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Herald Tribune - Florida open carriers to walk through Venice on Saturday July 23d

Mike

Site Co-Founder
Joined
May 13, 2006
Messages
8,706
Location
Fairfax County, Virginia, USA
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110722/ARTICLE/110729877/2055/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg

SNIP

VENICE - Anyone strolling through Centennial Park in Venice on Saturday morning may suddenly be surrounded by scores of people with handguns openly strapped to their waists.

At 9 a.m., perhaps as many as 100 gun-toting folks will begin marching for about a mile along West Venice Avenue to the beach, ostensibly to fish. But the larger goal in this first-ever demonstration in Florida is to showcase a loophole in Florida's "open carry" prohibition, which has banned the unauthorized display of firearms in public since 1987.

Under Florida gun statutes, for the past 24 years it has been legal for licensed gun owners to carry a concealed weapon at any time. But it is also legal to carry a weapon openly — and not concealed – while hunting, fishing or camping.

. . .

The activists in Venice say they want to educate uninformed gun owners about their Second Amendment rights in Florida, one of only seven U.S. states to ban "open carry" of weapons. A bill to repeal that ban stalled in the last legislative session, but the founder of the Southwest Chapter of the Armed Citizen League says current regulations provide all the cover they need.
. . .
 

mach1chris

Regular Member
Joined
Mar 26, 2011
Messages
130
Location
Miami, FL
Would love to join, but I love way to far from this event. It's funny how open carry was banned in Florida the same year I was born lol!!... It's a shame really.
 

77zach

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
2,913
Location
Marion County, FL
Love to go, but I don't feel like driving 2 hours one way. Everybody within 30 minutes who can needs to get over there. Check out some of the comments by the mutton. Amerika is doomed. May our chains rest lightly upon us.
 
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Rich7553

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
515
Location
SWFL
As you know, Florida Carry does not endorse this event. It's one thing to OC on the way to fish, while fishing, and on the way back. It falls within the intent of the legislature as written in statute. It is quite another to intentionally park a mile away from the fishing location and parade through downtown to get to that location. It becomes no longer a fishing event, but a protest/demonstration. If that is the intent, it is not necessarily protected under 790.25 but becomes a First Amendment issue, and has been shown by the comments following the article, backlashes with "gun nuts" comments.
 

Grapeshot

Legendary Warrior
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
35,317
Location
Valhalla
As you know, Florida Carry does not endorse this event. It's one thing to OC on the way to fish, while fishing, and on the way back. It falls within the intent of the legislature as written in statute. It is quite another to intentionally park a mile away from the fishing location and parade through downtown to get to that location. It becomes no longer a fishing event, but a protest/demonstration. If that is the intent, it is not necessarily protected under 790.25 but becomes a First Amendment issue, and has been shown by the comments following the article, backlashes with "gun nuts" comments.

Does the law say how one is to travel to get to the location? How close must one park to be legal? The devil is in the details, me thinks.
 

Thundar

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2007
Messages
4,946
Location
Newport News, Virginia, USA
Go FLA Go, Go FLA Go

Does anybody really think that the Florida legislature can steal constitutional rights, substitute a state permission slip and then call constitutionally protected behaviour a criminal act?

I equate these daring freedom marchers to the indians at the Boston Tea Party!

Carry on!!!!
 

xd shooter

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
Messages
333
Location
usa
Want to do something about your gun rights?
PITCH IN, QUIT B*TCHING!

Yep....

And from YOUR website,


In Florida, you can legally open carry a loaded firearm while engaged in, or going to and from, Fishing, Hunting, and Camping. With some planning and preparation, a law abiding person can open carry a firearm in public and stay in compliance with the law.

Seems to me this group is planning and preparing....What are YOU doing?
 
Last edited:

77zach

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
2,913
Location
Marion County, FL
Does anybody really think that the Florida legislature can steal constitutional rights, substitute a state permission slip and then call constitutionally protected behaviour a criminal act?

Makes me want to puke my guts out. What's more, current law runs counter to the Florida constitution as well. You can't have a right and not have a right at the same time and in the same relationship. That's called a contradiction.
 

ixtow

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
5,038
Location
Suwannee County, FL
Does the law say how one is to travel to get to the location? How close must one park to be legal? The devil is in the details, me thinks.

