Falsely Accused Florida Man Has Gun Rights Restored

Arrest Shows NY Authorities Rather Home Owners be Disarmed than Defended
Falsely Accused Florida Man Gets Gun Rights Restored

Osceola, FL-(Ammoland.com)- Earlier this week AmmoLand reported on the case of Jonathan Carpenter of Osceola, FL who lost his gun rights due to mistaken identity.

Carpenter received a letter from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs notifying him they had suspended his concealed handgun permit due to domestic violence. This charge came as a shock to him.

The Florida Department of Agriculture told him to go to the clerk of the circuit court and get a form stating that there wasn’t any type of order against him. The clerk told him there was a restraining order against him, and he needed to speak to the Sheriff.

The Sheriff supplied the restraining order. He did not match the description of the man at all. The Sheriff told him he had to turn in his guns and wait for the court date so the woman could verify it wasn’t him.

AmmoLand reported the story and started to get picked up by other publications. Gun rights organizations such as Gun Owners of America and Florida Carry began to get involved to help out Carpenter.

Hank Strange, who brought the story to AmmoLand, started advocating for Carpenter on his show. A sympathetic Captain in the police department decided to help out the Marine veteran. He took it upon himself to take a picture of Carpenter and had another officer bring it to the woman who took out the restraining order.

The woman confirmed to the police that they had the wrong Jonathan Edward Carpenter. The Sheriff’s Department quickly was able to get the restraining order removed from the father and husband.

The Sheriff’s Department was apologetic towards Carpenter. He told AmmoLand that the Sheriff owned up to the mistake and was quick to fix the issue. He thanked the Sheriff’s Department for fixing the problem with the restraining order.

His guns were safe from confiscation, but the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs still had his concealed handgun permit suspended. They told Carpenter it would take up to eight weeks to get his permit restored. They were able to suspend the permit immediately but claimed it would take two months to restore his rights.

The Captain contacted the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs to try to push the restoration of the permit through the system. AmmoLand also contacted the Department to find out how the mistake happened and how they were going to prevent mistakes like this from happening in the future.

Florida Carry also started to get more involved in the case. Florida Carry has a history of battling the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs. With all the pressure being applied to them the Department restored Carpenter’s permit.

The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs has a history of questionable actions against gun owners. Democrat Nikki Fried is the Commissioner of the Department and is known for being anti-gun. She won the position by a margin of 0.08% over Republican Matt Caldwell.

The Executive Director at Florida Carry, Sean C. Caranna, sees cases like Carpenter’s as a growing problem in the Sun Shine State.

“Every day, the Department of Agriculture sends over a list of everyone they think shouldn’t have a CCW,” Caranna told AmmoLand. “There is no due diligence. They make these decisions with no evidence. If people have a right taken away, then they need to have due process. This is something new we are seeing with the Department of Agriculture. They are not doing to their job. They need to answer for it.”

To many situations like Carpenter’s case shows how the state could misapply red flag laws to be able to disarm their citizens. Seventeen states have Extreme Risk Protection Orders on the books, and there is a push to have a federal red flag law. This prospect scares Gun Owners of America’s Senior Vice President Erich Pratt.

“This is good news,” Pratt told AmmoLand. “The fact that Jonathan Carpenter was able to get his concealed carry permit restored so quickly — and avoid having his guns confiscated in the first place — underscores how important ‘due process’ protections are.”

“Right now, there are many in Congress who want to shove Red Flag gun confiscation orders down the “throats” of the states. But these laws would allow guns to be confiscated from law-abiding gun owners, without any due process whatsoever. No appearing before a judge … no having your attorney present … no trial by jury — none of these protections would apply before police confiscate firearms from honest gun owners.”

“GOA is grateful that ‘due process’ allowed a case of mistaken identity from resulting in a horrible tragedy.”

AmmoLand spoke to Nikki Fried’s Press Secretary, Max Flugrath. Flugrath told AmmoLand that he is looking into the situation and will respond to AmmoLand as soon as he can.

As of this writing, AmmoLand has not received any additional information from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs.


About John CrumpJohn Crump

John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.

John Crump
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Donttreadonme

Gives us your guns immediately or we will kick your door in, shoot your dog, your wife and you too at 3am.

Oops, wrong house, sorry, gonna cost you thousands of dollars and a year or more to get your stuff back that we stole.

Huapakechi

If you live.

Nanashi

” She won the position by a margin of 0.08% over Republican Matt Caldwell.”

Something people need to remember to blame RIck Scott for. If he was competent and removed the Broward county supervisor caught red handed commiting voter fraud in 2016, Caldwell would be ag commisioner. Instead Rick Scott only removed her when she interfered with HIS election. Scott is a selfish scumbag.

Huapakechi

***Scott is a selfish scumbag.***

You expect better from a professional politician?

JPM

Good example of why we shouldn’t depend upon any government agency for concealed carry; slow to issue, quick to deny or cancel and slow to fix their own screw-ups. Here in Arizona, as a resident, I can carry open or concealed without any government permission, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be when it comes to an inalienable (Constitutional) right, any of them.

RayJN

You need to check the law. Constitutional carry does not include the 1000 ft school zone ban(as of 4 years ago),( I was coerced into moving to WI). In Phoenix there are very few place not within 1000 ft of a school. Several years ago a guy was busted on a street in Tempe. Turned out it was owned by ASU.

