CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – Clay County Sheriff Michelle Cook posted a statement to social media on Wednesday evening, saying she has instructed her deputies not to enforce a state law that prohibits residents from openly carrying their guns.
The statement comes after a Florida appeals court on Wednesday deemed the state’s law unconstitutional, saying it didn’t align with the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
RELATED: JSO joins other Northeast Florida agencies in instructing officers not to enforce open carry ban
“With the assassination of Charlie Kirk so fresh, I understand the timing of this message is very uncomfortable,” Cook said. “The court found that prohibiting the open carry of firearms was incompatible with the Second Amendment’s guarantee of the right to bear arms and with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. While this opinion is not yet final there is no reason to expect that this court will reverse this decision. Out of abundance of caution and until this issue is finally resolved I have instructed my deputies not to enforce the statute.”
Cook, however, did mention that private property owners can still not allow the open carrying of guns on their property. She noted that they also have the right to trespass anyone who is openly carrying.
“The only place open carry cannot be prohibited is where the government property is open to the public AND unrestricted,” the sheriff said. “The right to open carry is not absolute. For example, grocery stores, shopping centers, etc. could prohibit the open carrying of a firearm.”
The Bradford County Sheriff’s Office also posted a statement on the Florida court’s ruling, including much of the same phrasing Cook used in her statement.
Both agencies ended their messages with the following statement: “I urge all members of our community to exercise sound discernment and respect when carrying firearms.”
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office posted a similar statement just before 8 p.m.
On Wednesday, The First District Court of Appeal issued its ruling in a case stemming from the July 4, 2022, arrest of a man who stood at a major intersection in downtown Pensacola carrying a visible, holstered pistol and a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
The decision by a three-judge panel reverses the conviction of Stanley McDaniels in Escambia County in the Florida panhandle. It also vacates his sentence, finding that the state has failed to show that the law is consistent with the country’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
“No historical tradition supports Florida’s Open Carry Ban. To the contrary, history confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly,” Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in an opinion, joined by Judges Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas.
“That is not to say that open carry is absolute or immune from reasonable regulation,” the opinion continued. “But what the State may not do is extinguish the right altogether for ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens.”
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded the decision in a post on X. He has called for lawmakers to pass an open carry bill.
“This decision aligns state policy with my long-held position and with the vast majority of states throughout the union,” DeSantis wrote. “Ultimately, the court correctly ruled that the text of the Second Amendment — ‘to keep and bear arms’ — says what it means and means what it says.”
Legalizing open carry has long been a major focus of gun rights activists in the state, who oppose the slate of restrictions that Florida’s Republican-dominated Legislature implemented in the wake of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.