Florida Says Ban on Openly Carrying Guns Is Invalid After Court Ruling

Members of law enforcement in Florida should no longer arrest or prosecute people for openly carrying firearms in public places, the state attorney general, James Uthmeier, said on Monday, citing a state appeals court ruling last week that found a decades-old ban to be unconstitutional.

Mr. Uthmeier’s legal interpretation effectively allows open carry in Florida, which had been the last remaining Republican-led state to ban the practice.

“Open carry is the law of the state,” Mr. Uthmeier, a Republican, wrote on X on Monday.

He attached a copy of the “guidance memorandum” that he had sent to sheriffs, police chiefs and state attorneys about the ruling, which was issued last Wednesday. A three-judge panel of the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee found that the state’s open carry ban, in effect since 1987, violated the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

Florida had been one of four states, along with California, Connecticut and Illinois, to still ban open carry in nearly all circumstances.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, and some Republican state legislators tried to do away with the ban for years but faced opposition from other members of their party in the State Legislature, who cited concerns from sheriffs and police chiefs. In recent weeks, as Mr. DeSantis laid out his legislative priorities for the annual session that begins in January, he again clamored for lawmakers to allow open carry.

“This decision aligns state policy with my long-held position and with the vast majority of states throughout the union,” Mr. DeSantis wrote on X after last week’s ruling. “Ultimately, the court correctly ruled that the text of the Second Amendment — ‘to keep and bear arms’ — says what it means and means what it says.”

The ruling stemmed from a 2022 case in which a man looking to challenge the ban live-streamed himself carrying a visible, holstered pistol and a copy of the U.S. Constitution at an intersection in downtown Pensacola.

The Florida Supreme Court upheld the open carry ban in 2017. But the appeals panel said last week that a more recent ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022, striking down a New York law limiting guns in public, had invalidated it.

“No historical tradition supports Florida’s open carry ban,” Judge Stephanie W. Ray wrote in the opinion. “To the contrary, history confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly.”

Judge Ray, who was appointed by Gov. Charlie Crist, a Republican, was joined in the opinion by Judges Lori S. Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas, who were appointed by Gov. Rick Scott, also a Republican.

Democratic state legislators have said the ruling would make Florida more dangerous — and less attractive to tourists.

“Historically, the Florida Sheriffs Association, many departments across the state and leaders on both sides of the aisle have agreed: Open carry will make Floridians less safe,” Nikki Fried, the chairwoman of the Florida Democratic Party, said in a statement. “The impact of this decision will have negative long-term effects on our communities and further erode Floridians’ trust in one another.”

Florida’s original ban on visibly carrying guns in public was put in place in the 19th century, and then repealed in the 1980s in what officials later called a mistake. Lawmakers re-enacted the ban in 1987, and it was signed into law by Gov. Bob Martinez, a Republican.

Last week’s appeals court ruling technically does not take effect until Sept. 25, to give time for the state to request a rehearing from the full appeals court. Some sheriffs urged caution immediately after the ruling, lest Floridians think they could start openly carrying firearms right away. But Mr. Uthmeier has said his office will not seek a rehearing or appeal to the Florida Supreme Court.

In a statement last week, Sheriff Bob Gualtieri of Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, questioned whether a decision by the First District, which does not include Pinellas County, could overrule the earlier Florida Supreme Court ruling upholding the ban.

“We must consider whether the Supreme Court’s prior decision is the law in Pinellas County,” said Sheriff Gualtieri, who also has a law degree. His office did not respond to a request for comment on Monday.

In his guidance to law enforcement, Mr. Uthmeier noted that no other state appellate court has considered the ban’s constitutionality under the 2022 U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

Mr. Uthmeier’s predecessor, Ashley Moody, a fellow Republican, had previously defended the open carry ban in court. Mr. DeSantis appointed Ms. Moody to the U.S. Senate in January and then appointed Mr. Uthmeier, his chief of staff at the time, as attorney general.

Florida Republicans have been so supportive of gun rights since assuming complete control of the state government more than 25 years ago that Florida became known as the “Gunshine State.” Only after the 2018 mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., killed 17 people did Republicans pass an array of gun restrictions, including raising the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21.

Mr. Uthmeier has said that law should be struck down as well.