Fort Meyers, Florida

Openly carrying handguns seems certain to be legal here soon...

OpenCarry.org is a national advocacy group. Its members in Florida have an online petition - "it is an old right, not a new threat" - with 2,227 signatories.

http://www.news-press.com/article/20110103/COLUMNISTS50/101030324/1002/NEWS01

Good article, but there's a serious error in it:

"Now, 23 years later, the National Rifle Association wants to undo it."

No, it's the People of Florida who want to undo it. I'm not quite sure the NRA is on board with open carry.

"State Sen. Greg Evers, a Republican from Baker, has introduced a bill to allow Florida handgun owners to carry their guns openly. The proposal also changes existing law to allow licensed owners to carry concealed guns on college campuses and at private schools."

Really? They put both open carry and the other two measures into the same bill, knowing that if the latter two provisions aren't acceptible, then open carry would suffer the same fate?

That either wasn't very smart, or it was a stroke of genius. If Evers is secretly not willing for OC to be legalized, by combining it with CC on campus and at private schools, he's nearly secured its failure - a stroke of genius. If he really does want it to pass, then he's similarly tended it towards failure - not very smart.

I don't know how this will turn out, though. It might pass with the other provisions included, as well.