Stripeseven

The issuing party is the one that needs to be held accountable for attempting to Deprive any American Citizens of their right to due process. TITLE 18, U.S.C., SECTION 242 says that is a federal crime.

hippybiker

Florida law says a permit must be approved or rejected within 30 days. Slick Niki has been abusing this policy as well as others. Also,FDLE has been illegally adding provisions on background checks for CCW holders. Also, against the law. These rouges need to be reined in!

Dave C

It took 4 months to get mine in Texas – first they said they never got an uploaded file, then another one 2 weeks later, even thought they were all uploaded when I first filed. They didn’t even tell me there was a problem, per their procedure. Then they started the process all over again….. It is my understanding a Dem heads this group too.

Huapakechi

Having a duplicate set of those documents submitted as well as demanding a signed receipt often works to end that sort of chicanery.

Huapakechi

Elected officials and bureaucrats are adept at ignoring laws they don’t like, and reinterpreting to their agenda all existing laws.
When there’s no consequences, don’t expect those in power to change their behaviors, especially when they have sovereign immunity or some other legal protections.
They depend on the ignorance of the public, and the fact that we have to earn a living in addition to fighting the “pubik skuul sistum” as well as the local and state bureaucracy.

moe mensale

Florida law is 90 days, not 30 days, to issue or deny a carry license.

FS 790.06(6)(c)

https://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2019/0790.06

Idaho Bob

What in the hell does the Department of Agriculture have anything to do with firearms?

FlaBoy

Full name of the dept is The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. The concealed carry permits fall under the latter part. As the article stated, the new head of the department is an anti-gun liberal, voted in by the big city people. She actually ran on that platform. Knows nothing about ag…all she knows is food comes from the grocery store wrapped in plastic. She appointed one of her anti-gun cronies to head the dept handling concealed weapons permits. I’m in North Florida, which is still largely rural, but we are becoming a minority in our own state, as… Read more »

hippybiker

FlaBoy. I ca:e here 10 years ago from the Sh!tcago area. I ha=e a CCW and used to hold 2 FFLs. I left the IL crap in IL An day never looked back!

moe mensale

Florida’s carry license program was previously overseen by the Secretary of State, which was an elected office. In 2003 the Secretary of State became an appointed office. The carry license program was then transferred to the Commissioner of Agriculture which was still an elected office. The intent was to keep the carry license program accountable under an elected state officer and minimize any political influence. Unfortunately, it only works until you elect an anti-gunner to the position.

Vern

Has this story reached the White House, it could be the one that makes the president backtrack on red flag laws.

Whodaty

Demagogues are everywhere just waiting for a chance to pounce in the vulnerable. This is why we need to heed the Constitution our forefathers so carefully crafted. They had just survived the very situations that inspired that crafting, and understood from first hand experience what the alternative consequences could be. We are a nation of laws. Hopefully the laws are well considered, constitutional, and properly enforced.

Iwiblackout

That’s jacked up he could of lost his job.

MB

The Sheriff’s Department did the right thing, helping a former Marine restore his good name, and the Sheriff’s Department did it quickly and apologized for the error. The bureaucrat at the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs needs to be reprimand and terminated. If they can remove the LTC in a instant, they need to restore it in the same manner when an error occurs, doing it in 8 weeks is a violation of civil rights and federal charges should be filed.

NOC7CORP

Florida is getting to be real dangerous. With that new bill they are trying to get on the voting ballot next year. If that gets passed no one will be allowed to own firearms anymore. They are trying to change the Florida constitution. They are doing the same thing they did with the bump fire stock bill. Sooner or later we may see a time where we have to put the second ammendment into reality.

moe mensale

“If that gets passed no one will be allowed to own firearms anymore.”

Really? Have you even read the proposed ballot amendment? It’s a proposal that will ban virtually every semi-automatic firearm. While that is obviously a very bad thing and I sincerely hope it dies, it doesn’t affect non-semi-automatic firearms.

You certainly have a flair for the dramatic. Chicken Little much?

Ej harbet

In the world of the ar15 and glock florida will enjoy cowboy guns for defense!
Said only idiots!

Jonesy

Right !! When the phone don’t ring you will know it is Max Fudd.

tomcat

I’m glad to hear this got corrected. It could have headed the wrong direction because a bureaucrat is involved. If there was a democrat in the governor’s office it might still be headed the wrong way. It seems Fla. has more than their share of democrats that think they can write the laws the way they want them. Time to take out the trash.

Wallace C

What the F* does FL Dept of Agriculture have to do with 2A rights? More bureaucratic government over reach in a supposedly Red State!

moe mensale

Your answer is in Idaho Bob’s post.

seekingGodsWill

Nikki Fried is a total narcissist opportunist. She even replaced the seal of the department that is placed on gas pumps with her own photo. The weekly emails from the department are all about Nikki. And yes, she is very anti-2nd Amendment.
Unfortunately there were several Republican candidates for the commissioner position to be filled when the previous commissioner was term-limited. Few people knew anything about the guy that won the primary and endorsements were lacking. This was a total fail for Floridians.

Vanns40

And who is the Commander In Chief in promoting “Red Flag” laws? Yup, President Trump! Anyone who believes him when he says he supports the Second Amendment is delusional.