Florida’s Republican attorney general has told police and prosecutors to stop enforcing the state’s decades-old ban on carrying guns openly after an appeals court ruled it unconstitutional.
In a letter posted to social media on Monday, James Uthmeier said that the ruling was binding on all trial courts and that his office would no longer defend such cases.
“As of last week, open carry is the law of the state,” he wrote on X.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has long campaigned to overturn the ban, lent his backing to Uthmeier’s letter, saying: “This decision aligns state policy with my long-held position and with the vast majority of states throughout the union.
“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 leaves California, Connecticut, and Illinois as the only states in the entire union that still ban open carry.
Democrats criticized the move, saying it would make Florida more dangerous and dissuade tourists from visiting.
“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,” said Florida Democratic Party chair Nikki Fried.
“The impact of this decision will have negative long-term effects on our communities and further erode Floridians’ trust in one another.”
Uthmeier is a longtime ally of DeSantis, having previously served as his chief of staff and managed his failed presidential campaign in 2024.
The ruling came in response to a 2022 lawsuit filed by Pensacola gun rights advocate and independent political candidate Stan McDaniels, who was arrested for visibly carrying a handgun in a holster tucked into his pants while campaigning for a seat on the Escambia County Commission.
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McDaniels argued that this arrest and the open carry ban that had been on Florida’s law books since 1987, violated the Second Amendment.
In fact, the ban was originally even older than that, having stood since the 19th century before being repealed for a few years in the 1980s.
Yet in a unanimous ruling, a panel of three Republican-appointed judges sided with McDaniels, arguing: “No historical tradition supports Florida’s open carry ban. To the contrary, history confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly.”
McDaniels, who is reportedly in jail for violating an injunction in a domestic violence case, issued a statement on X thanking all the people who had helped him win the case, from his pro bono attorney to his mother and sons.
“To all those who said I shouldn’t protest for Open Carry, thank you,” he wrote. “Without you I wouldn’t have realized the true strength of my convictions and the burdens involved while standing alone…
“Finally, I thank the people who put me in the position to fight for Florida red flag and family custody laws. It is time for Florida to reconsider, recognize, and legalize Fathers’ Rights…
“Please consider writing Governor Ron DeSantis to commute my sentence in Escambia County.”
