Florida Residents, Which do YOU Support?

[rebel-patriot]

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Hi folks!

As a note - I was in the process of what turned out to be a fairly lengthy response last night when the electric went out! OUCH! But all is well this morning so before I have to get ready and go to work I thought I would come back and try to summarize my thoughts.

First let me start out that the poll above is to get a feel for where peoples thoughts are at. I am dedicating a good chunk of my free time when not working, getting ready for work etc.. to the issue of OC in Florida and am just getting things going here.

I agree that Florida needs to get rid of the ban on OC.. the real question is how to get that done. That is the part of "getting things off the ground" that is going to take the most time. Now lets introduce some reality into the situation.

Florida has for all intents and purposes been denying people their 2A rights in some fashion for the past 124 years. So it is entrenched. That simply means that the battle for restoration is going to be more difficult and time consuming.

Currently in the USA there are 42 states that allow Open Carry. (84%)
26 of those states require a license to OC. (52% of the total states, roughly 62% of those favoring OC)
7 states ban OC. (Florida is one of those)(14% of total states)
California allows only in rural area. (2% of total states)

There are many considerations that need to be taken into account here to develop a successful plan of attack. The last count I saw was that Florida had issued somewhere in the neighborhood of 1.5 million CC permits.

Since the state IS entrenched, I believe we are looking at a multi stage battle for the full restoration of 2A rights. Given that most people are too busy to become active and push for causes they believe in, that adds to any timeframe. Opinions need to be formed, arguments need to be made to move people one way or another. It is a long process.
So.. IMO and worth every penny you are paying for it.. this is how I see it going.

1. Enforcement of rights currently on the books.

Florida law allows OC in certain circumstances. Those circumstances can be found in Florida statute 790.25 subsection h which reads "[size="-1"] A person engaged in fishing, camping, or lawful hunting or going to or returning from a fishing, camping, or lawful hunting expedition"

Florida also passed hr1029 in 2006 which compelled the state parks system to bring their regulations in line with ALL applicable florida state laws.

I have recently discovered that Florida State Parks still officially (in their regulations and on their website) deny firearms in the parks.

I am currently contacting a series of state parks individually to get the rangers take on it, collecting names of who I talk to etc. I am then contacting the division office in Tallahassee and discussing there as well. Then I am writing the department, the state attorney general as well as my representatives asking for the immediate compliance with state law. I will keep the community posted in another thread on this subject.
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2. Move Florida to a green state status.

While I fully intend to strive for gold star status and get Florida to a full restoration of 2A rights, I am also pragmatic and realistic. I believe this is where Florida will end up in the immediate future. Only after people are actively open carrying for a number of years and the fear of it is subsided will a push to change the Florida Constitution be successful.

The data above, which was gleaned from this website and other sources, shows the licensed open carry is the most popular form in the USA. I AGREE that this still sets it into the privilige category and not the rights category, as I said before I am pragmatic and realistic. I view this as a win and a step towards the full goal.

I see stage 2 as taking a minimum of 2 years to get passed, and probably another 2-3 years before the next stage will be practical.

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3. Move Florida to Gold star status and full restoration of 2A rights.

This will require a constitutional amendment. As of today, a petition for a constitutional amendment will require 67,000 signers of registered Florida voters. Those need to be verified at 10 cents per verification. The proposed amendment needs to pass by the Supreme Court of Florida for language testing to make sure it would in fact be legal and constitutional. Only then does it get on the ballot for general voting. The state gives you 4 years after registering to get through the entire process.

This will take massive organization, work, and planning not to even mention money to make it happen. Again, IMO, building a grassroots organization and moving along in stages building towards this end goal is the best way to go.

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Simply removing Florida Statute 790.053 doesnt accomplish the same goal as it will still allow Florida Legislature the option of enacting other laws in the future, in essence not restoring rights but providing for future priviliges. For full restoration of 2A rights the state constitution needs to have the "as allowed by law" section removed from it.

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I know there are those that will agree with me, and those that will disagree with me. I am always willing to openly discuss my views and the views of others and fully reserve any and all rights to change my opinions as I see fit. LOL. But I think the course I have just stated is the most likely path to full victory at this time.

I ask if you are a Florida resident, to join me Tuesday Septermber 22 at 8 pm in the OpenCarry irc chatroom If you do not know what I am talking about see this thread
http://opencarry.mywowbb.com/forum3/3580.html

I will be posting this officially in the next day or so in a seperate thread. This will be a moderated meeting.

Rebel
American by birth, Southern by choice

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[Sonora Rebel]

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Don't settle for crumbs. You'll have to repeat the process 'n that won't happen again in your lifetime.Demand the biggest bite... OC per the 2A as intended.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be impaired." There's your Constitutional wording

 

[rebel-patriot]

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Hi folks!

Well this poll has been up for a little over a week now. I was honestly hoping for more of a turnout on it.
The results of the poll as of right now are a total of 15 votes as follow.
Item 1 - 2 votes - 13.33%
Item 2 - 6 votes - 40%
Item 3 - 7 votes - 46.67%

I stated my personal views in a previous post in this thread as to how I believe it will end up going as far as any movement towards OC in Florida. While this is not any kind of a policy statement or anything other than my belief, I can also see another possible outcome.

If Item 2 is worked on and 790.053 is repealed, constant effort and vigilance is necessary both to ensure that future legislation is not enacted to re-limit or further limit the right to OC as well as Item 1 would need to be kicked off within a year of passage of any repeal of 790.053. A long struggle.

I was hoping for a larger sampling with this poll. This poll will close on Thursday 9/24. So if you are interested please let others know of this poll so it will become actually useful in the larger effort.

Sonora, while I sincerely respect your position, I disagree with it as a first effort. I am trying to plot a course of victory to an end goal and I do not think a "hail mary pass" will reach the goal line without causing a massive fracture of the electorate. It was such a massive fracture that got us into this situation here in Florida where OC was specifically banned in 1987. The fracturing of opinions within the gun rights community over concealed carry fueled by brady bunch activists pushed the Florida Legislature to banning OC, and into licensed CC.

Hope to hear from all of you soon.

Rebel
American by birth, Southern by choice