Florida Court Shatters Open Carry Ban: A Second Amendment Earthquake

Florida just detonated a legal bombshell in the gun rights world. A state appeals court has ruled that Florida’s decades-old ban on open carry is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, throwing out a citizen’s conviction and declaring statute 790.053 invalid. For the first time in nearly 40 years, Floridians are staring at the reality of lawful open carry.

The case, McDaniels v. State of Florida, reads like something ripped from a civics lesson. On July 4, 2022, in Pensacola, a man stood at an intersection waving the U.S. Constitution with a holstered pistol in plain view. He wasn’t brandishing, threatening, or acting disorderly—just exercising what he believed to be his right. Instead, he was arrested under Florida’s 1987 open carry ban, convicted, and left to fight his way through the courts.

This week, the First District Court of Appeal flipped that script. The judges applied the U.S. Supreme Court’s trilogy—Heller (2008), McDonald (2010), and Bruen (2022)—and concluded Florida’s ban couldn’t survive the new “text, history, and tradition” test. The state failed to prove any historical basis for a blanket prohibition on peaceable open carry. In fact, the court pointed to 19th-century precedent showing the opposite: open carry was considered the protected default, while concealed carry was the part legislatures often restricted.

That’s not just a technical win—it’s a cultural earthquake. Florida, long considered “Gunshine State” for its concealed carry permits, was one of just a handful of states that outlawed open carry. Now it joins the vast majority of the country where the right to carry openly is recognized.

The ruling isn’t final-final yet. Standard appellate language allows for motions for rehearing, and the case could still draw further appeals. But Florida’s own Attorney General, James Uthmeier, has already declared the ban unenforceable statewide and endorsed the decision as a victory for Second Amendment rights.

The implications stretch far beyond the Panhandle. Courts nationwide are increasingly rejecting modern “public safety” arguments that lack historical roots. Bruen’s test is rewriting the legal landscape, and Florida’s reversal underscores how fragile gun control statutes become when stripped of judicial balancing and forced to stand on history alone.

For gun owners, this isn’t just a legal curiosity—it’s a chance to reconsider how we exercise the right to bear arms in public. For Second Amendment advocates, it’s fuel for a national movement proving that challenges once thought impossible can succeed.

Key Takeaways:

• Florida now joins the overwhelming majority of states where open carry is recognized as a constitutional right.

• Bruen’s “text, history, tradition” test continues to dismantle modern gun control laws lacking historical grounding.