Gov. DeSantis (FL) Demands Republican Legislature Passes Open Carry

1P7Jfzh.png



https://flvoicenews.com/gov-ron-desantis-asks-legislature-for-open-carry-bill/

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Ahead of the regular legislative session on March 4, Gov. Ron DeSantis made a public request to Republican lawmakers on passing open carry legislation.

Reacting to a video of Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey saying he supports open carry of firearms, DeSantis said, “Would be great to see it hit my desk.”

“Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right,” DeSantis said.

The interview with Ivey, posted by Gun Owners of America Florida State Director Luis Valdes, showed the Florida sheriff hopeful that the legislature will take up the issue.

Florida’s legislature is composed of a supermajority of Republicans in both the House and Senate.

“We were blessed to get permitless carry, but I’ve always been for open carry,” Ivey said.

DeSantis signed permitless carry into law in April 2023. Current law allows for Floridians to carry a firearm in a conciliatory manner without needing a permit. However, they can still obtain that permit.

DeSantis has said he supports open carry throughout his term as governor, but such a matter is up to lawmakers to agree on a bill and, ultimately, send it to his desk for signature.

Florida’s 2023 permitless carry bill was sponsored by Sen. Jay Collins and Rep. Robert Charles Brannan.
 
BxsVQft.png



floridaphoenix.com

DeSantis says he's supportive of open carry law — but is GOP leadership? • Florida Phoenix​

Immigration may not be the only major policy issue that divides Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP leadership in the Florida Legislature. The governor on Friday said that if legislation allowing for the open carry of firearms were to reach his desk this year, he would sign it into law. “Would be...
floridaphoenix.com
floridaphoenix.com

Immigration may not be the only major policy issue that divides Gov. Ron DeSantis and the GOP leadership in the Florida Legislature.

The governor on Friday said that if legislation allowing for the open carry of firearms were to reach his desk this year, he would sign it into law.

“Would be great to see it hit my desk — Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right… ,” the governor wrote.

DeSantis made those comments while retweeting a video clip on X showing Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey telling Luis Valdes, Florida State director of Gun Owners of America, that not only has he always supported open carry, but that he now believes more of the state’s 66 other sheriffs do as well.

This is not the first time DeSantis has indicated that if the Legislature passed such a bill, he would sign it into law. In an audio recording made by Valdes in 2023, DeSantis said “absolutely” when asked if he supported adding open carry to the bills then pushing permitless carry in the Florida Legislature. He added, though, “I don’t think they’re going to do it.”

“They” being the Republican leaders in the Legislature at that time, House Speaker Paul Renner and Senate President Kathleen Passidomo. The governor was correct that they did not support that legislation.

But it’s also true that DeSantis made no concerted effort to push such legislation. Now that he’s at odds with sitting Senate President Ben Albritton and House Speaker Daniel Perez about immigration legislation, might he push them harder?

Albritton, made it clear last November that he opposes open carry, saying he has supported law enforcement his entire life “and I stand with them in opposition.”

By law enforcement, Albritton referred specifically to the Florida Sheriffs Association, the powerful lobbying group that has opposed open carry historically.

Minds changed?

But rank-and-file sheriffs across the state may be changing their minds.

“I would say that if you asked that question probably five or six years ago, that number would be a lot lower, but now I think the majority of them — I don’t know the exact number — but I think that the majority of them stand with me in that recognition that we need open carry,” Ivey told Valdes on Wednesday.

The Phoenix reached out to the Florida Sheriffs Association on Thursday night to clarify their stance but has not heard back.

Valdes believes that in the existing political environment, he can see DeSantis pushing rank and file Republicans in the Legislature to break away from party leadership on the issue.

“One of the issues that we have faced in getting open carry and any other pro-gun bill pushed through has been legislative leadership opposition to it and threatening rank and file lawmakers,” he said. “But I think now with the massive groundswell of support that the lawmakers as whole have seen with the people supporting Gov. DeSantis, I think that they might break away from leadership and introduce the bill and push it themselves.”

Other states

Although Florida is known as a state with few restrictions on firearms, it is one of only four that don’t allow open carry at all. The others are New York, Illinois, and parts of California. (In California, the sheriff of any county with a population under 200,000 people or the chief of police of a city within that county may issue licenses to carry loaded, exposed handguns, according to the U.S. Concealed Carry Association).

