Hillsborough State Attorney's Office drops pending charges for openly displaying a firearm
TAMPA, Fla. - The State Attorney's Office of the 13th Judicial Circuit has dropped pending charges for openly displaying a firearm. It comes after a Florida appeals court recently ruled that an open carry ban is unconstitutional.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier told prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to refrain from arresting or putting on trial "law-abiding citizens carrying a firearm in a manner that is visible to others" as Florida courts couldn’t convict such people.
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The backstory:
Earlier this month, a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal last week ruled that a longstanding ban was unconstitutional.
Uthmeier sent guidance to prosecutors and law enforcement agencies, but some had already stopped enforcing the open-carry ban after Wednesday’s opinion.
Uthmeier said in an online post that no other Florida appellate courts had considered the constitutionality of the open-carry ban after two closely watched U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2022 and 2024. As a result, he said, "the First District’s decision is binding on all Florida’s trial courts."
PREVIOUS: Florida's attorney general says open carry is ‘law of the state’
A 1987 law made it a misdemeanor to visibly display guns, though exceptions existed, for example, for hunting. Floridians could carry concealed weapons.
What they're saying:
In Hillsborough County, State Attorney Suzy Lopez said pending charges for openly displaying a firearm have been dropped.
"In the about 43,000 cases that are being prosecuted this year by this office, only 14 carried that charge," Lopez said.
She said those were also not standalone charges, and that there are other charges associated with those cases.
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"This is not open carry, free for all for everybody," Lopez said. "This is for people who are legally allowed to have firearms."
The ruling doesn't change who can carry a gun.
"Kids with guns, never legal," Lopez said. "Convicted felons with guns, people who are subjects of domestic violence injunctions are never allowed to have a gun."
The ruling also doesn't change where you can carry guns. Some of the places people still aren't allowed to carry guns include courthouses, bars, the bar portion of restaurants and school property. Lopez said it's up to the owner's discretion on private property.
"And if that private property owner does not want someone to have a firearm on their property, that person's going be asked to leave," she said. "And if they don't leave, that's not only a trespassing, it's an armed trespassing. And so now, that person is facing a felony charge."
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Lopez said that, according to the law, you can't openly carry a gun in a "rude or reckless manner."
"Anyone who's carrying a gun and making any threats, they still, people still have to listen to law enforcement officers," she said. "And if they're doing something that is putting others at harm, or they are being reckless, they have to listen to law-enforcement officers."
Dig deeper:
Freddy Barton, the executive director of Safe and Sound Hillsborough, said this ruling heightens the responsibility of gun owners.
"Some people might look at you as a potential victim, and they may try to take that away from you," he said. "And some people may not necessarily be disciplined enough to make sure that when they aren't using that firearm or when they aren't carrying that firearm, that they're securing it properly."
Safe and Sound Hillsborough works with a lot of youth offenders. Barton said children are continuing to get their hands on guns at a rapid rate.
"Please, don't let this be an excuse for ignorance," he said.
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Barton said people still need to stay vigilant to help prevent guns from getting into the hands of people who shouldn't have them.
"We're not against guns," Barton said. "We're not against the right to carry. We're the decisions that people make to pick up firearms in response to anger, frustration. As we see what's happened in our nation over the past few weeks, we have got to understand that we have to pause, we have to think, we have be protective of ourselves, but also make sure that we secure firearms so people and individuals that should not get their hands on them, won't do so."
The Source: The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13's Kylie Jones.