The Volokh Conspiracy

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Crime

Florida Supreme Court upholds general open-carry ban

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


Thanks to Oleg Volk for the photo.
Thanks to Oleg Volk for the photo.

Florida generally makes it fairly easy for law-abiding adults to get licenses to carry concealed guns—indeed, it is often seen as the state that started the modern concealed-carry revolution, in which the country flipped from roughly 10 states where concealed carrying was generally allowed (with a broadly available license, or in Vermont even without one) to roughly 40 states where such carrying is allowed. But Florida largely bans open carry; you can have arms to defend yourself in public, but you can't wear them openly.

This morning, the Florida Supreme Court upheld the law, because it "regulates only one manner of bearing arms and does not impair the exercise of the fundamental right to bear arms." I'm off to teach in a few minutes, so I can't say more now, but I'll try to update this post later today. [UPDATE: Couldn't get to this yesterday, when I first posted, but now I have a more detailed post here.]