Open Carry In Florida

I've been getting some confused emails concerning Florida's open-carry status so let me try to clear things up.

Back in the mid-80's, Floridians wanted to exercise their right to carry a concealed weapon. Open carry was quite legal, and the police, retailers, and for all I know ice cream truck vendors despised the mere thought of concealed carry.

"HOW EVER WILL WE KNOW IF A MAN IS ARMED???!!!" came the hue and cry from the constabulary, and "BLOOD WILL RUN IN THE STREETS JUST LIKE IT WAS THE WILD, WILD, WEST!!!"

After a long, drag-out fight, concealed carry was passed. Couple months later, the liberals in the legislature changed the statutes to declare open carry illegal, but no one paid it any much attention. Hell, we can probably STILL open carry all we want as long as we have our licenses, and didn't the cops say that they PREFERRED the open gun?

No sir. This time around the police and sheriffs and ice cream vendors ran to Tallahassee and caterwauled to the high heavens.

"BLOOD WILL RUN..." you get the picture.

Anyways, we got screwed because at the last moment...which in politics means 3 or 4 months...the tone of the bill was changed to read that open carry was still banned but a quick flash of the weapon was not illegal as long as there was no threat or intimidation factor. This meant that the cops couldn't taser you whenever the wind blew your cover garment to expose the piece, but far from open carry.

As of this date, the Governor has yet to sign the bill into law. Many if not most Floridians want him to veto the thing and let us start from scratch. Seeing as how one of the planks on his election platform dealt with assuring Floridians the free and open Constitutional right to bear arms, he probably finds himself in a quandary, but the fact of the matter is the anti-gun retailers and resort owners will fight to the death to prevent open carry.

And there goes his campaign finances should he ever wish to run for public office ever again in the state of Florida. Fight Disney? Do so at your peril.