FL Senate President Infuriates Gun Rights Supporters

Earlier this year, I attended the 2A Freedom Fest in Florida. It was a great time where I got to see some old friends, connect with new ones, and generally celebrate the Second Amendment. During that time, one thing that struck me were a couple of folks who referred to Florida as the freest state in the nation.

Now, to be sure, the Sunshine State has a lot going for it, but it also has a lot of things that keep me from viewing it as the freest state by any measure.

For example, open carry isn’t allowed unless you’re hunting, fishing, or camping. This is something gun rights advocates have been calling for over the years, and it seems that they’re not going to get it this upcoming year, either.

Advocates pushing for Florida to join the overwhelming majority of states that allow the ‘open carry’ of guns aren’t happy with state Senate President Ben Albritton after he said Tuesday that he has no desire to cross the Florida Sheriffs Association, which disfavors open carry.

“Let me be clear about this: I’ve supported law enforcement my entire life. It’s the way I was raised. And I’ve been super consistent as a legislator to support law enforcement in Florida, and I encourage you to check that record. And I stand with them today in opposition,” Albritton told reporters in his first media availability after being sworn in as the presiding officer for the next two years.

“They oppose it. And I trust my law enforcement officials. And that’s where I stand.”

A spokesperson for the Florida Sheriffs Association told the Phoenix last year that the group did not have a position on open carry, “since there isn’t any formal legislation on Open Carry specifically.”

However, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, at the time chair of the FSA, told the Senate Criminal Justice Committee in February 2023 that he is a “staunch opponent of open carry. We don’t need open carry in Florida.”

Although long thought of as a state with few gun restrictions, Florida is one of only four in the nation that ban the open carrying of a firearm either with or without a permit (the others are California, New York, and Illinois). That’s a limitation that gun rights advocates have been unsuccessful in overturning, and Albritton’s comments left a sour taste in the mouth of one prominent Second Amendment supporter.

“He just smacked Florida’s gun owners in the face after those gun owners gave him the very office he holds because they installed a Republican supermajority into power that put him in that office,” said Luis Valdes, Florida state director of Gun Owners of America (GAO), in a text message to the Phoenix Wednesday.

Valdes has a reason to be upset.

Basically, it sounds like one sheriff said they opposed it and that’s enough for him?

Look, I support law enforcement too. It’s the way I was raised too.

However, I’m an adult who is capable of thinking for myself and one thing I’ve come to realize is that law enforcement isn’t always the best judges of people’s basic civil liberties. Many officers would much rather be able to search your home or car without a warrant, and question you without your lawyer present, among other things. They want things they figure will make their life easier.

As for Albritton’s claim that he’s just doing what law enforcement wants, though, we have exactly one cop quoted as not supporting open carry. He represents a county of nearly a million people, which means a large urban center that doesn’t necessarily reflect the rest of the state.

In short, it’s a cop-out. He’s using Guialtieri’s opposition to pretend that “law enforcement” opposes open carry.

He has to know by now that people who are openly carrying a firearm may make law enforcement nervous, but they seldom commit crimes. Why would they? They have to know everyone is already looking at them. I may not be the biggest fan of open carry, but that’s only as a personal choice for me. People should most definitely have the right to do so and Albritton is wrong to oppose it.

The fact that Florida is in the same gun control camp as Illinois, California, and New York is pretty telling, and what it’s telling us ain’t anything good. 

So no, I don’t buy that Florida is the freest state in the nation. It’s better than a whole lot of places, but it still has a ways to go and Albritton isn’t helping in the least.