Pro-freedom lawmakers in the Florida legislature are pushing forward three measures that would recognize rights that have previously been restricted, and all three bills were recently approved by overwhelming margins in their respective Florida House subcommittees.

House Bill 17 would change when the mandatory waiting period would end for firearm purchases. The law currently states: “The mandatory waiting period is 3 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, or expires upon the completion of the records checks required under s. 17 790.065, whichever occurs later.”

The proposed revision reads: “The mandatory waiting period is 3 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, or expires upon the completion of the records checks required under s. 17 790.065, whichever occurs earlier.” In effect, the proposal, if passed, would ensure the waiting period expires three days after the purchase.

House Bill 1223 would lower the age requirement for purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer. The current minimum in Florida is 21 years of age, but this measure would reduce that to 18.

While most constitutionally protected rights are recognized for 18- to 20-year-old Americans, many states continue to consider those adults to be second-class citizens when it comes to practicing their Second Amendment rights. However, several different courts have found such laws unconstitutional just in the past few years.

Finally, House Bill 1615 would repeal an entire section of law denoting a number of provisions that automatically go into effect when a public disorder state of emergency is declared. If the law should pass, activities that would no longer be automatically prohibited include the intentional possession of a firearm in public, the sale of firearms or ammunition and the intentional display of ammunition or firearms in a store.

“This is a section of Florida law that automatically terminates a constitutional right just because a local sheriff or other designated public official declares a state of emergency,” Rep. Tommy Gregory, who filed the law along with Rep. Tyler Sirois, said in the subcommittee meeting. “I don’t think that we should have provisions in Florida law that violate the constitution. I think as we look for those areas in law, we should repeal them.”

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51 COMMENTS

  2. Florida — leading the way once again!

    Say it with me, brothers and sisters — Freedom!

    Next: open carry. (I don’t care if you like it or not — any and all options available should be allowed, and let the citizen choose.)

    • alien,

      Regarding open carry (the option of which I enthusiastically support): I cannot begin to imagine Florida’s annual 30+ billion dollar tourism industrial complex ever allowing open carry to become legal in Florida. (Whether or not it is true, Florida’s tourism industrial complex fears that legal open-carry will drive tourists elsewhere and thus reduce tourism revenue millions/billions of dollars.)

      You have probably heard the Capitalism Golden Rule, “He who has the gold makes the rules.” The unfortunate reality of our condition is that inalienable rights take a back seat to entities/operations worth 10s of billions of dollars.

      • uncommonn…My state has open carry and a large tourism industry. I have never heard of open carry cutting into tourism dollars or are there people here open carrying around firearms like Dodge City. In other words it’s an open carry state but going out to find someone open carrying would be difficult. Your argument and obedience to the golden calf amounts to surrender and one should never surrender…
        https://youtube.com/watch?v=s_LncVnecLA&feature=shared

      • I call BS on that. Florida used to have Open Carry before pretty much everywhere except for Miami until Janet Reno (yes THAT murdering Janet Reno) pushed through the Open Carry ban back in 1987.

        We had it before and tourism was just fine. Just about every other state has open carry where most of the tourists come from have Open Carry too.

        BS gonna BS.

        • Nikita Tesla,

          While Florida apparently (according to your claim) allowed open carry before 1987, a minuscule fraction of the population (maybe one out of 100,000?) exercised their right to carry a handgun openly so the notion of armed locals scaring away tourists was non-existent and the potential loss of tourist dollars was insignificant. Furthermore, the tourism industry was decidedly smaller than the behemoth that it is today so it had less clout. Finally the political landscape was significantly different.

          Consider all of those factors now. A LOT more people want to carry handguns in public for self-defense (maybe one in every 10 adults?) and a LOT more people would carry them openly if legal. Of course the tourism industry is massive today compared to 40 years ago and has a LOT more clout. Finally, the recent political landscape is fickle or else Florida would not have passed all of their restrictions following the Parkland High School spree-killer attack in 2018.

