Movement In Florida Open Carry
BY Herschel Smith
5 years ago
TALLAHASSEE – Floridians would be able to carry guns openly in public without a license under a bill filed Tuesday by state Rep. Anthony Sabatini.
The measure, called “constitutional carry,” is already in place in 16 other states. It would allow lawful gun owners to carry weapons openly without a license in places where concealed guns are currently allowed.
“Somebody should be able to exercise [their Second Amendment] right without a cost,” said Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills. “I don’t believe if somebody wants to defend themselves they should have to garner the permission of the government.”
Democrats and gun control advocates are likely to vehemently oppose the bill if it starts to move in the Legislature.
“It’s dangerous. Open carry is dangerous,” said Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith, D-Orlando. “The solution to the epidemic of gun violence is not less restrictions on guns, it’s more. We need more training, more background checks and less guns.”
The bill, HB 273, goes further than other proposals to relax gun restrictions, such as campus carry or open carry, that have died in the GOP-controlled Legislature in recent years.
Sabatini acknowledged it could be difficult to get the measure through the Legislature when lawmakers convene for the session in January. He said some senators are thinking about sponsoring a version of the bill in that chamber, but added that it is the first time a “constitutional carry” bill has been filed in Florida.
It could take a few years before legislation on such a hot-button issue makes it into law, he said.
Although Democratic gun control bills, including a ban on assault weapons sales and capping magazine capacities, haven’t received a hearing, GOP-backed proposals to allow concealed carrying of guns on college campuses and open carry haven’t gained traction, either.
It’s good to see this come up again. Cheers to the brave Congressman who submitted this bill. And for the bad news? This has a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. Florida is a misplaced Yankee state. And for the really bad?
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Right now there’s a push to add restrictions to a current law that allows gun owners to open carry in Florida under certain circumstances. This comes after a recent demonstration of gun advocates openly carrying their rifles and guns on the Royal Park Bridge leading into Palm Beach.
Michael Taylor was one of those gun owners.
“We’ve demonized firearms to a point where we need to un-demonize it,” he Taylor with Florida Carry said.
Taylor who said he started to exercise his open carry right while fishing after he was almost robbed under a bridge one early morning.
“Ever since that day I’ve been open carrying,” Taylor said.
In March, he and a group of other gun owners demonstrated their rights by fishing on the Royal Park Bridge also holding American flags and flags in support of President Donald Trump. Citizens who saw shotguns and AR 15s called 911.
Training and Community Relations Coordinator Michael Ogrodnick at the Palm Beach Police Department said it is the duty of officers to respond and find out what the intent of the gun owners is. He said all of the officers are trained and know the law. The issue he believes is that the statute as written allows for gun owners to open carry while or on the way to or from hunting, fishing, or camping regardless of what’s around those areas.
“We believe the spirit of the law was for someone who was hunting, fishing, camping, in a rural area, a fishing hole, out on a lake, not in a Downtown commercial area in West Palm Beach walking over to the barrier island of Palm Beach,” said Ogrodnick.
Palm Beach Police Chief Nicholas Caristo has written a letter to Senator Bobby Powell asking that the introduce an amendment to the wording of the current law.
“The chief has requested that the legislation just be amended to read that within the 1500 feet, Birdseye view of a school, house of worship, guarded beach, or government building, people exercising their second amendment right not open carry within that distance of those buildings,” said Ogrodnick.
I bolded it. He’s lying. There is no such duty, and he knows it, but 99.999% of the idiot voters and politicians will believe him.
Leave it to LEOs to muck up the situation rather than making it better. That’s their specialty. It must be in their procedures somewhere. Or perhaps just in their DNA.
By the way, speaking of misplaced Yankee states, with all the crap going on in South Carolina, I’m beginning to wonder if it isn’t a misplaced Yankee state too. Say, what’s going on at the S.C. open carry front? Nothing? Like I had suspected? All of it just for show, opposed at every step by the cops and politicians?
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On October 22, 2019 at 7:48 am, ragman said:
Many of the “chiefs” in Southern states are yankees. They retired from some Northern dump and then move down South to enlighten us with their yankee wisdom. We do not want or need them to provide input on any subject, especially the law. They are worthless, miserable assholes and have no redeeming value. I’ll guarantee you that Ogrodnik is the product of a communist state, a state that would feel at home in the Soviet Union. He and his ilk simply cannot stand the fact that many Southern, Western and even a few New England states actually understand and follow the Constitution.
On October 22, 2019 at 9:38 am, Badger said:
Couple years ago (open-carry legal here, the law is mute on the matter) 911 got a call about someone “suspicious.” They were just outside town (in county jurisdiction) and the county SO asked if a city cop would respond and check things out. Report was of a man walking his dog along the county highway with holstered firearm. The radio back & forth went about like this:
City: Dispatch what’s the actual conduct that’s suspicious?”
Dispatch: gives recap of guy walking dog w/holstered pistol.
City: Ok, well, absent anything else there’s nothing to respond to; you can clear it off.
Dispatch: So, should I let county know that you’re going to make contact with the individual?
City: NO – you may NOT tell County that. You may tell them that we’re not going to respond at all in the absence of a law being broken. There’s nothing to check on. I’m clear.
Peace officer v. LEO: The distinction is huge.