Hillsborough County Republican state Sen. Jay Collins said on the Bob Rose show on Friday morning that “open carry failed because it just didn’t have the votes in the Senate. … Everybody has their vote and there are some who just aren’t in line with that right now, so we’ll keep going back to it.”
 
1738422540428.png



Gov. Ron DeSantis Indicates Support for Open Carry Bill
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated on Friday he would back Republican support on passing open carry ahead of the regular legislative session in Mar
floridianpress.com

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Gov. Ron DeSantis indicated on Friday he would back Republican support on passing open carry ahead of the regular legislative session in March.

"Would be great to see it hit my desk - Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right," DeSantis said.

The governor responded to a question asked by Gun Owners of America Florida State Director Luis Valdes to Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey on whether or not he supported open carry in the state.

"I have from the very beginning I got elected. I've always supported it. I love to see it come up this year in the legislature," Ivey said. "We were blessed to get constitutional carry, permitless carry. But I've always been for open carry and always will be."

Ivey also speculated that "a majority" of Florida sheriffs like the idea, iterating support has grown from other sheriffs from five or six years ago.

Sheriff Ivey was first elected in Brevard in 2012 and has over three decades of law enforcement experience, including developing the country's first statewide Task Force on Identity Theft.

First Lady Casey DeSantis also shared her husband's sentiment on X.

"It's time for the Free State of Florida to join other states in enacting open carry! Sounds like a great priority for our GOP supermajority. This is the year," DeSantis said.

According to the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, Florida is one of four states that doesn't allow open carry. The others are California, Illinois and New York.

Florida's legislature holds a dominant Republican supermajority in the House and Senate. Therefore, any bill would face little trouble from Democrats and ultimately could be signed by the governor.

DeSantis signed permitless carry into law in April 2023. Under the law, Floridians can freely carry a firearm without a permit or obtain one.
 
kdgl8QP.png



Gov. DeSantis Urges Florida GOP to Pass Open Carry for Handguns​

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is urging Republican state lawmakers to pass legislation legalizing the open carry of handguns.


Just over a month ahead of the start of Florida’s legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is urging Republican lawmakers to pass legislation legalizing the open carry of handguns.

On April 3, 2023, Breitbart News reported that DeSantis signed legislation making Florida the 26th constitutional carry state in the Union. However, unlike many of other constitutional carry states–the total of which is now 29–Florida’s law only applies to concealed carry. There is no Florida law allowing the open carry of handguns.

On August 5, 2024, Breitbart News noted that Gun Owners of America (GOA) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, hammering Florida’s continued lack of an open carry provision.

GOA’s complaint said, in part:

This blatant infringement of the Second Amendment right to ‘bear arms’ runs counter to this nation’s historical tradition and would have criminalized the very colonists who openly carried their muskets and mustered on the greens at Lexington and Concord to fight for their independence.

Now DeSantis is on board with the push, reposting a video from GOA’s Luis Valdes calling for open carry:

1738516816988.png

x.com

x.com x.com

DeSantis’s wife, Casey, is also pushing for open carry. She used a post to X to say, “It’s time for the Free State of Florida to join other states in enacting open carry! Sounds like a great priority for our GOP supermajority. This is the year.”
 
If only USF and Marian Hammer were still active those Rinos might be feeling some heat.

In the dark distant past Florida did have open carry.

The work around was metro area Law Enforcement threatening charges of disturbing the peace. In rural areas some folks carried openly but not a lot.

I actually miss seeing gun racks. For A while folks car carried hand guns openly as in plainly visible on the dash or seat.

Mind you most folks living here then were Floridians and not transplants and population was 1/4 to 1/3 what it is now.

If the door of my old extended cab pick up was not jammed I would love to have a back winder gun rack to hang my cane and reel & rod on just to mess with folks.

In the 50’s and 60’s you could almost tell where someone was from in a pickup truck without decoding the county tag number by what was in the back window rack. Winchester 94’s seemed more popular than Marlins west of the Suwannee.

Pump shotguns more common north of Ocala.

That sort of thing.

I suspect if you left a nickeled M21 S&W on the dash these days you would be rewarded by a smashed window.

Well into the1960’s folks did not bother rolling up the windows parked in most towns without a large Number of tourists about.

There is a thought. Maybe open carry will reduce the number of folks that don’t care for such moving down or visiting!

