by HB 543 – Public Safety passed a final vote in the Florida Senate yesterday and was ordered engrossed as of this 8:35am EDT today (March 31, 2023). The bill provides for permitless carry of concealed firearms. The open carry amendments that would have made it a true constitutional carry bill failed earlier.
The vote in the Senate to approve this bill was 27 aye, 13 nay. Earlier, the Florida House had approved the bill by a 76 aye to 32 nay margin.
The enrolled bill now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for his signature. He has indicated that he will sign it.
Congratulations to all those in Florida that have worked so hard to see this to completion. With the addition of Florida, over one-half of US states now allow permitless carry. This includes both the second and third largest states by population.
This is good news from my perspective. “Permitless” carry?
Concealed carry without the need for a permit from the government. If the Florida bill included open carry, I’d call it constitutional carry. Open carry, sad to say, is still mostly illegal in Florida.
Contrast that with North Carolina where open carry has been officially allowed since 1922 thanks to a NC Supreme Court case. We still are required to have government permission to carry a firearm concealed. A bill has bee introduced in the General Assembly that remove that requirement but I’d say it has less than a 50-50 chance of making it into law.
Cue the left meltdown and ‘blood in the streets’ calls in three…two…