Jacksonville Mayor Claims Ignorance Over Registry of Gun Owners

The mayor of Jacksonville, Florida claims she was completely unaware of the existence of a list of gun owners who visited City Hall, even though the backdoor gun registry was ongoing for almost two years of her term. Instead, Mayor Donna Deegan is pointing the finger at the facilities manager for the building, telling a local TV station that the record-keeping directive “never made it to me.”

The local State’s Attorney is investigating the creation of the registry, which appears to run afoul of a state law that makes it a felony to create any kind of list of gun owners and the firearms they possess. On Monday, Deegan spoke to First Coast News about the scandal, which was first uncovered by a sitting city council member. 

“This directive was written before I came into office. I’ll say that again: It was written before I came into office, before I was sworn in, and we know that from documentation. So we don’t know how long before that that was under discussion, but apparently it was simply sent from a city employee to a security firm.”

Deegan’s assertion is true in the sense that the “Check Points and Perimeter Security” memo from Facility Manager Mike Soto was drafted June 30, 2023.

June 30, a Friday, was the final day of the Lenny Curry administration. Deegan was sworn in the next day. 

“At a minimum, record the name, state issued photo ID unique identification number, age, (and) weapon type in the WEAPON AND FIREARM LOGBOOK,” the document dictates. A subsequent revision maintained that language.

However, that revision was made July 24, 2023, long after Deegan was sworn in, raising questions about why her administration wouldn’t be aware of the practice.

And the policy wasn’t stopped until late last month, raising questions about chain of command and supervisory authority in the executive branch.

Deegan says that now, nearly halfway through her first term, corrective measures are being taken.

“As soon as I found out about it, we stopped the practice and we’ve now put some proactive steps into place to make sure that we’re aware of any form of procedure or policy that we might not have been aware of,” Deegan said. “We’re going to continue to move forward with making sure that the proper checks and balances are there.”

To the best of my knowledge, Soto hasn’t discussed his role in the creation of the registry with any media outlet, though he may have spoken to the State Attorney’s office about the “Weapon and Firearm Logbook”. Did he come up with this plan on his own or was there input from other employees or city officials? Why did Soto (or other officials) deem it necessary to record the details of any lawful gun owner who chose to exercise their Second Amendment rights at City Hall, and who had access to that information once it had been written down? 

Even if Deegan is telling the truth about being oblivious to the existence of the list, the fact that she’s now talking about “proper checks and balances” is pretty strong evidence that this is something she should have been aware of. I understand the desire to pass the buck to underlings, however, especially when there’s the potential of felony charges involved and when ignorance of the law may help her avoid prosecution. 

The Florida statute in question states that “No state governmental agency or local government, special district, or other political subdivision or official, agent, or employee of such state or other governmental entity or any other person, public or private, shall knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms,” which means that if the State’s Attorney can’t find any documented evidence that Deegan was aware of the registry she might be off the hook. 

The city itself could face fines in the millions of dollars, however, and whoever did decide to create and maintain this list of gun owners should face criminal charges once the investigation is complete.  One or more people knowingly and willfully chose to keep a record of those who exercised their right to carry at City Hall (as well as what guns they carried), and there needs to be consequences for those illegal acts.