While I applaud the sheriff for agreeing that law-abiding citizens should be able to carry a concealed pistol in public without a government permission slip, I have to take him to task for his puzzling double-mindedness.
Are we free American citizens with a Second Amendment Right, or not? The U.S. Supreme Court recently decided in Bruen that any law abridging the Second Amendment should be examined with a historical, originalist view.
The normal state of everyday carry of arms when the Constitution was signed, was OPENLY, as well as at least 100 years afterward. Even those opposed to armed self-defense know this.
Don't get me wrong; I am not saying you must openly carry. Concealed carry is fine and most who arm themselves for protection will only conceal carry. What I am saying is no free citizen should be jailed merely for peacefully carrying a pistol or rifle in plain view.
Sheriff Gualtieri, by his own words on recorded video above clearly would not mind putting you on the ground, handcuffing you in front of your children, separating you from your family and placing you in a cold concrete and steel cell MERELY for visibly exercising your Constitutional Rights. If he denies this, he is a liar, because that is the current law in Florida. The same law he would hate to see repealed.
Astonishingly, he swore an oath to the same U.S. Constitution that should be a bulwark against any use of force aimed at citizens who merely wish to carry a firearm openly.
Here's the salt in the wound - even though the law has an exception for brief exposure, such as your shirt riding up and revealing your pistol, numerous citizens have suffered detainment and arrest subsequent to those brief exposures. So much for that supposed protection.
Sounds to me like legalizing open carry would solve that problem - a good purpose in my eyes at least. Not to mention open carry being a crime deterrent, and at a minimum, letting adults who enjoy liberty have the choice to carry openly or concealed as they wish.
Because Gualtieri sees "no good purpose" for open carry, he feels justified to physically accost and kidnap you to jail if you dare do it. Sounds like a means test to me, and the Bruen decision effectively erased any means test affronting the Second Amendment.
Unfortunately, most Republican politicians in Florida agree with Gualtieri and DON'T CARE if you are robbed of your right to carry openly under penalty of jail, while they smile and lie to your face that they fully support your Second Amendment Rights.
Where do these arrogant suits in Tallahassee come off to insist that a fundamental American right be restricted to only being practiced in secret? Is the First Amendment also so burdened?
Apparently too many Republicans are still in love with deceased Democrat Janet Reno, who orchestrated the open carry ban in 1987.
Call, write, and demand that they amend SB 150 to add open carry, and to abolish at least some of the offensive off-limits places to self-defense carry for We The People.
* SB 150 is being mismarketed by milquetoast Republicans as "Constitutional Carry" just because it removes the license requirement for concealed carry, while leaving in place the general ban on open carry, as well as numerous self-defense prohibited places even for licensed carriers where they must disarm or be thrown in jail merely for not wanting to be defenseless in the face of a possible deadly threat. When all these things are dealt with, then they can call it "Constitutional Carry".