Contrary to common belief Tourism is still actually behind Agriculture in making money down here. As I watch springs producing less water and lakes dropping I would be quite happy if folks stopped moving in and drinking our water and complaining about the neighbors shooting.

Yeah this Cracker is all for open carry.

-kBob
 
I am in favor of the option but I don't want to die assaulting the hill of open carry where there is legislative resistance. Better to take the time to get legislatures used to the idea. They will come around eventually. Or the courts will declare it unconstitutional to ban open carry.
 
Texas passed open Carry in 2015, taking effect in 2016.
In the nine (9) years since then in the Austin metro area of 2.5 million, I have seen exactly two people open carrying - a couple walking out of a Wendy’s burger joint in 2017.
The “Wild West” pearl-clutching has no basis in reality.
Good luck to our Florida compatriots.
 
I would be on board just so that I don't have to worry about a wardrobe malfunction exposing my pistol and me getting in trouble over it. This will be very opposed in the dim stronghold areas like Miami-Dade, Hillsborough/Pinelis, Orlando, etc.
 
Wisconsin has had open carry forever. I haven't seen anyone open carry in the last five years or so. One exception. A guy carrying a 92 Beretta last Summer. He had it in a Hunter leather revolver holster and dropped it twice in the store and twice more in the parking lot.
 
ilbob said:
I am in favor of the option but I don't want to die assaulting the hill of open carry where there is legislative resistance. Better to take the time to get legislatures used to the idea. They will come around eventually. Or the courts will declare it unconstitutional to ban open carry.
Click to expand...
Take the time? How much time do they need? We've had an open carry ban for 37 years. In a relatively pro gun state.
 
Basura Blanca said:
So if DeSantis is (apparently) able to wave a magic wand to make this happen, why the lawsuit?
Click to expand...
Because DeSantis isn't a dictator and can't wave a magic wand. The legislative leadership is anti-gun and is blocking pro-gun legislation.

DeSantis is calling out the Legislature for being a bunch of lying RINOs.

So, the lawsuit is still important. And lawsuit or no lawsuit, we push legislatively too.

If I can moot my own case by getting good legislation passed, I'd do it.
 
Miami_JBT said:
Because DeSantis isn't a dictator and can't wave a magic wand.
Click to expand...

Ok.
Just checking that we all recognize lip service as lip service.

As I said on your other two threads about this, going to the courts is likely going to be a long involved process that doesn't end without the (mostly disinterested) supreme court weighing in on the topic. But legislatively, this could be done by referendum if it was truly the popular opinion in the state. But you've indicated that it wouldn't get the 60% threshold or whatever FL state law requires to pass it that way. So if it doesn't even have that level of support, I wouldn't bet too much on the legislature bending to the will of constituents since logic dictates, it's unpopular by that standard. In other words, it doesn't sound like gun owners can convince the legislature to push this, the posturing of DeSantis notwithstanding.

Yes, I'm a cynic. But also a realist.
 
CmCy43c.png



www.tallahassee.com

Florida Gov. DeSantis pushes Legislature for open carry of guns amid immigration tension

Gov. DeSantis reaffirms his commitment to signing an open carry bill in Florida, positioning firearms as a key issue in the ongoing political debate.
www.tallahassee.com

Gov. Ron DeSantis once again is telling Second Amendment advocates that he would sign a bill to allow them to openly carry a firearm, adding to the ongoing tension with legislative opponents on immigration.

To be sure, DeSantis has previously indicated he supports open carry or what is known as “constitutional carry” but has done little to push such legislation while in office. That said, this past weekend he took to social media to say if lawmakers were to approve such a bill, he would sign it.

“Would be great to see it hit my desk – Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right...” DeSantis posted on X. Florida currently allows permitless concealed carry, but not open carry.

Attached to the statement was a video of Gun Owners of America Florida director Luis Valdes and Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey talking about a majority of the state’s sheriffs supporting open carry – and taking a jab at Senate President Ben Albritton.

Albritton told reporters in November he would oppose any open carry legislation in 2025: “I trust my law enforcement officials. They oppose it ... and I stand with them today in opposition.” The DeSantis post seems to take aim at Albritton’s opposition.

Albritton, a citrus farmer, also supports an immigration enforcement bill the Legislature passed and DeSantis has promised to veto. It would take immigration enforcement away from the governor’s office and place it under the commissioner of agriculture, currently Republican Wilton Simpson, an egg farmer.

