Florida Appeals Court Rules Open Carry Ban Is Unconstitutional

Residents of the Sunshine State may be a step closer to being able to openly carry guns in public.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida appeals court on Wednesday declared unconstitutional a state law banning the open carrying of firearms, calling the law incompatible with the Second Amendment right to bear arms.

The First District Court of Appeal issued its ruling in a case stemming from the July 4, 2022, arrest of a man who stood at a major intersection in downtown Pensacola carrying a visible, holstered pistol and a copy of the U.S. Constitution.

The decision by a three-judge panel reverses the conviction of Stanley McDaniels in Escambia County in the Florida panhandle. It also vacates his sentence, finding that the state has failed to show that the law is consistent with the country’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

“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,” Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in an opinion, joined by Judges Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas.

“That is not to say that open carry is absolute or immune from reasonable regulation,” the opinion continued. “But what the State may not do is extinguish the right altogether for ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens.”