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Florida Carry Files Lawsuits Against City of Miami & Miami-Dade County To End Illegal Gun Control

Florida Carry

Florida - -(Ammoland.com)- On Monday October 31st, Florida Carry, Inc. will file lawsuits against the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County to end their unlawful gun control ordinances.

Since 1987 the Florida Legislature has preempted firearms law and issued statewide licenses to carry for self-defense. Since 1982 it has been legal for law abiding adults to keep a handgun in their glove-box or closed console without any licensing requirements.

Over the past year Florida Carry members and volunteers have worked with over 300 local jurisdictions to have unlawful gun control ordinances repealed and remove dangerous bans on our constitutionally protected right to a means of self-defense.

During the last legislative session HB 45 was passed to provide for the enforceability of Florida’s longstanding preemption of all firearms and ammunition laws. We are pleased to report that the vast majority of local governments have subsequently repealed their anti-gun laws and removed dangerous “No Firearms” signs. Just yesterday, state Representative Rick Kriseman (D – St. Petersburg) withdrew a bill that would have allowed Pinellas County to ignore state firearms laws without penalty. They wanted to be above the law but Florida gun owners won the day.

Despite our best efforts to educate city and county officials about the requirements of the firearms preemption law, some local leaders and bureaucrats have decided to test our resolve. Miami continues to demand that parents have no means to protect themselves and their children in public parks. The city even goes so far as to demand that law abiding people disarm during locally declared emergencies. New Orleans did the same thing after Hurricane Katrina. Gun owners were disarmed and left defenseless as lawlessness spread in the Hurricane’s aftermath. It was the largest gun grab in modern U.S. History and the City of Miami maintains an ordinance designed to allow it to do the same thing.

The Second Amendment was designed to protect your right to an effective means of self defense. This is especially important in places like parks, were crime happens often, and parents have a need to defend their families. During emergencies, when police agencies are often overwhelmed, the right to defend yourself is CRITICAL! The City of Miami and Miami-Dade County have both declared they can take your rights away at their whim in parks and even after a disaster.

Florida Carry works tirelessly to resolve these issues statewide and has been left with no option but to file these lawsuits. We will have a small meeting on Saturday, November 12th, at Miami-Dade’s Black Point Marina Park to enjoy a morning of Fishing and answer any questions about Florida Carry.

Florida Carry also has an ongoing case against the University of North Florida’s ban on University Students possessing firearms in campus parking lots. See our Litigation Page.

These cases are expensive to file and fight, our opponents have nearly unlimited funds and will attempt to burry us in these lawsuits.

We need your Voice! Please Join Florida Carry

About:
Florida Carry is a non-profit, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to advancing the fundamental civil right of all Floridians to keep and bear arms for self defense as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article I Section 8 of the Florida Constitution. Florida Carry, Inc. was organized by a group of Florida gun rights activists in order to better coordinate activities, effectively lobby the state legislature, and to provide a legal entity capable of filing suit to demand compliance with state and federal law. Florida Carry stands only to represent our members and the over 6 million gun owners of Florida. We are not beholden to any national organization’s agenda that may compromise that mission.
Florida Carry works tirelessly toward repealing and striking down ill-conceived gun control laws that have been proven to provide safe havens to criminals and be deadly to law abiding citizens.

Filed under: Gun Rights News by Ammoland 1 Comment »

Hunter Harvest Trickles In Across Western Montana

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks

MALTA, Mont. --(Ammoland.com)- West-central Montana check station totals were slow but steady for the first week of rifle season and showed a below average harvest for deer, alongside an above average elk harvest.

The above average elk harvest, according to Regional Wildlife Manager, Mike Thompson, is not consistent across all parts of the region. Elk numbers and hunter license opportunity are down in the southern reaches of the Bitterroot Valley, the northern Blackfoot Valley, and in much of the western part of the region, while the eastern parts of the region are at historic highs.

The Darby check station running total of 173 elk is on par with the five-year average, but a large proportion of these elk were harvested in southwestern Montana’s Big Hole Valley, not the Bitterroot districts. And elk hunting in the Blackfoot Valley is a mixed bag. Harvest totals reported at the Bonner check station are below the five-year average, but on par with last year.

Elk harvest has been strongest in the Upper Clark Fork near Deer Lodge and Anaconda, where elk populations are at all-time highs and hunting regulations have been liberalized accordingly.

Ray Vinkey, FWP biologist in the Upper Clark Fork, has already seen 44 elk through his check station near Anaconda this year. According to Vinkey, although the hunting season is only 25 percent complete, the elk harvest through Anaconda is already 66 percent of the total harvest for the 2010 season.

Thompson says that biologists are hoping to reach their desired hunter harvest in the Upper Clark Fork, but cautions that many of these elk are often concentrated on private lands, where hunters must have permission and exercise extra respect for the landowners.

“We really appreciate the landowners who are opening their lands to hunters this season,” says Thompson. “And we ask hunters to respect landowner rights and earn respect from the landowners in return.”

Harvest for mule deer and white-tailed deer is down from the long-term average in most parts of the region, due largely to a moderate decline in populations that has spurred tighter hunting regulations in many districts.

But that does not mean that hunters will not find deer in the usual spots.

“Our surveys show fewer deer overall across the region, but they are still in spots that hunters are used to finding them, and many will, especially once the snow starts to fly and the rut picks up even more.”

Biologists noted that the deer rut is beginning, and the Bonner and Darby check stations saw a few large bucks through this weekend as a result.

“We’ve checked a few very nice bucks through the Darby station, but overall our warm, dry conditions are keeping harvest slow,” said FWP Bitterroot biologist, Craig Jourdonnais. “Until conditions change to move the animals around and make them easier to track, we’re likely to see deer and elk just trickle through the check stations.”

Hunter check stations are also tallying the wolves that happen to pass through this season for the second time in Montana history. Hunters have taken 44 statewide since archery season opened Sept. 3, and 10 of those were harvested in west-central Montana’s Region 2. The state quota is set at 220 wolves, and hunters must report their wolf harvest within 12 hours.

Overall, during the first week of the season, nearly eight percent of hunters that passed through one of the region’s three hunter check stations harvested game. The stations tallied 5,593 hunters and a harvest of 266 elk, 47 mule deer, 124 white-tailed deer, three wolves and three black bears. During last year’s opening week 6,142 hunters reported 263 elk, 65 mule deer, and 146 white-tailed deer and six black bears.

Hunters are reminded that they must stop at all check stations that they pass on their way to or from hunting—even if they have not harvested any animals. The general rifle season for deer and elk runs through Sunday, Nov. 27.

Filed under: Hunting News by Ammoland No Comments »