          Oh, and many of the states where tourists come from do NOT have legal open carry. (Think Illinois, New York, South Carolina, New Jersey, and Maryland at a minimum.) Of course none of the hordes of tourists from Europe have legal open carry.

          I hope that I am wrong and the long track record of Florida Representatives proposing and failing to legalize open-carry will end.

        • @uncoomonsense
          SC does have open carry. However, the way it is currently is that one must have a SC permit or reciprocal state permit to open carry.
          They currently have a bill working through the legislature right now that will remove the permit restriction and everyone will open carry.

          And current states passing open carry have all seen one thing in common when the open carry law goes into effect: and that is nothing. Absolutely nothing whatsoever changes. In several states, crime rates went down a couple points but there is no rash of tourist reported open carry incidents. The vast majority of people who carry a firearm do so concealed. I personally don’t care for open carry. If a guy walks into the store your in with the intent to rob it, and sees you open carrying he could make one of two choices. The first would be to just leave without trying. The second would be to shoot the person open carrying and then rob the place. I’d rather not be the one shot before the robbery even starts. So I don’t open carry in public. I do open carry when out in the woods though.

      • “I cannot begin to imagine Florida’s annual 30+ billion dollar tourism industrial complex ever allowing open carry to become legal in Florida.”

        They got over permitless-carry down here awhile back, they can get over this.

        Desantis will sign it, if they hurry. Once he drops out of the presidential race, the chance he signs it I suspect will drop dramatically… 🙁

        • DeSantis didn’t drop out of being governor of FL.
          How stupid are you?
          People that dumb shouldn’t be allowed to vote.

        • Ron —

          DeSantis didn’t drop out of being governor of FL.

          A quick lesson in reading comprehension — although I’m not sure that you can grok. Try to follow the bouncing cartridge:

          Geoff: Desantis will sign it, if they hurry. Once he drops out of the presidential race …

          alien: Uhh, Geoff — DeSantis did drop out.

          To conclude:

          Ron, how stupid are you? I think we know the answer.

      • uncommon – I’m pretty sure the freaks at Disney aren’t calling diddly any more.

        Sounds to me as if FL (as Tx) are falling behind many free states in gun laws. Try to keep up boys.

        • “uncommon – I’m pretty sure the freaks at Disney aren’t calling diddly any more.”

          If Disney hates it, the Governor will be pleased as punch to sign it, just to piss them off…

      • To all who replied,

        I would certainly love to be wrong and see Florida decriminalize open carry. Time will tell.

    • “Next: open carry.”

      Get rid of the no binary triggers bullshit while they are at it…

      • I remember when that nonsense first started. And how many forgot it was a binary and sent a second shot somewhere it wasn’t intended……..
        It’s not hard to bump fire a rifle without a bump stock. People were doing it for years before the introduction of of the slidefire and like products.

  4. Open carry is a big one. We Floridians need to primary out the RINOs responsible for the blocking of Open carry. If you can only carry small concealable handguns that precludes using a rifle to protect your property during times when it is necessary and a puny handgun is not enough firepower.

    Also the no carry in bars thing needs to go away. If someone isn’t responsible enough to have a drink or two responsibly while carrying then they have no business carrying at all or maybe not even owning a firearm for that matter.

    As it stands now you are not even allowed to go into the bar area of a restaurant while carrying. You can’t order a drink for someone else, sit at the bar and eat without ever touching a drink, and even technically walk through the bar area to get to the only restrooms in the building.

    Surely the mere presence of alcohol in the room doesn’t turn responsible adults into maniacal criminals -nor does it cause firearms to escape their holsters and dart about the area going off by themselves.

    Florida has a long way to go to truly own the title “The Gunshine State.” We’ve got to get rid of our poor leadership in the legislature and all the way to the top to the ineffective governor who can’t get this stuff done. We can do so much better than them.

