As a gun owner in Florida, I grew up with the mantra, “concealed means concealed.” Meaning that if a place banned the carrying of firearms, but is legal under the law, what they don’t know won’t hurt them.
That was the way things were (and still are frequently) done. I recall plenty of places that had signs stating they were a gun-free zone. But the thing about Florida is those signs don’t carry the weight of law. We just shrugged and kept right on carrying.
It was much like the street corner and the brown paper bag. Public drinking is illegal. But a civic compromise was made. As long as an adult beverage was in a brown paper bag, there was no issue. The authorities looked the other way as long as the guy on the street corner holding the brown paper bag wasn’t acting the fool.
That’s been the way of things regarding concealed carry. Corporate establishments like Dadeland Mall in Miami or even Disney used to post signage stating they’re gun-free zones. But as long as you were civilized and didn’t act the fool, they didn’t care if you carried…as long as they didn’t know about it.
Prior to the pandemic, I carried multiple times at what is now Disney Springs, back when it was originally known as Pleasure Island and later, Downtown Disney. That was all legal at the time, of course.
Because I was a permitted license holder and while they had signs, they never checked me, told me to secure my piece, or told me outright that I wasn’t allowed to carry there.
With the pandemic, that all came to an end. Disney turned the area to Disney Springs and they closed off all the various pedestrian paths that allowed you to simply walk in and enjoy. You now have to go through a screening location for “public health” screenings.
Part of that is a weapons check. But it isn’t a standard metal detection system. Oh no, it was a fancy new AI driven system called Evolv Express.
I bring this up because it isn’t just Disney any more that’s using this kind of scrutiny of the public. As a gun owner, I’m seeing these systems spring up everywhere. Local governments are getting trigger happy with them. In fact, the City of Orlando has set up a similar system on public streets, screening law-abiding people who are simply going about their business.
The Mayor of Orlando says that the system is “voluntary” and complained about Florida’s state preemption laws that restricts him from declaring the entire city a gun-free zone. But in reality, when the system was enacted, it was enacted wasn’t voluntary at all. If you wanted to enter the downtown Orlando area, you had to walk through the checkpoints and be scanned.
I take that as a huge affront to my Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights. Orlando Police now have a reason to stop you if you trip their system and they want to determine if you’re carrying legally.
This is what our future is becoming…places where you’re recorded, scanned, digitally analyzed, cataloged, and electronically searched without any practical consent. The days of concealed actually being concealed are increasingly over.
With the United States Supreme Court stating that you and I have the inalienable right to keep and bear arms outside of the home, gun-grabbers have thrown anything and everything against the wall in an attempt to see what will stick constitutionally regarding limits on the right to keep and bear arms. We’ve seen New York practically declare all of the outdoors a gun-free zone, including Times Square.
But since forever, people had the mindset that “concealed means concealed” and kept right on carrying while not drawing attention to themselves. As technology and AI become cheaper and more widely available, that will be coming to an end. Expect more and more locations to electronically violate your personal space, track you and possibly even have you banned from locations you used to visit freely.
Private property owners, of course, have that right. City and other government entities can expect court challenges based on violations of state preemption laws, where applicable, not to mention individuals’ civil rights.
The goal here, of course, is to ensure that more people are disarmed more of the time. This will also inevitably lead to more gun thefts as individuals are forced to disarm and store guns in their cars in order to enter certain venues. Criminals are smart enough to know that people entering and leaving those well-established “gun-free” zones will be disarmed and make easy targets, as will their vehicles.
This currently is likely our future as the Fourth Amendment gently weeps. If you want to minimize this, be loud now with local businesses and government authorities and tell them you oppose this.
13 Responses
{Security scanner on a public street}
“…In fact, the City of Orlando has set up a similar system on public streets,”
What the actual fvck? City streets in Florida are not private places that can ban firearm carry.
I just might have to go on a little trip in downtown Orlando in the very near future to see what happens if I refuse…
(BTW, Luis, linking a paywalled news article isn’t cool… 🙁 )
OK, from what I have been able to determine, those legal to carry will still be able to carry, it’s not a blanket ban of all concealed carry firearms…
Pretty sure it’s just a metal detector with a brain that can differentiate thickness, determine shapes and possibly alloy so it won’t hit on keys or coins but rather guns and knives.
You wouldn’t be carrying anyplace with a standard detector anyway so the issue isn’t some fancy scifi super tech but that more places are going to use metal detectors at more entrances.
I’d like to see cops stopping everyone detected carrying to check legality because if simply carrying can justify a stop then cops should be pulling over EVERY car to make sure the driver is in compliance. Though I’m sure realtime plate and face scanning at every intersection will soon be checking license, reg, insurance, taxes, warrants, grocery lists, phone call history, email inbox and your most recent bowel movement. For your safety of course. Government only wants to live you and care for you.
“Though I’m sure realtime plate and face scanning at every intersection will soon be checking license, reg, insurance, taxes, warrants, grocery lists, phone call history, email inbox and your most recent bowel movement. For your safety of course. Government only wants to live you and care for you.”
The murder rate today is less than one-half what it was in 1990, nation-wide. I’m convinced the biggest reason for that is that it’s a whole lot harder today to literally get away with murder. Think about it, with cameras *everywhere* and traceable ‘digital fingerprints’, it’s nearly impossible today to sneak out of the house late one night, cap some asshole who desperately needs it, and get away with it…
Most of the way there in NYC. My way is spread out enough that the licence plate reader locations are mostly known and the stingrays are easy to find if you know how to look.
“Pretty sure it’s just a metal detector with a brain that can differentiate thickness, determine shapes and possibly alloy so it won’t hit on keys or coins but rather guns and knives.”
Partially correct. Basically (in plain english to avoid the technical explaination); It detects metal – then when it does it uses ‘AI’ to figure the ‘boundary of the metal’ from its internal arrays of ‘sensors that take a sort of snap shot of the detected metal’, from that the ‘AI’ derives a generalized ‘shape picture’ then matches that ‘shape picture’ to a ‘database’ to determine if its a gun (or knife) or not.
Utterly off-topic, but of interest to those in tornado country –
Ever seen a tornado made of maybe 5 or more sub-tornadoes in one tornado bundle ‘rope’?
Me neither, but mesmerizing to watch, fresh from Iowa :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_ZDVYzIhgc
The firearm being worn in the picture was not concealed. That is why it was recognized,
“The firearm being worn in the picture was not concealed. That is why it was recognized,”
not really.
Basically (in plain english to avoid the technical explanation); It detects metal – then when it does it uses ‘AI’ to figure the ‘boundary of the metal’ from its internal arrays of ‘sensors that take a sort of snap shot of the detected metal’, from that the ‘AI’ derives a generalized ‘shape picture’ then matches that ‘shape picture’ to a ‘database’ to determine if its a gun (or knife) or not.
Wonder how steel wool lining would play out.
“Wonder how steel wool lining would play out.”
I suspect it would work long enough for them to re-program it to trigger on large, indistinct blobs of reflective materiel.
Your idea is interesting, I just may test in a few weeks on those very scanners in downtown Orlando…
I wonder if wrapping around a plastic/rubber dummy knife or gun would work. Also just randomly having patches of steel wool in various locations would confuse enough to trigger an investigation. I know a small fold out umbrella in the pocket of my hoodie was enough to trigger something like this.
“Private property owners, of course, have that right. ”
No they don’t, you open to the public then you serve the public, and your property rights dont trump my Constitutional rights so stuff your hippie libertarian BS