Politics & Government
‘Open Carry' Is Now On The Table As Permitless Carry Bill Goes To The House Floor
The permitless/"constitutional" carry bill has been moving its way through the Florida Legislature over the past month.
March 21, 2023
The permitless/”constitutional” carry bill that has been moving its way through the Florida Legislature over the past month has been dominated by gun rights supporters pushing Republican legislators to add an “open carry” provision to the proposal – which is the visible carrying of a firearm.
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Those Second Amendment supporters have been stymied however, by Republican leadership – who has made it known that it wasn’t likely to be added to the permitless carry bill – this year.
But Tuesday, Hillsborough County Republican Mike Beltran filed an amendment to the proposal in the House (HB 543) that calls for allowing open carry in Florida.
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A permitless carry bill would repeal the current state law that requires an individual who purchases a firearm to get a permit, which entails completing a firearms safety and training course, pay a licensing fee and provide a full set of fingerprints to the state. That’s the law in 25 other states around the country.
But Second Amendment supporters say that it’s not a “true constitutional carry bill” because it does not allow for openly carrying visible firearms in public. Some of those advocates have told GOP lawmakers in committee meetings that they oppose the bill without the open carry provision. Florida is one of only three states in the nation that doesn’t allow for any open carrying of firearms.
The measure has cleared all of its committees in both the House and Senate – and will go before the full House later this week – with the open carry amendment attached to it.
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