New Florida Bill Diminishes State’s Firearm Preemption Statute

Florida’s strong firearm pre-emption law could be significantly undermined if House Bill 651 is passed into law. 

On March 18, 2025, the Housing, Agriculture & Tourism Subcommittee held a hearing on this legislation. In an email to its supporters, pro-gun advocacy organization Florida Carry has argued that HB 651 “attempts to weaken firearm law preemption, specifically targeting Sec. 790.33, which was designed to hold state agencies accountable for enforcing firearm laws.” HB 651 has a companion bill in the Florida State Senate, Senate Bill 700. 

In essence, the bill amends the process for assessing civil fines and attorney fees connected to local ordinances or regulations that undermine the state’s exclusive power to regulate firearms and ammunition. Specifically, civil fines and attorney fees can only be assessed under the following circumstances: 

• If the entity received notice of the local ordinance or regulation at least 30 days before a lawsuit was filed.
• If the entity failed to change the ordinance, regulation, measure, directive, rule, enactment, order, or policy within that 30-day period.

Additionally, this provision aims to give local entities a grace period to correct any potentially preempted firearms regulations before penalties are imposed on them. Overall, these modifications to the firearms preemption law appear to weaken the immediate punitive aspects of the state’s preemption law while still maintaining the state’s overall authority over firearms regulation.

Florida has a strong firearm preemption law. In 1987, the Florida state legislature passed a law that stripped counties and municipalities of the ability to regulate firearms and ammunition. The Florida State Legislature added teeth to the law in 2011 to enable the recovery of fines, litigation costs, and fees. The law also grants the state government the power to remove local politicians and bureaucrats who break this law when they decide to impose local gun control ordinances and regulations. 

Under this preemption law, if a local government entity such as a city council or county commission attempt to craft their own gun control measures, the preemption statute allows the state government to remove members of these bodies from office and slap them with a $5,000 fine, which has to be paid out of their pocket as opposed to taxpayers being put on the hook. Further, local governments can be on the hook for damages of up to $100,000 in addition to uncapped attorney’s fees. 

However, the potential passage of HB 651 could open the door for Florida’s preemption law to be gutted in the long-term. Florida Carry understands the implications of such a bill and has naturally opposed it. They have a long history of being embroiled in legal battles with the Florida political establishment over attempts to weaken the state’s preemption law. 

For example, former Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried, a staunch advocate of gun control, teamed up with a coalition of liberal municipalities in 2021 to petition the Florida Supreme Court to hear their lawsuit to undermine the state’s preemption statute. The lawsuit was part of a legal onslaught against the preemption statute. At the time, Fried and company were requesting the Florida Supreme Court shield them from any penalties they might incur for defying the preemption statute. They were not challenging the statute per se, only the penalties, arguing that these penalties are unconstitutional since local lawmakers don’t want to be fined or removed from office for illegally implementing their own gun control measures.

The gun control crowd’s fantastical legal ploy would thankfully be scuttled by a three-judge panel of Florida’s First District Court of Appeals. The panel issued a ruling in 2021 in the case Florida v. City of Weston, ruling that the contested penalties for violating the state’s preemption law are both lawful and enforceable. These penalties, as established by the amendment to state law in 2011, can be applied to both government bodies and individual officials. Furthermore, the Florida Supreme Court reinforced the appellate court’s ruling when it issued an opinion in early 2023 rejecting the Fried coalition’s legal efforts to eliminate the penalties outlined in the state’s strict preemption law. 

Florida gun owners were able to catch a break at the time. However, they now face a new challenge in HB 651. The campaign to erode gun rights is indeed a bipartisan endeavor. Florida gun owners would be wise to keep tabs on this legislation. Should it pass, it could embolden anti-gun demagogues in local governments to create a patchwork of anti-gun jurisdictions across the Sunshine State. From there, they could obtain their Holy Grail of completely gutting Florida’s preemption law. 

Oftentimes, the biggest power grabs start out small. To deny the gun controllers a major victory in the long-term, Florida gun owners should follow Florida Carry’s lead and categorically reject HB 651. 

About José Niño

José Niño is a freelance writer based in Austin, Texas. You can contact him via Facebook and X/Twitter. Subscribe to his Substack newsletter by visiting “Jose Nino Unfiltered” on Substack.com.