U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Florida House Speaker Paul Renner, R-Palm Court, along with sponsors from the House and Senate, introduced HB 543 Monday morning, a “Constitutional Carry” bill that Renner said gets “rid of the need for a government permission slip” to carry a concealed handgun.
The lawmakers were accompanied by Hernando County Sheriff Al Nienhuis, president of the Florida Sheriff’s Association, and other Florida Sheriff’s.
The bill, which has also been described as “unlicensed concealed carry” removes the requirement for Floridians to obtain a Concealed Weapon Firearm License, or CWFL, before carrying a concealed handgun. The bill does not change the prohibitions or exceptions for open carry in the state.
“We don’t operate in a vacuum. What’s happening in our society now is Defund the Police 2.0,” Renner said. “I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my history on earth that we’ve needed the right to keep and bear arms more than now.”
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey thanked Renner and the bill’s sponsors for the legislation.
“This bill is an important piece of legislation for our citizens to have the ability to protect themselves. Criminals don’t go get a permit,” Ivey said. “Florida Sheriffs stand solidly behind this.”
Bill sponsor Senator Jay Collins, R-Tampa, an Army Special Forces veteran, described the legislation as a “monumental moment” and a “major breakthrough for our freedom.”
“My very first lesson as a Green Beret was that it is incumbent on each of us to leave things better than we found them,” Collins said. “We will take a monumental step to ensure that government does not interfere with a law-abiding citizen’s ability to protect their family.”
Bill sponsor Rep. Chuck Brannan, R-Macclenny, said the bill won’t change “who can and cannot carry a gun.”
CWFLs, he said, will still be available for Floridians who travel out-of-state and want reciprocity.
“People don’t have to carry if they don’t want to. This is a constitutional right people have,” Brannan said. “Criminals are getting guns anyway. They don’t care what the law says. We’re only giving law-abiding citizens a simple way to get a firearm. It’s only fitting that citizens of the freest state in the nation be given the right to constitutional carry.”
Read the Related: Why Did Florida Constitutional Carry Fail Again?
About Florida Carry, Inc.:
Florida Carry is a Florida nonprofit, non-partisan, grassroots organization founded in 2010. Florida Carry is 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 the Constitution of Florida. In 2016 Florida Carry was named the Grassroots Organization of the Year by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Florida Carry, Inc. was organized 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 to represent our members, millions of gun owners, and the countless knife and defensive weapon carriers of Florida. We are not beholden to any national organization’s agenda that may compromise that mission. Florida Carry is the state’s largest independent second amendment advocacy organization.
Florida is on the same rights plan as Texas. It’s viewed as a big gun rights state (the gunshine state) but in reality they have a lot of infringement and a lot of Republican Butters and Fudds who tend to enact more gun control. Liberty legislation is introduced every session and it always gets thrown in the trash. Every few years these Fudds pass some dumb legislation like this and all it amounts to is giving the peasants some morsel of their rights back so they keep voting for these Butters and Fudds.
The actual Federal Constitution does not tell you how to carry. For Florida to exclude open carry from your carry repertoire belies their intent to Infringe.
HLB
Thumbs up for a positive step toward restoring God-given rights to Florida citizens but personally, I think they should change the name of the bill. It’s misleading to call it “Constitutional” Carry, when it still does not legalize law-abiding citizens’ right to open carry as well. It’s more like a “Free Concealed Carry” bill. Open carry has been legal in Ohio for years. I’ve never practiced it, but it’s comforting to know that should I decide to do so, I can’t be arrested for it. I read an article a couple years ago about a man in Florida who possessed… Read more »
Good luck to the good people of Florida but Ron Desantis is a chameleon that denied people with CCWs the right to carry at his fund raiser . If you believe the clown is a strong second amendment supporter you better think again. He panders for votes with deception like most politicians. His action at his fund raiser speaks volumes about his stance on constitution carry . Beware Floridians he is a chamelion posing rattle snake !
More lip service from DeSantis. That’s all this is.
Yet another bill people are calling constitutional carry that isn’t.
The problem here in Florida regarding open carry is, we get a lot of “Snow Turds” from the North East States, and they would get freaked out!
it’s an unfortunate “Catch 22” but our economies depend largely on the “Tourist Trade.” I wish it wasn’t so but that’s life!
The reason you won’t see open carry in Florida is because of the tourists and snow birds, they make up a huge portion of the state’s revenue. They all come down from states with stricter firearms laws and from Canada. This is only to placate to them so they don’t have to see those “nasty people with guns” while they are on their holiday. As for DeSantis not allowing CC at a political event there are 2 points. 1. DeSantis has no control over the security at these events, FDLE (Florida Department Of Law Enforcement) does. Just like the President… Read more »
Can the blue line gang demand to see my ID during consensual encounters without RAS just so they can determine that I am not a felon carrying a concealed weapon?
I guess what ticks me off is the title of the bill, this is not constitutional carry. What this is an attempt to make the politicians look good. It does not! Either we get true CC or nothing, this is not negotiable. This is just one more reason why I will not vote for Desantis for President. We have to hold their feet to the fire on this one.