ORLANDO, Fla. - Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier on Monday said "open carry is the law of the state."
In a post on X, Uthmeier said he was "issuing guidance to Florida's prosecutors and law enforcement in light of the 1st DCA's decision in McDaniels v. State.
"Because no other appellate court has considered the constitutionality of Florida's open carry ban since the SCOTUS decision in Bruen, the 1st DCA's decision is binding on all Florida's trial courts," Uthmeier said in the post. "As of last week, open carry is the law of the state."
A Florida appeals court last week declared unconstitutional a state law banning the open carrying of firearms, calling the law incompatible with the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
The First District Court of Appeal issued its ruling in a case stemming from the July 4, 2022, arrest of a man who stood at a major intersection in downtown Pensacola carrying a visible, holstered pistol and a copy of the U.S. Constitution.
[VIDEO BELOW: Court throws out ban on open carry]
The decision by a three-judge panel reverses the conviction of Stanley McDaniels in Escambia County in the Florida panhandle. It also vacates his sentence, finding that the state has failed to show that the law is consistent with the country's "historical tradition of firearm regulation."
"No historical tradition supports Florida's Open Carry Ban. To the contrary, history confirms that the right to bear arms in public necessarily includes the right to do so openly," Judge Stephanie Ray wrote in an opinion, joined by Judges Lori Rowe and M. Kemmerly Thomas.
"That is not to say that open carry is absolute or immune from reasonable regulation," the opinion continued. "But what the State may not do is extinguish the right altogether for ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens."
Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded the decision in a post on X. He has called for lawmakers to pass an open carry bill.
[ASK TROOPER STEVE: Carrying concealed guns in your car]
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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