{"id":10469,"date":"2015-11-25T10:30:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T15:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=10469"},"modified":"2016-02-16T22:55:44","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T03:55:44","slug":"florida-open-carry-bills-in-the-legislature","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/?p=10469","title":{"rendered":"Florida Open Carry Bills in the Legislature"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1133\"<\/a>Imagine you are working road patrol in your uniform and marked squad car at the scene of an urban disturbance when you see a man walking up behind you on a crowded sidewalk.\u00a0 As he moves closer, you see he has a 9mm handgun in plain view, tucked into his waistband over his shirt.\u00a0 You make eye contact, but, despite your unease, you cannot stop and ask him about the pistol because that would be against the law<\/em>.\u00a0 Does this make sense?<\/p>\n

Under 2015 Senate Bill 300<\/a>, and its companion, House Bill 163<\/a>, open carry of firearms would be legal in Florida if the person possesses a state-issued concealed carry weapons license (CCW).\u00a0 Both bills, in their respective Judiciary Committees now, would result in a $5,000 fine and loss of qualified immunity for an officer to question that man about his gun in the above scenario. \u00a0A cop’s agency would suffer a $100,000 penalty.\u00a0 Fines are under 790.33 (3).<\/p>\n

The new legislation specifically prevents an LEO from “infringing” and asking the armed party if he or she possesses a CCW license, unless the officer has probable cause<\/em> to believe the person lacks a license.\u00a0 If I had p\/c, I wouldn’t have to ask.\u00a0 Current law mandates a CCW holder display his license when asked by law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Oh, and open carrying without a holster? \u00a0Not illegal under these bills, which offer no specifics for manner of carry. \u00a0I think this is a safety concern for those who would open carry and the innocents around them.<\/p>\n

An earlier draft of the legislation in SB 300 gave business owners the right to keep armed patrons from carrying on their premises. \u00a0That language was struck down in SB 300, to the chagrin of the Florida Retail Federation and Florida Chamber of Commerce, but is still included in HB 163.<\/p>\n

The NRA says that 45 states have open firearms carry without any problems, but that is an over-simplification.\u00a0 Some states require retention holsters. \u00a0Others allow open carry only in rural areas or with unloaded firearms or with other restrictions. \u00a0Florida’s new law would be particularly vague.<\/p>\n

Forty-seven Florida Sheriffs oppose SB 300 as it is currently written, as does the Fraternal Order of Police.\u00a0 Proponents include the NRA, Florida Carry, and the Florida Sportsman’s Association.<\/p>\n

If if ain’t broke, don’t fix it.\u00a0 I support the citizens of Florida being licensed to exercise their Second Amendment rights and carry concealed weapons.\u00a0 But I don’t think open carry makes us any safer or is a more effective deterrent to crime.\u00a0 Yes, I am an NRA member.<\/p>\n

I urge all law enforcement officers to monitor SB 300 and HB 163.\u00a0 Legislators and lobbyists will not be putting their lives on the line trying to guess whose gun is legal and whose is not out on the street.\u00a0 We will.<\/p>\n

Randall<\/p>\n

Update:\u00a0 Open Carry Bill is Dead.\u00a0 Read here.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Imagine you are working road patrol in your uniform and marked squad car at the scene of an urban disturbance when you see a man walking up behind you on a crowded sidewalk.\u00a0 As he moves closer, you see he has a 9mm handgun in plain view, tucked into his waistband over his shirt.\u00a0 You make eye contact, but, despite your unease, you cannot stop and ask him about the pistol because that would be against the law.\u00a0 Does this make sense? Under 2015 Senate Bill 300, and its companion, House Bill 163, open carry of firearms would be legal in Florida if the person possesses a state-issued concealed carry … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[34,6,5,407,4],"tags":[845,67,676],"class_list":["post-10469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-concealed-carry","category-firearms","category-legal","category-media","category-officer-safety","tag-ccw","tag-kahr-arms","tag-rdr-holsters"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28xkp-2IR","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10469"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10982,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10469\/revisions\/10982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thinblueflorida.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}