Last fall, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier did what state lawmakers had been unable (and in some cases, unwilling) to do for years by declining to appeal a judge’s ruling that the state’s ban on open carry violated the rights of Florida residents.
Now Uthmeier has once again turned a court case into a win for gun owners; this time involving a challenge to Florida’s ban on concealed carry for adults under the age of 21.
In another win for the unalienable rights of Floridians, the 4th DCA agreed with our position that Florida’s law banning adults under 21 from conceal carrying a firearm is unconstitutional.
We will not seek further review and will work with @FDACS to implement the court’s order.
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) June 17, 2026
The Fourth District Court of Appeal in Florida struck down the carry ban on Wednesday after Uthmeier declined to defend the law. Instead, the AG agreed with the 20-year-old defendant who was charged with illegally possessing a firearm.
[Jaylen] Eubanks told police that he showed the weapon when he was approached in a threatening manner by two white men in a car. Eubanks told police he thought the men were going to run him over, and he showed the weapon to let them know he was not going to be an easy target, according to the probable cause affidavit filed when he was arrested.
Eubanks and his attorney argued that he possessed the same right to carry as adults 21 and older, but a trial judge ruled against him. Today, however the Fourth District Court of Appeals found in favor of Eubanks, with the panel declaring, “We find the statute in this case to be facially unconstitutional as to 18- to 20-year-olds because no set of circumstances exists … that would allow [them] to carry a concealed firearm,” and adding the “inability of law-abiding adults aged 18 to 20 to use concealed carry available to all law-abiding adults 21 and older would certainly classify as … an infringement of their Second Amendment rights.”
With Uthmeier’s decision not to appeal the case, the appellate court’s decision will remain in place and apply statewide.
This is a significant win for Second Amendment supporters, and there is at least one more law on the books that could be undone relatively soon through Uthmeier’s office; the ban on gun sales to adults 18-to-20-years-old. The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban in NRA v. Glass, but the Supreme Court has kept that case and several others dealing with the right to keep and bear arms for young adults on hold for several months now. It’s likely that the Court will vacate the Eleventh Circuit’s decision and remand the litigation back to the appellate court soon after it releases its decisions in Wolford v. Lopez and U.S. v. Hemani, which could happen as soon as Thursday morning.
Once the case is back before the Eleventh Circuit, Uthmeier could enter into a settlement with the plaintiffs that acknowledges the unconstitutional nature of the sales ban, as he recently did in a case involving Florida’s waiting periods.
There are a lot of pro-2A attorneys general out there, but none of them have been as active as Uthmeier when it comes to undoing the unconstitutional gun laws in the states where they serve. Today’s news deserves a round of applause, and Uthmeier deserves the support of every Second Amendment supporter in Florida when they head to polls this November.
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