Kissing your (ugly) Sister...Status Update On Florida Open-Carry Bill

790.053 Open carrying of weapons.—
    9         (1) Except as otherwise provided by law and in subsection
   10  (2), it is unlawful for any person to openly carry on or about
   11  his or her person any firearm or electric weapon or device.

 
   12  It is not a violation of this section for a person licensed to
   13  carry a concealed firearm as provided in s. 790.06(1), and who
   14  is lawfully carrying a firearm in a concealed manner, to briefly
   15  and openly display the firearm to the ordinary sight of another
   16  person, unless the firearm is intentionally displayed in an
   17  angry or threatening manner, not in necessary self-defense.

So there you have it.

The cup is half-full folks look upon this as a victory. A foot in the door.

Get the cops and soccer mom's accustomed to the idea that all men are created

equal. Tough sell.

The half-emptiers say we were sold down the river. Truth be told, we were, but 

it IS a foot in the door to open-carry, and we won't be spending a night in jail because

someone caught a glimpse of our piece 

The lawyers will have a field day but that's what lawyers do. Now its on to the House 

and since the House is more Conservative they won't be making things worse and COULD

in fact make them better. 

But right now isn't the time to speculate. Still more hard work ahead, arm twisting and 

the like.

UPDATE

The vast majority of feedback I'm picking up from those interested in this bill is incredibly

negative. 

 There has forever been a faceoff between Florida law enforcement and those who'd deign

to carry a firearm, and many folks are feeling that the change in carry laws would 

give the police more leeway to lockup the innocent, not less. And of course

pretty much everyone is trying to decide what "briefly " means. 

The Florida Supreme Court has angered cops time and again by trying to come to 

reasonable rulings concerning the unintentional flash of a firearm, and one of the things the 

new language was supposed to do was address the situation in a fair and equitable 

manner.

Make a mistake and flash the gun, then no harm, no foul. But now the fear is that the 

police will try to twist the law in order to make their point that civilians shouldn't be

carrying guns.

But its getting late so adios for now.