    • You need to get your Gov to call my Gov. In GA our home is free of all that bs. Your castle, your rules. Your car is considered to be an extension of your home in GA. The same privacy rights you have in home, you have in your car. You can carry anything you want in your car. (That is legal to own!) My personal choices are a Keltec KSG, .300blk AR pistol and a .357 handgun. And I also carry Kevlar. But most of that stems from my surveillance days as a PI. You don’t know feeling underprepared until you’re sitting on a surveillance and 4 big black suburbans come screeching in from all angle and park 10 yards in front of you as the cops armed to the teeth pour out like fire ants and surround a house. Now, they weren’t the brightest lot, as they never saw me sitting in my car until I surprised one that was walking by my car by rolling down the window. I had seen the guy they were looking for about 10 minutes earlier as he left. But after seeing that, I decided it was better to have and not need than it would be to need and not have.

      As to bars, we can carry in a bar but you can’t consume booze if you do. Not a big deal to me, my days of boozing it up are pretty well over. This is a pretty common addendum to the law in most states. There are simply enough idiots that are irresponsible that the law was created. While I don’t think the gun should be banned for those not drinking, I don’t see the principle changing.

      Come to think of it, we have very few restrictions on where we can carry. If I remember the old stuff that used to be written on the primitive permit before it became like a driver’s license it read something like: No carry in government building. No carrying in places of mass gathering such as sporting arena’s. No carry in church unless permission is granted by a church authority. No carry INSIDE schools. State law here allows us to have a gun in the car. If the car is to be parked at the school, the firearm is to be “secured” out of sight. That’s all I recall. I also remember that in GA, the no guns signs have no force of law. All they can do is ask you to leave. I also had taken the SC required course to get their out of state permit and in that course they said the SC law on no guns signs was written so specifically that virtually none of the signs posted in the state would meet the regulations and thus would be considered invalid. The sign had to be an exact size. It has to be posted in an exact spot, so many inches from the bottom of the door, so many from the side, in exactly the right size. The instructor was the one who noted to me that there were very few signs that met the requirements of the law.
      Anyway, point being we are pretty damn friendly to guns in Georgia.

  5. The Paranoia of the sick Far Right is as ignorant as it is infinite.

    Waiting periods save lives as people often commit murder or suicide in an act of passion without thinking. And most waiting periods have provisions for people under immediate threat which shows that the Paranoia and lies by the Far Right about waiting periods are sensational far right propaganda.

    It is well known through insurance records and psychological studies that Males under the age of 25 are not aware of the short or long term consequences of their juvenile actions. Insurance records show it is young reckless and inexperience drivers who cause the most fatal accidents which includes both cars, machinery and guns. And when you mix booze, violent young men, half naked women and guns you have shoot outs and murders.

    • Why should a free citizen be denied the right to choose their preferred time and manner of passing? The reality is that theistic prohibition is the only argument against suicide. As an atheist, which to quote Lenin, every socialist is, you should be glad that people are given the freedom to self-terminate. Setting Higher Powers aside, evolution demands that the mentality ill remove themselves from the gene pool due to their inferior and disadvantageous characteristics. So either you hate freedom, love the Lord and obey his commands, or deny the benefits of natural selection…

    • when you mix booze, violent young men, half naked women and guns you have shoot outs and murders.

      Sounds like a fun Saturday night… Don’t threaten me with a good time.. You fucking moron and your “statistics”…

    • I show dacians ‘under 25’ rants to young people here in the glorious peoples republic of ca. He is helping me to make conservatives out of potential liberals.

    • “Waiting periods save lives as people often commit murder or suicide in an act of passion without thinking.”

      While people can commit criminal or self-inflicted acts of violence “in an act of passion without thinking” – there has never been even one documented case where such act “of passion without thinking” was actually prevented by a waiting period. Its a false circular correlation=causation reasoning.