Statutes are mum to such details. But we can be certain they will use a strict interpretation and imply 'directly' as they do in other fields.
 

Rich7553

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
515
Location
SWFL
Seems to me this group is planning and preparing....What are YOU doing?

Well let's see, shall we?

1. I personally began over a year ago sending e-mails to different local government entities who were violating the preemption statute by having ordinances that regulated firearms. Having received answers that amounted to "sue us", I contacted Rep. Paige Kreegel's office and requested assistance. His office contacted one of the offending counties and got the same response. He had the attorney general, Bill McCollum, contact the county and remind them of preemption. Again, the county ignored the warning. By this time, several months had passed. Rep. Kreegel contacted Marion Hammer to see if she would be interested in a bill giving teeth to the preemption statute for the 2011 legislative session.

2. About the same time, I was contacted by Sean Caranna, who was trying to draw attention to the lack of general open carry. Sean and I worked together with Ms. Hammer to draft the language to for both HB 45 and SB 234.

3. In January, Sean and I formed Florida Carry, Inc., a Florida registered non-profit organization dedicated to furthering Floridian's 2nd Amendment rights. Sean and I serve as Co-Executive Directors, we have a board of directors and approximately 3,000 members and supporters. Florida Open Carry is a grassroots movement of Florida Carry.

4. Florida Carry, Inc. lobbied the Florida Senate and House committees that were hearing testimony on HB 45 and SB 234. During the committee hearings, Florida Carry championed an e-mail, letter, and phone call campaign in support of those bills and was largely responsible for getting those bills passed. HB 45 was signed into law by Governor Scott in June and becomes effective on October 1st. It is this law that is currently causing counties and municipalites statewide to repeal their ordinances that violate state preemption. Unfortunately, SB 234 was gutted at the last minute to exclude general open carry, and became the inadvertant exposure law. Governor Scott signed this into law in June as well.

5. The Florida Open Carry grassroots movement held the first open carry fishing event in July of 2010. Florida Open Carry has been hosting those events monthly since then, and we are now up to seven locations (Jacksonville, Tampa, Melbourne, Orlando, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, and Daytona) and plan on adding Miami-Dade in the near future. http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Carry/

6. Sean and I have been on radio and TV in support of 2nd Amendment rights in Florida including Armed American Radio (syndicated nationally) and the Joe Whitehead show (local SW Florida). Sean will be interviewed in the near future by David Codrea on his "War on Guns" show. David Codrea (Examiner.com and Guns Magazine) and Mike Vanderbeough (Sipsey Street Irregulars) were the ones who initially broke the story on the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal before CBS and Fox picked up the story.

7. Florida Carry's legal team is currently preparing to pursue lawsuits against local governments that have ordinances that violate preemption on behalf of Florida Carry's members and supporters when the law becomes effective on October 1st.

8. Florida Carry is also teaming up with KnifeRights.org to introduce preemption legislation to protect those CWFL holders who carry blades and other weapons covered by their licenses from local ordinances just like that enjoyed by firearms carriers.

9. We will also be reintroducing a bill that died in committee last session to grant carry licenses to military members who are overseas and excluded because they don't have a stateside address.

That good enough for you, Sparky?
 
Last edited:

Grapeshot

Legendary Warrior
Joined
May 21, 2006
Messages
35,317
Location
Valhalla
Well let's see, shall we?

1. I personally began over a year ago sending e-mails to different local government entities who were violating the preemption statute by having ordinances that regulated firearms. Having received answers that amounted to "sue us", I contacted Rep. Paige Kreegel's office and requested assistance. His office contacted one of the offending counties and got the same response. He had the attorney general, Bill McCollum, contact the county and remind them of preemption. Again, the county ignored the warning. By this time, several months had passed. Rep. Kreegel contacted Marion Hammer to see if she would be interested in a bill giving teeth to the preemption statute for the 2011 legislative session.

2. About the same time, I was contacted by Sean Caranna, who was trying to draw attention to the lack of general open carry. Sean and I worked together with Ms. Hammer to draft the language to for both HB 45 and SB 234.

