Just over a month ahead of the start of Florida’s legislative session, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is urging Republican lawmakers to pass legislation legalizing the open carry of handguns.
On April 3, 2023, Breitbart News reported that DeSantis signed legislation making Florida the 26th constitutional carry state in the Union. However, unlike many of other constitutional carry states–the total of which is now 29–Florida’s law only applies to concealed carry. There is no Florida law allowing the open carry of handguns.
On August 5, 2024, Breitbart News noted that Gun Owners of America (GOA) filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, hammering Florida’s continued lack of an open carry provision.
GOA’s complaint said, in part:
This blatant infringement of the Second Amendment right to ‘bear arms’ runs counter to this nation’s historical tradition and would have criminalized the very colonists who openly carried their muskets and mustered on the greens at Lexington and Concord to fight for their independence.
Now DeSantis is on board with the push, reposting a video from GOA’s Luis Valdes calling for open carry:
Would be great to see it hit my desk — Florida needs to join the overwhelming majority of states and protect this right… https://t.co/IVB1lOwUEO
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) January 31, 2025
DeSantis’s wife, Casey, is also pushing for open carry. She used a post to X to say, “It’s time for the Free State of Florida to join other states in enacting open carry! Sounds like a great priority for our GOP supermajority. This is the year.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
