When the person in charge of one chamber of a legislature says they oppose something, it often means there's not much chance of it passing. It's not that so many people defer to them or anything. It's simply that they have the power to make sure it never comes to a vote.
This should dampen the enthusiasm Florida pro-gun activists have in seeing open carry legalized in their state, but it's not.
Now, Florida tends to be pretty good on gun issues, though there are a couple of quirks in state law that would suggest otherwise. A couple of those were passed in the immediate aftermath of Parkland when lawmakers were rattled enough to pass anything just to look like they were Doing Something(TM). Another is that they're one of the few states that doesn't allow open carry.
You can carry a firearm openly if you're hunting, fishing, or camping. That's it.
They join states like California, Connecticut, and Illinois in that.
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And the senate president said he'd defer to law enforcement on the subject, even though it seems that "law enforcement" refers to the sheriff in Tampa.
But advocates think they can make it happen anyway.
Second Amendment groups have long sought an open carry law in Florida.
Yet the state’s newly elected Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, on Tuesday shot down the likelihood of passing an open carry bill next year. He said he stands with the Florida Sheriff’s Association, which opposes open carry.
“I stand with them today, in opposition. They oppose it. … I trust my law enforcement officials and that’s where I stand,” Albritton told reporters after being sworn in.
Pro-gun groups got the state to loosen its grip on firearm restrictions last year. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a constitutional carry bill into law that gave gun owners the right to carry their firearms concealed without a permit.
Eric Friday is the lead counsel for Florida Carry Inc., a nonprofit gun rights group. He told the Florida Roundup in June that they’re going to push lawmakers to institute “open carry” laws.
“Florida Carry is gonna continue this fight,” said Friday. “We are going to get the right to open carry because currently, there is no right to carry a shotgun or rifle in the state of Florida outside of your home if you are not hunting. That is an unconstitutional deprivation of that right.”
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“Senators file bills all the time about various issues,” Albritton told reporters Tuesday. “If a bill gets filed that deals with that, then we’ll take a closer look at it and see what the implications are. But, at the end of the day, it’s due real caution.”
Albritton’s anti-open carry position doesn’t fall far from his predecessor’s, former Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.
Last session, Passidomo refused to take up proposals that loosened the state’s current gun laws, out of fear that it would make police officers’ jobs harder.
Can open carry make police officers' jobs harder? Maybe, but so does the requirement for them to get a warrant before searching someone's home or car. It doesn't mean we should just do away with people's rights so officers don't have a tough time while at work.
Plus, let's be real here. When's the last time you saw some thug openly carrying a gun he couldn't legally possess? They carry concealed all the time, and do so without a permit even in non-constitutional carry states. They simply don't care about the law, but they're not that stupid, either. They're not going to advertise to the cops that they're carrying a firearm, especially when some officer out there is going to know for a fact that they're a convicted felon.
So any hangups out there about open carry aren't about how it will impact crime, but instead deals with the fact that some officers don't want to be in the presence of a firearm unless they're the ones in control of it.
Well, they should learn to deal with their feelings and get past them, because their comfort doesn't dictate anyone's rights.
My hope is that Albritton caves on this and allows lawmakers to vote and to make this a reality, because Florida's current law is beyond stupid.