3. In January, Sean and I formed Florida Carry, Inc., a Florida registered non-profit organization dedicated to furthering Floridian's 2nd Amendment rights. Sean and I serve as Co-Executive Directors, we have a board of directors and approximately 3,000 members and supporters. Florida Open Carry is a grassroots movement of Florida Carry.

4. Florida Carry, Inc. lobbied the Florida Senate and House committees that were hearing testimony on HB 45 and SB 234. During the committee hearings, Florida Carry championed an e-mail, letter, and phone call campaign in support of those bills and was largely responsible for getting those bills passed. HB 45 was signed into law by Governor Scott in June and becomes effective on October 1st. It is this law that is currently causing counties and municipalites statewide to repeal their ordinances that violate state preemption. Unfortunately, SB 234 was gutted at the last minute to exclude general open carry, and became the inadvertant exposure law. Governor Scott signed this into law in June as well.

5. The Florida Open Carry grassroots movement held the first open carry fishing event in July of 2010. Florida Open Carry has been hosting those events monthly since then, and we are now up to seven locations (Jacksonville, Tampa, Melbourne, Orlando, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, and Daytona) and plan on adding Miami-Dade in the near future. http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Carry/

6. Sean and I have been on radio and TV in support of 2nd Amendment rights in Florida including Armed American Radio (syndicated nationally) and the Joe Whitehead show (local SW Florida). Sean will be interviewed in the near future by David Codrea on his "War on Guns" show. David Codrea (Examiner.com and Guns Magazine) and Mike Vanderbeough (Sipsey Street Irregulars) were the ones who initially broke the story on the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal before CBS and Fox picked up the story.

7. Florida Carry's legal team is currently preparing to pursue lawsuits against local governments that have ordinances that violate preemption on behalf of Florida Carry's members and supporters when the law becomes effective on October 1st.

8. Florida Carry is also teaming up with KnifeRights.org to introduce preemption legislation to protect those CWFL holders who carry blades and other weapons covered by their licenses from local ordinances just like that enjoyed by firearms carriers.

9. We will also be reintroducing a bill that died in committee last session to grant carry licenses to military members who are overseas and excluded because they don't have a stateside address.

That good enough for you, Sparky?

Nice, really nice! Not only grass roots, but active grass roots!
 

rmodel65

Regular Member
Joined
Apr 27, 2008
Messages
488
Location
, ,
Does anybody really think that the Florida legislature can steal constitutional rights, substitute a state permission slip and then call constitutionally protected behaviour a criminal act?

I equate these daring freedom marchers to the indians at the Boston Tea Party!

Carry on!!!!



there were indians at the tea party?
 

hammer6

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
1,461
Location
Florida
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20110722/ARTICLE/110729877/2055/NEWS?p=1&tc=pg

SNIP

VENICE - Anyone strolling through Centennial Park in Venice on Saturday morning may suddenly be surrounded by scores of people with handguns openly strapped to their waists.

At 9 a.m., perhaps as many as 100 gun-toting folks will begin marching for about a mile along West Venice Avenue to the beach, ostensibly to fish. But the larger goal in this first-ever demonstration in Florida is to showcase a loophole in Florida's "open carry" prohibition, which has banned the unauthorized display of firearms in public since 1987.

Under Florida gun statutes, for the past 24 years it has been legal for licensed gun owners to carry a concealed weapon at any time. But it is also legal to carry a weapon openly — and not concealed – while hunting, fishing or camping.

. . .

The activists in Venice say they want to educate uninformed gun owners about their Second Amendment rights in Florida, one of only seven U.S. states to ban "open carry" of weapons. A bill to repeal that ban stalled in the last legislative session, but the founder of the Southwest Chapter of the Armed Citizen League says current regulations provide all the cover they need.
. . .




haha this was funny-

Police Chief Tom McNulty said he was unfamiliar with the statute before being approached by Traub.

"The law is written in a way that it's very vague," said McNulty. "But we don't want to do anything that would trample people's rights.


how can he enforce the law if he doesn't KNOW the law???

crazy
 

Thundar

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2007
Messages
4,946
Location
Newport News, Virginia, USA
Well let's see, shall we?