      It is false that “Waiting periods save lives”, even if there are some that might not commit a criminal or self-inflicted act of violence after waiting a while.

      Its called human nature. It has nothing to do with having to ‘wait’. It has to to with the reward-vs-risk reasoning of human nature and the effect of either.

    • and also this > “people often commit murder or suicide in an act of passion without thinking.”

      1. suicide is not an act of “passion without thinking”.

      2. murder is not an act of “passion without thinking”. Although some kind of homicide type crime may have happened that’s called a ‘crime of passion’, a murder is intentional and knowing and premeditated (in some way) thus ‘without passion and with thinking’

      It seems you did again what you always do, post bogus BS to support your passion for the anti-gun agenda without thinking.

    • “And when you mix booze, violent young men, half naked women and guns you have shoot outs and murders.”
      If this was a problem, we would already know about it. There is not a lot of people sitting around waiting on some law to be passed before they do as dacian suggest. More of the left/dems setting up straw dogs and then looking for a way to expel them. Their arguments are conjecture and foolishness.

    • “It is well known through insurance records and psychological studies that Males under the age of 25 are not aware of the short or long term consequences of their juvenile actions. Insurance records show it is young reckless and inexperience drivers who cause the most fatal accidents which includes both cars, machinery and guns. And when you mix booze, violent young men, half naked women and guns you have shoot outs and murders.”

      What you wrote with that is 100% false. But I’m not going to tell you why its 100% false, but the reasons are staring right at you in what you wrote. So lets see if you can display some ‘passion’ and ‘thinking’ to figure out why you are such a confirmation biased moron.

    • dacian the demented,

      ” . . . Males under the age of 25 are not aware of the short or long term consequences of their juvenile actions.”

      So, you are trying to subtly tell us you are under 25, dacian the demented?? Yeah, we had already figured that out (oh, and that “under 25” apparently applies to both your age AND your IQ).

      Tell us again, dacian the demented, how “educated” you are. You are literally the only commenter on this forum about whom I can confidently say is obviously stupider than MajorLiar. I suppose I should give you props for being willing to so prominently display your intellectual failings, but your idiot rants have grown so stale that they are become annoying. Go play bumper tag with semis on the freeway, dacian.

    • Males under the age of 25 are not aware of the short or long term consequences of their juvenile actions

      Yeah, that’s exactly why the Feds grab up all of the 18/20-year-olds they can, to go fight their stupid fucking wars for the benefit of your so called “Capitalvania”…

    • “And most waiting periods have provisions for people under immediate threat..”

      Suuuuure they do.
      /sarc, as if needed

      Name one.

      Just like the NJ gal that was waiting for her permit to purchase to clear?

      You know the one, she had multiple restraining orders against her ex boyfriend, who decided it was time bludgeon her to death BEFORE she was granted ‘mother may I’ permisson to buy a handgun?

    • Well if this is the case: “It is well known through insurance records and psychological studies that Males under the age of 25 are not aware of the short or long term consequences of their juvenile actions.”
      Then by your statement you mean that the mother of that last shooter who was convicted of involuntary manslaughter yesterday should not have been convicted because as you stated, males under 25 are not aware of the consequences of their actions.
      That aside, being a male who was once 25 or younger, your thought is utter nonsense. Most humans become aware of consequences from their actions as small children that lead to disciplinary action. Typically this is instilled by parents as a child grows up. Don’t do X or you’ll get spanked. Or don’t do X or you’ll lose your phone for a week. Action and reaction. So the theory of males under 25 not knowing consequence is little more than foolish ignorance. The problem today is that, beyond piss poor parenting, kids no longer have any respect for authority. And society is allowing this ilk to continue to act in that way which only provides reinforcement to them to act out more. This is why so many teachers are retiring early these days.
      By the way, your thought also directly contradicts the liberal playbook rules. See, liberals think 16 years olds are competent enough to vote. But you’re telling us males under 25 don’t understand their actions. Explain that one Mr Wizard.

