Tag: Florida gun laws

TALLAHASSEE

For the first time in nearly four decades, Floridians can openly carry firearms.

How that looks in public may play out a little differently than in other states where it is allowed. Each state has its own rules.

A Florida court decision led to the new gun access; the state had largely banned open carry since the 1980s.

Attorney General James Uthmeier, who applauded the court’s decision to strike down that statute, acknowledged that there now may be “cleanup” needed for the state’s gun laws.

Florida’s legislative leaders have so far been coy about what, if any, legislation they plan to bring forward to regulate how and where guns can be carried in public.

Reinstating another broad ban doesn’t seem possible — the Florida appeals court that struck down the state ban said ordinary, law-abiding citizens can’t be forbidden from openly carrying a firearm.

But the court noted that open carry is not “immune from reasonable regulation.”

Here are some of the laws in other states and how they may differ from what Florida now allows.

Requiring permits

Some states, like Hawaii and Minnesota, only allow people to openly carry weapons if they have a government-issued permit.

But the majority of states don’t require a carry permit.

After Florida’s open carry ban was struck down, there is nothing in state law requiring a license to carry a gun openly. (The state in 2023 passed a law that dropped training requirements and licensure for most people wanting to carry a concealed weapon.)

Holsters

In Texas, people can openly carry firearms without a permit, but the state penal code requires the weapons to be in holsters.

Spencer Myers, a state and local policy attorney at the gun safety group Giffords, said Texas’ laws are the most explicit about how people can physically carry firearms.

But Myers noted that most states have laws that prohibit using or carrying a gun in a reckless or threatening manner — meaning a person likely wouldn’t be able to walk around with their gun drawn without being stopped by law enforcement.

Florida has a prohibition on carelessly carrying a gun.

Local rule

Other states that allow open carry leave it up to local government to regulate.

In Colorado, for example, the city of Denver has a rule in its municipal code that broadly bans carrying firearms.

The city’s rule carves out a few people who can carry firearms openly, including law enforcement officers, members of the United States Armed Forces, people on their own property, people with “valid authorization” from the city and people transporting a weapon in their car to go hunting.

Missouri also leaves wiggle room for cities to set their own firearm laws. In St. Louis, a 2024 ordinance bans people from openly carrying a firearm without a concealed carry permit. The city also recently banned open carry for people under the age of 19.

And in Pennsylvania, most residents don’t need a permit to openly carry. But state law treats the largest city, Philadelphia, differently. Residents there must get a permit in order to openly carry a firearm.

That law is being challenged as a violation of the Second Amendment and is headed to the state Supreme Court.

Where to carry

Florida, like many other states, restricts where people can carry a weapon — whether openly or concealed.

Florida law prohibits guns in places like police stations, schools, bars, courthouses and polling places.

But since the open carry ruling, some Florida lawmakers and observers have been concerned about a perceived loophole.

The law says no person can “openly carry a handgun or carry a concealed weapon” into any of the listed sensitive spaces.

Myers said it would be “crucial” for Florida to make clear that long guns, like rifles, are also prohibited in those spaces. He noted that the U.S. Supreme Court has pointed to restrictions on guns in sensitive spaces as appropriate under the Second Amendment.

Rep. Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, and Sen. Tina Polsky, D-Boca Raton, have filed a bill to change that language and prohibit the carrying of any gun in sensitive spaces.