1. I personally began over a year ago sending e-mails to different local government entities who were violating the preemption statute by having ordinances that regulated firearms. Having received answers that amounted to "sue us", I contacted Rep. Paige Kreegel's office and requested assistance. His office contacted one of the offending counties and got the same response. He had the attorney general, Bill McCollum, contact the county and remind them of preemption. Again, the county ignored the warning. By this time, several months had passed. Rep. Kreegel contacted Marion Hammer to see if she would be interested in a bill giving teeth to the preemption statute for the 2011 legislative session.

2. About the same time, I was contacted by Sean Caranna, who was trying to draw attention to the lack of general open carry. Sean and I worked together with Ms. Hammer to draft the language to for both HB 45 and SB 234.

3. In January, Sean and I formed Florida Carry, Inc., a Florida registered non-profit organization dedicated to furthering Floridian's 2nd Amendment rights. Sean and I serve as Co-Executive Directors, we have a board of directors and approximately 3,000 members and supporters. Florida Open Carry is a grassroots movement of Florida Carry.

4. Florida Carry, Inc. lobbied the Florida Senate and House committees that were hearing testimony on HB 45 and SB 234. During the committee hearings, Florida Carry championed an e-mail, letter, and phone call campaign in support of those bills and was largely responsible for getting those bills passed. HB 45 was signed into law by Governor Scott in June and becomes effective on October 1st. It is this law that is currently causing counties and municipalites statewide to repeal their ordinances that violate state preemption. Unfortunately, SB 234 was gutted at the last minute to exclude general open carry, and became the inadvertant exposure law. Governor Scott signed this into law in June as well.

5. The Florida Open Carry grassroots movement held the first open carry fishing event in July of 2010. Florida Open Carry has been hosting those events monthly since then, and we are now up to seven locations (Jacksonville, Tampa, Melbourne, Orlando, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, and Daytona) and plan on adding Miami-Dade in the near future. http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Carry/

6. Sean and I have been on radio and TV in support of 2nd Amendment rights in Florida including Armed American Radio (syndicated nationally) and the Joe Whitehead show (local SW Florida). Sean will be interviewed in the near future by David Codrea on his "War on Guns" show. David Codrea (Examiner.com and Guns Magazine) and Mike Vanderbeough (Sipsey Street Irregulars) were the ones who initially broke the story on the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal before CBS and Fox picked up the story.

7. Florida Carry's legal team is currently preparing to pursue lawsuits against local governments that have ordinances that violate preemption on behalf of Florida Carry's members and supporters when the law becomes effective on October 1st.

8. Florida Carry is also teaming up with KnifeRights.org to introduce preemption legislation to protect those CWFL holders who carry blades and other weapons covered by their licenses from local ordinances just like that enjoyed by firearms carriers.

9. We will also be reintroducing a bill that died in committee last session to grant carry licenses to military members who are overseas and excluded because they don't have a stateside address.

That good enough for you, Sparky?

No actually it isn't. The original question was in the context of gun rights, which Florida Open Carry promotes, and not Perks for Permittees (P4P) which FLorida Carry seems hellbent on increasing. There is a BIG difference, Sport.
 

Rich7553

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
515
Location
SWFL
No actually it isn't. The original question was in the context of gun rights, which Florida Open Carry promotes, and not Perks for Permittees (P4P) which FLorida Carry seems hellbent on increasing. There is a BIG difference, Sport.

Florida Open Carry is a grassroots movement of Florida Carry. We are the same people. The group that held the event in Venice is unrelated to either FOC or FC, and has been completely unknown until this event.

I find it interesting that someone from Virginia would be attacking an organization working on rights in Florida. Smells like a troll to me.
 
Last edited:

77zach

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
2,913
Location
Marion County, FL
No actually it isn't. The original question was in the context of gun rights, which Florida Open Carry promotes, and not Perks for Permittees (P4P) which FLorida Carry seems hellbent on increasing. There is a BIG difference, Sport.

Do you have any magic bullets, Thundar? NJ and NY infest the southern portion of the state and the interior is strongly neocon. They're content with their 10 million pistols living in the glovebox or the house.
 
Last edited:

StogieC

Campaign Veteran
Joined
Nov 22, 2009
Messages
745
Location
Florida
In the words of our Founding Fathers... "Lead, follow, or get out of the way."

