General Bill by Sabatini (CO-SPONSORS) Hill
Carrying of Firearms: Removes requirement that license to carry concealed firearm is required in order to carry such firearm; limits areas in which concealed carrying of firearm is prohibited; revises criminal penalties; revises provisions relating to carrying of concealed weapons by nonresidents; provides for issuance of concealed carry licenses for reciprocity purposes; specifies that person not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing firearm may own, possess, & lawfully use firearms & other weapons, ammunition, & supplies for lawful purposes.
Reading real quick we have obviously no requirement of license to carry in Florida but the CWL will still be available for those who want it to travel to other states that demand a permit. I would keep my CWL just for the fact it is a “Good Guy Card” and buying guns without having to deal with the Waiting Period.
Knocks down carrying in Gun Free Zones from a felony to a misdemeanor. Good! A stupid mistake should not make you a Prohibited Person.
(But Muh Rights! There shouldn’t be any Gun Free Zones!” – I know Junior, baby steps and stop eating the crayons.)
Open Carry during mandatory evacuations. I like it but I feel some will take it as openly patrolling their neighborhood with the rifles strapped to their chests. The law is specific: .”..on or about his or her person while in the act of evacuating during a mandatory evacuation order issued during a state of emergency declared by the Governor.” If you ain’t moving out, you cant OC.
Reciprocity: Welcome to Florida, you can carry. Do you have a Permit from a State that does not honor ours? No biggie, you go on and carry in the Gunshine State anyway.
I have an issue with carrying in a pharmacy. They eliminated the allowance of people with CWL to carry, but it leaves a gaping hole about Constitutional Carry in the location that can be used by Gun Unfriendly counties as placed prohibited to carry. They may need to rewrite this. I am going to shoot an email to the Sabatini aids. Somebody remind me later.
Open Carry of firearms. It leaves concealed carry of electric weapon without a license illegal. Too many Taser Drive-bys?
Parking Lot Carry: No need for a license to park in your company’s lot.
Now let’s check reality: The Opposition is gonna have a conniption and fight this bill to the death. They are going to have issues with the excuse of blood on the streets and the shooting of buses full of nuns and orphans after more than three decades of CWL statistics. Short of our side fucking up big time and not showing up to support the bill and interaction with our legislators in a constant but polite manner, I do believe we have a moderate chance to get this passed.
The Gun Free Zones violations from a felony to a misdemeanor. Other than spite, I don’t see how this would be rejected. The Opposition will be mentioning the School Shooters, but I reckon if they are intending o commit murder or other felonies, they won’t give a damn if bringing a gun to school is a felony or a misdemeanor.
Open Carry during mandatory evacuations. I can hear them now: “We will see people evacuating and armed with AR15s in their cars and pick up trucks like it was a scene from Mad Max! People will be afraid, nervous, and anything will spark a shootout between vehicles locking down the evacuation routes. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE WILL DIE!” My take, it will be nice if we get it, but I won’t lose sleep if we don’t. I rather spend political brownie points in ConsCarry. (I just made that up, probably not the first one)
Full reciprocity. Again, unless out of spite and lack of support, this should be easy to accept.
And Pharmacy Carry in my opinion needs to be re-written for clarifications before it even gets to the first discussion in sub-committee.
Those are my personal takes on the bill. We are three months away from the beginning of the new legislative session so start prepping now
Share your thoughts in the comments.
As for open carry during evacuations, Miguel, you weren’t here for Andrew, but if it was not for my neighbors and I open carrying after the storm and in the several weeks following till police and national guard came in, the looters would have had a field day in my area. Sorry but I have to disagree on this one for that aspect.
And you know damn well it will be The OCIs that will do armed patrols riding Thecnicals in Plantation because they think the governor ordering the evacuation of the Barrier Islands in a weak Cat One is enough for them to go out play Call of Duty: South Florida.
Maybe I shouldn’t say anything, since I left Florida several years ago, but this bill, while it’s one I would support, looks like the bills introduced in Congress. The Republicans wouldn’t vote on them when they had both houses and the White House because they didn’t want to upset the enemy, but after they lost the House and had no chance of passing any gun rights bills, they (the GOP) introduced one every week in an attempt to con their constituents.
Ah yes, “repeal and replace”.
I haven’t read it all, but it looks good. We can hope. There are no cosponsors listed, so maybe I can send a letter to my representative asking her to join in. That could be a test.
The prohibition on pharmacy carry appears to only apply to destructive devices.
The most interesting part is this: The guns in parking lots law (790.251) was struck down as unconstitutional as applied to invitees because the law only applied to the invitees of a business that had employees with CCW permits. Now that this bill removes the requirement for a CCP, that court decision would become moot, meaning that Disney could no longer prohibit guests from having guns in locked vehicles. That makes this clause VERY important:
(e) No public or private employer may terminate the employment of or otherwise discriminate against an employee, or expel a customer or invitee for exercising his or her constitutional right to keep and bear arms or for exercising the right of self-defense as long as a firearm is never exhibited on company property for any reason other than lawful defensive purposes.
Also, they are already attacking the sponsor with allegations of racism:
https://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2019/10/02/state-rep-and-blackface-fan-anthony-sabatini-wants-to-allow-gun-owners-to-openly-carry-in-public-without-a-license