Simpson's department includes a licensing division that still issues permits for those who want to carry concealed in other states that require permits and have reciprocity with Florida.

But Valdes said GOA and its 2 million members are in DeSantis’ corner in both disputes because Simpson is part of the “Republican establishment” that had pulled “a classic bait and switch” on Second Amendment advocates in 2023.

“Now they are doing the same thing with immigration reform they did with constitutional carry then,” Valdes said.

The term refers to the belief that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution grants the right to carry a firearm without government-imposed restrictions, such as permits or background checks.

What had started as a promise of constitutional carry bill turned out to be a proposal to allow people to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.

“Floridians who want immigration enforcement get to experience what gun owners have experienced for over a decade – a Republican faction that clearly doesn’t listen to what their constituents want,” Valdes said.

Florida is one of five states, and the only red one in the group, that does not allow the open carry of firearms, according to the gun safety research group Giffords. Open carry has been legal in Florida until lawmakers repealed it in 1987.

Rep. Kim Kendall, R-St. Augustine, is drafting an open carry proposal for the 2025 session. In a text message to Valdes, she said that without an open carry law "we are paired with New York and California, which is horrible.”

And last week on the Bob Rose Show on WSKY radio, Sen. Jay Collins, R-Tampa, said open carry legislation continues to fail because “there are people who just aren’t in line with that right now.”

Collins said he and others will continue to push to loosen gun regulations. He's backing a proposal by Sen. Randy Fine, R-Brevard, to lower the legal age to buy a rifle to 18.

“We’ll keep coming back to it,” Collins said about open carry. “We’ll keep taking a bite at the apple until we get all of our Second Amendment rights back.”
 
Basura Blanca said:
So if DeSantis is (apparently) able to wave a magic wand to make this happen, why the lawsuit?
Click to expand...
Why not try two or three different solutions to a difficult problem?

Especially when the judicial option is glacially slow.
 
wayneinFL said:
Why not try two or three different solutions to a difficult problem?

Especially when the judicial option is glacially slow.
Click to expand...

Yes. That's exactly what I suggested on the other threads and for the same reason. Litigation should always be the nuclear option.
The problem presented was the legislature won't budge, therefore we'll sue. I suggested bankrolling OC as a referendum to bypass the legislature, but was told support was too low to pass it that way (after being told the public was generally supportive of the cause, which is contradictory to the claim).

Since GOA is a paid membership organization, I'd rather my money go to successful endeavors.
eta: Does the agriculture commissioner have that much pull with the entire legislature in FL?
 
Basura Blanca said:
Yes. That's exactly what I suggested on the other threads and for the same reason. Litigation should always be the nuclear option.
The problem presented was the legislature won't budge, therefore we'll sue. I suggested bankrolling OC as a referendum to bypass the legislature, but was told support was too low to pass it that way (after being told the public was generally supportive of the cause, which is contradictory to the claim).

Since GOA is a paid membership organization, I'd rather my money go to successful endeavors.
Click to expand...
The idea of modifying the constitution over and over again in FL is why keeping pregnant pigs in cages in unconstitutional.

The Constitution should be hard to amend and it has been amended through stupidity over the decades. Until finally, it was made harder to amend on purpose. Going and amending the constitution at this point is a fool's errand and a waste of GOA's funds.

You want success, either we'll win in the courts or in the halls of the capitol. Going through the constitution is foolish, financially speaking. Do you know how many hundreds of millions of dollars were spent this last election cycle on constitutional amendments that went nowhere?

Even the legalization of weed didn't make the 60% mark of voter requirement.

Idiots ruined amending the constitution. Blame them.

I will not spend members' money on foolish endeavors.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Miami_JBT
  • Locked
FL Legislature Leadership Says Open Carry Legislation Dead For 2025 Session.
2 3
Replies
56
Views
2K
hso
hso
BringHomeTheBacon
  • Locked
GOA keeps emailing me about the RINO static in Florida on CC.
Replies
1
Views
531
Robert
Robert
Miami_JBT
  • Locked
Demand that Gov. DeSantis call for a Special Session for Pro-Gub Bills!
Replies
4
Views
1K
PCFlorida
P
Miami_JBT
  • Locked
FLORIDA CONSTITUTIONAL CARRY FIRE MISSION
Replies
3
Views
609
George P
George P
Miami_JBT
FL College & University Carry Legislation for 2025
Replies
6
Views
509
JTHunter
JTHunter
Back
Top