Nothing happened in Florida for 24 years until I took people for an Open Carry Fishing trip just over a year ago. Six months later, we were second only to the NRA in Florida membership and came within a heartbeat of legalizing licensed OC. We tried unlicensed but there was no way that would have even come close to passing in the Florida Legislature. The courts are still not quite ripe here for a legal challenge to the OC ban, but they are getting closer and we are fully prepared with a case when the time is right.

If you can come down here and do a better job than our entire team, multiple senior pro-OC state legislators, the entire grassroots network of thousands of activist that we have built in only a year, and me personally. I'd welcome the progress.
 

hammer6

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
1,461
Location
Florida
Well let's see, shall we?

1. I personally began over a year ago sending e-mails to different local government entities who were violating the preemption statute by having ordinances that regulated firearms. Having received answers that amounted to "sue us", I contacted Rep. Paige Kreegel's office and requested assistance. His office contacted one of the offending counties and got the same response. He had the attorney general, Bill McCollum, contact the county and remind them of preemption. Again, the county ignored the warning. By this time, several months had passed. Rep. Kreegel contacted Marion Hammer to see if she would be interested in a bill giving teeth to the preemption statute for the 2011 legislative session.

2. About the same time, I was contacted by Sean Caranna, who was trying to draw attention to the lack of general open carry. Sean and I worked together with Ms. Hammer to draft the language to for both HB 45 and SB 234.

3. In January, Sean and I formed Florida Carry, Inc., a Florida registered non-profit organization dedicated to furthering Floridian's 2nd Amendment rights. Sean and I serve as Co-Executive Directors, we have a board of directors and approximately 3,000 members and supporters. Florida Open Carry is a grassroots movement of Florida Carry.

4. Florida Carry, Inc. lobbied the Florida Senate and House committees that were hearing testimony on HB 45 and SB 234. During the committee hearings, Florida Carry championed an e-mail, letter, and phone call campaign in support of those bills and was largely responsible for getting those bills passed. HB 45 was signed into law by Governor Scott in June and becomes effective on October 1st. It is this law that is currently causing counties and municipalites statewide to repeal their ordinances that violate state preemption. Unfortunately, SB 234 was gutted at the last minute to exclude general open carry, and became the inadvertant exposure law. Governor Scott signed this into law in June as well.

5. The Florida Open Carry grassroots movement held the first open carry fishing event in July of 2010. Florida Open Carry has been hosting those events monthly since then, and we are now up to seven locations (Jacksonville, Tampa, Melbourne, Orlando, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, and Daytona) and plan on adding Miami-Dade in the near future. http://www.meetup.com/Florida-Carry/

6. Sean and I have been on radio and TV in support of 2nd Amendment rights in Florida including Armed American Radio (syndicated nationally) and the Joe Whitehead show (local SW Florida). Sean will be interviewed in the near future by David Codrea on his "War on Guns" show. David Codrea (Examiner.com and Guns Magazine) and Mike Vanderbeough (Sipsey Street Irregulars) were the ones who initially broke the story on the ATF's Fast and Furious scandal before CBS and Fox picked up the story.

7. Florida Carry's legal team is currently preparing to pursue lawsuits against local governments that have ordinances that violate preemption on behalf of Florida Carry's members and supporters when the law becomes effective on October 1st.

8. Florida Carry is also teaming up with KnifeRights.org to introduce preemption legislation to protect those CWFL holders who carry blades and other weapons covered by their licenses from local ordinances just like that enjoyed by firearms carriers.

9. We will also be reintroducing a bill that died in committee last session to grant carry licenses to military members who are overseas and excluded because they don't have a stateside address.

That good enough for you, Sparky?



I think you should get more populated locations to OC fish...the one I went to, about 10 people passed us in an hour and a half....not really spreading the word..
 

Rich7553

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
515
Location
SWFL
I think you should get more populated locations to OC fish...the one I went to, about 10 people passed us in an hour and a half....not really spreading the word..

We're also planning on setting up a table at the gun shows. Don't forget, Florida Carry is less than a year old and comprises an all-volunteer board. Unfortunately, life sometimes gets in the way when you'd rather be doing things you like. :D
 
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