No one is issued a GLOCK when they move to Florida. Unfortunately. Florida’s state gun laws are good, but not that good, at least not yet.
The Gunshine State only recently legalized open carry, which was decades overdue. However, it was never passed by our state lawmakers and was never signed by the governor into law. Instead, Florida’s gun community legalized open-carry without the help of lawmakers.
After open carry became law, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier quickly warned all state prosecutors and every state law enforcement agency about the case, McDaniels v. State, in which the First District Court of Appeal struck down Florida’s ban on the open carry of arms. The Attorney General also told the they should “refrain from arresting or prosecuting law-abiding citizens carrying a firearm in a manner that is visible to others.”
Most cities have reacted well to the new law. However, there were a few Democratic strongholds scattered throughout the state that didn’t take the change well at all. Their reactions may have violated the law.
The City of Sarasota went absolutely bonkers at the prospect of their citizens openly carrying arms. Sarasota’s city commission is strongly Democratic and has a history of being very frightened by guns, gun rights, and especially the Second Amendment.
A city commission meeting held last Thursday was attended by three Sarasota police officers and the chief of police. The officers wore ballistic vests with hard body armor. Two of the officers carried ARs, but not a single citizen openly carried a firearm during the meeting.
So, who ordered the officers to attend the meeting with their vests and ARs? That would be Sarasota Police Chief Rex Troche.
Contacted Monday, Chief Troche said that while he remains very concerned and his officers plan to continue to monitor guns at public meetings, though he may reduce the presence of “heavily armed officers.”
“We respect the Second Amendment and want people to know their rights and adhere to the law,” Chief Troche said. It doesn’t appear that the chief knew how close he came to violating someone’s civil rights.
Compare the city of Sarasota’s reaction to that of Sarasota County, which is overseen by Sheriff Kurt Hoffman—one of the most ardent Second Amendment defenders in the country. At a recent Sarasota county commission meeting, there were no changes made because of the new open-carry law. The two deputies who attended the meeting wore no body armor, carried no long guns, and were just as jovial as ever.
Takeaways
Sending the police chief along with three officers wearing ballistic plates and armed with carbines to a public meeting because someone may choose to legally exercise their Second Amendment rights is completely wrong if not illegal. Local law enforcement leaders don’t get to decide whether citizens can access a federal civil right. The last time they tried it was the 1960s, and a few police officials lost their jobs and several went to federal prison.
Then, like now, law enforcement justified their illegal acts by claiming they were only trying to “keep order” and “preserve the peace.” The truth is, law enforcement broke the law because its leaders were scared, just as they are now. Sarasota and anti-gun cities like it should be very, very careful.
The Second Amendment has been a constitutional right since 1791. If local leaders try to prevent someone from exercising their constitutional rights, they may soon find themselves in front of a federal judge and jury explaining why they decided it was okay to violate someone’s constitutional rights.
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This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.
All the local no kingers were shouting about the militarized police state Rx Douche was creating, right?
“The truth is, law enforcement broke the law because its leaders were scared, just as they are now. ”
Orrrr…the anti-gun left wingers were doing one of their faux ‘drama queen’ skits trying to scare people into siding with them. After all, they would say, ‘Our professional law enforcement is so scared and you should be too.’ right before they scream ‘ban guns’.
You now how dramatic they like to get, ya know, like the “rivers of blood in the streets” thing.
Think about it. When it was just concealed carry for law abiding did the cops there act this way even they knew people had guns in public? The only difference here is its also open carry for law abiding and makes not one bit of difference as possession is still possession be it open or conceal carry.
Personally, I’d be worried about the cops more than anything in this case. I mean, over reacting is not a good look and does not give a sense of confidence in their abilities that they would not imagine something else was happening and over react there too. If you feed people, even police officers, the narrative that a danger exists where none exists there will be some of them that will imagine and believe they see a danger where none exists.
“We respect the Second Amendment and want people to know their rights and adhere to the law,”
But coming to a peaceful public gathering armed and decked out like that its not the message they were sending. The message they sent was meant to intimidate and say “We really want to kill you because you are exercising your constitutional right and we do not like you doing it.”, which oddly enough is a pretty standard far left wing thing and was more recently demonstrated more violently with the murder of Charlie Kirk. That’s a defining trait of the left wing, if they do not like what you do, or they want you to do something else and you don’t, they feel they have a right to use force to intimidate you into not doing it or stop you (with force) from doing it.
Sarasota needs a less girly-man CoP
What were the details from the 1960s?
Interesting that the law struck down originally was to protect lynch mobs. There was an incident in 1893 when the Legislature passed the law where a lynch mob showed at the jail in Jacksonville. They were met by a crowd of black men with repeating rifles (the assault weapon of those years) and pistols. Lynch mob remembered a more pressing appointment elsewhere.
I have a CCW in Florida, and one of the things I learned in class was that firearms are prohibited in state buildings, courthouses, schools, and any meeting of a government body. Did that change with the open carry ruling?
I wonder if they’ll continue with the “Oh, you’ve got a gun? You need to surrender it to me while we talk – for MY safety.” Which has already been ruled as unconstitutional – my second amendment rights are not terminated by close proximity of a LEO.