News
By Jim Turner | News Service of Florida, Orlando Sentinel
9/15/25
TALLAHASSEE — Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday said people being able to openly carry guns is “the law of the state,” after a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal last week ruled that a longstanding ban was unconstitutional.
Uthmeier sent guidance to prosecutors and law-enforcement agencies. Some had already stopped enforcing the open-carry ban after Wednesday’s opinion.
Uthmeier said in an online post that no other Florida appellate courts had considered the constitutionality of the open-carry ban after two closely watched U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2022 and 2024. As a result, he said “the First District’s decision is binding on all Florida’s trial courts,”
A 1987 law made it a misdemeanor to visibly display guns, though exceptions existed, for example, for hunting. Floridians could carry concealed weapons.