  6. “The proposed revision reads: “The mandatory waiting period is 3 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, or expires upon the completion of the records checks required under s. 17 790.065, whichever occurs earlier.” In effect, the proposal, if passed, would ensure the waiting period expires three days after the purchase.”

    Wait, that doesn’t make sense. Unless they mean that once the ATF or state police clears the background check the buyer can walk out with the weapon. Puzzled.

    • It doesn’t make sense but if you have a Carry Permit you can skip the waiting period.

      It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s fast and most of the rest of the US states have reciprocity agreements with Florida.

      I didn’t need to take the class because I’m a veteran but the class is pretty painless. I went with my wife when she took it in Florida and I have to say it was easier than getting my Florida Boater’s Safety card and I was already a sailing instructor when I took that class and it was still a lot of memorizing of silly junk. I’m old enough not to need a Boater’s Safety card anywhere in the USA but when we take our boat to Canada you need one or a USCG Captain’s License. You also need an FCC radio license just to operate a marine VHF there too if you visit (or at least one person aboard must possess one.) In the USA anyone, even a child, can operate a marine VHF on US waters without a license of any type.

      • “It doesn’t make sense but if you have a Carry Permit you can skip the waiting period.”

        That’s been nice for the gun shows and pawn shops I like to visit while traveling about…

      • Even with a CCP, there’s a waiting period.

        The last time that I bought a gun, I had to wait until the NICS came back. That was one of the longest half-hours that I ever lived through.

        *insert rim shot here*

        • With me it’s a crapshoot, about every third time I buy a gun I get “declined” in BGC because there is apparently another individual with my name and an EXTENSIVE criminal record that has used an address similar to mine, fucking morons are too lazy to look a bit farther and note the DATE OF BIRTH and SSN, usually takes an hour or so to clear it, any other time I’m approved and out the door before payment shows up on my banking app… FL was 18 to purchase a firearm til the Parkland fuck-up, changed it to 21 (Rick Scott Gov) for all except active/ex-military, the last one means nothing to me, I’ve always carried during declared emergencies and find no reason to stop now…

      • I have a GA permit. People here were all cheering constitutional carry like it was the greatest thing ever. I still keep my permit for the simple reason you mentioned. I can bypass the NCIS background check with my permit. Fill out the 4473 and walk out with weapon. If you let your permit expire, back to $5 background checks and potential waiting periods. I bought a handgun last year and when I went to pay the clerk noticed my carry permit had expired the day before. Because of that, I had to do the NCIS check. It came back on a 10 day hold because I had bought a gun 4 days earlier. There was no need to delay it, it’s just them making you wait because they can. 6 hours later the hold was released. Having the permit avoids this potential delay.

    • if passed, would ensure the waiting period expires three days after the purchase.”

      Looks like they are saying if the BGC takes longer than three days to approve it is considered approved at the end of the third day?

      • The way that I read it, the waiting period could be shorter than 3 days.

        Bill text: A mandatory waiting period is imposed between the
        14 purchase and delivery of a firearm. The mandatory waiting period
        15 is 3 days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, or expires
        16 upon the completion of the records checks required under s.
        17 790.065, whichever occurs earlier later.

        They only changed the last word from “later” to “earlier.”

        • And I read it wrong. Tried to delete post during the time to edit.

          The title of the bill is “Expiration of the Mandatory Waiting Period for Firearm Purchases” and the summary states “Removes provision authorizing mandatory waiting period to expire upon completion of records check.”

          So Maxx you are correct. https://legiscan.com/FL/bill/H0017/2024

  7. You just keep listening to the libertarians and you human rights to leg@l butt s3x and drugs, will always be secure.

    “Why it’s Ok to not vote.” Catherine Mangu Ward. A great libertarian. Video 50 min long.
    https://youtu.be/KSmBG1uU1ig

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