said in an opinion that was joined by Judges Lori Rowe and Kemmerly Thomas.
Hellbound and Down 