Florida –-(AmmoLand.com)- We won big, again!
“It is not a core municipal function to occupy an area that the Legislature has preempted, and local governments have no lawful discretion or authority to enact ordinances that violate state preemption,” – Florida Supreme Court Justice Ricky Polston
Florida public officials will continue to pay a steep price if they try to regulate firearms, according to an opinion of the Florida Supreme Court issued Thursday, which rejected attempts by former Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried and dozens of city and county officials who sought to remove the penalties from the state’s powerful preemption statute.
Florida’s preemption statute only allows the state legislature to regulate firearms. If local officials tinker with gun laws in their jurisdiction, they can face removal from office and fines of up to $5,000, which the statute requires them to pay themselves, not with public funds. The statute became law in 1987, but it wasn’t until 2011 that the penalties were added.
Fried and the other plaintiffs did not challenge the statute but claimed that these penalties were unconstitutional. She was supported by several anti-gun organizations.
In an Amicus Brief, Florida Carry, Inc. asked the court to preserve the penalties, lest the statute become useless.
“Florida Carry asks this Court to recognize that only through the enforcement and penalty provisions of Sec. 790.33 can that statute have any effect in protecting the fundamental individual rights to keep and to bear arms that have been guaranteed in this country and in this state since their founding. Any limitations on the penalty and enforcement provisions would weaken these rights. The passage of Sec. 790.33 and each amendment to it was a careful policy decision by the Legislature. Each amendment to the statute was crafted in direct reaction to local officials’ failure to follow the law or their tactics to avoid liability for their actions. Furthermore, the argument that local officials can, with impunity, ignore the laws of the state and the rights of the people, should never be adopted by the courts. The courts are the last resort against overreach by any level of government. Amicus asks this Court to uphold all provisions of Sec. 790.33, and specifically the penalty provisions protect law abiding Floridians,” Florida Carry’s Amicus Brief states.
Five of the six Florida Supreme Court justices agreed.
“It is not a core municipal function to occupy an area that the Legislature has preempted, and local governments have no lawful discretion or authority to enact ordinances that violate state preemption,” Justice Ricky Polston wrote in the majority opinion.
“Over the years, Florida Carry has filed numerous lawsuits for preemption statute violations by some of these same plaintiffs,” said Eric Friday, general counsel for Florida Carry, Inc. “These anti-freedom politicians couldn’t beat Florida Carry directly, so they tried to get rid of the penalties. They failed.”
Sincerely,
Florida Carry Board of Directors
About Florida Carry, Inc.:
Florida Carry is a Florida nonprofit, non-partisan, grassroots organization founded in 2010. Florida Carry is dedicated to advancing the fundamental civil right of all Floridians to keep and bear arms for self-defense as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Florida. In 2016 Florida Carry was named the Grassroots Organization of the Year by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Florida Carry, Inc. was organized in order to better coordinate activities, effectively lobby the state legislature, and to provide a legal entity capable of filing suit to demand compliance with state and federal law. Florida Carry stands to represent our members, millions of gun owners, and the countless knife and defensive weapon carriers of Florida. We are not beholden to any national organization’s agenda that may compromise that mission. Florida Carry is the state’s largest independent second amendment advocacy organization.
THIS is the kind of preemption law that EVERY state needs! States with weak preemption laws (laws that do not involve criminal penalties for abridging the Rights of the citizens of that state) need to be upgraded. States without 2A preemption need to get such a law, regardless of how strong or weak. Something is better than nothing!
Any legislative attempt to diminish the Bill of Rights
should result in charges of treason for all signatories
of that legislation.
More evidence that any vote for any Democrat at any level is a vote for gun control, registration and confiscation.
I think you are absolutely correct and I might add concerning the dimocRAT’s du jour, voting for or supporting this crop of dims is an illustration of chronic mental illness or masochistic tendencies.
Casual willingness by anti-gunners to violate state preemption laws goes to illustrate just how contemptuous they are of us. They regard guns as a disease to be eradicated, and YOU are just as bad. These types cannot be assuaged through reason. About nine years ago, I attended a guns rights rally in Morrisville, Pa (just across the Delaware from staunchly anti-gun, Trenton, NJ). We were all very peaceful and orderly, despite, off in the distance was a group of counter demonstrators. After our rally broke up, a number of us slowly walked over to the antis , hoping to engage… Read more »
That’s because they base their arguments on emotions and they cannot articulate emotional responses to logical questions. And they hate you…period. To the leftards, if you aren’t in lockstep with their Goose-step, then you are a bad person who needs to be jailed or post birth aborted.
there must be penalties for those who think they are above the law and therefore they can violate said law, especially elected officials and law enforcement.
now, if only the legislature would consider constitutional carry for law-abiding citizens.
Nikki Fried would have known all of this long ago… if she wasn’t actually Nikki brain-Fried! 🙂
It has been my long observation that leftist bureaucrats will ignore
those points of law and governance to which they don’t agree.
With media control, appearances are that there is no challenge.
Like-minded educators will talk around issues that they would rather
the student not know. Students are indoctrinated away from their
rightful American heritage; and with a grade or degree they become
immune to opposing facts.
“Five of the six Florida Supreme Court justices agreed.” That even one Justice disagreed is concerning. This Justice needs to be identified, investigated and impeached if necessary.
I wonder why the lone justice didn’t pen a dissenting opinion? Cowardly?
Removing the penalties aspect from violations of the preemption law is the same as granting the anti-gun politicians qualified immunity.
When did she file this lawsuit? Before or after she filed the federal lawsuit to allow drug users to own guns? Or was it before she lost her position as the head of the Florida Dept. of Agriculture? Or before her failed campaign running to become the Governor of Florida?
Music’, “breaking federal law” by posessing a gun should be “legal”, for any adult citizen who is not currently incarcerated for a crime.
It’s more about the hypocrisy for which this witch enjoys. I could care less if someone smokes pot & carries. Or if they drink. But there actions will be carefully scrutinized if the time arises. They will not be using the drugs made me do it if I am on a jury.
You could always get a different job, but you would rather the government harm others over the 2nd Amendment out of jealousy. You want the government to harm her over her gun rights, because you let the government harm you over your gun rights. You view the 2nd Amendment as a government privilege and not a right. That is as bad as those who let the cops endanger their families with permit laws or not carrying a gun at all times in all places without metal detectors. You should support her right to smoke pot and be armed, not cheer… Read more »
Odd, I guess I’m dumb, but what exactly makes a wife a trophy?
OV, the subject of trophy white has caused a downpour of down votes…….how come?
On re reading the previous posts it must be More than Trophy wife. It goes all the way back to we were warned……….funny, too .
Colorado DemocRATs did away with the state’s preemption law so now various cities and towns are creating their own gun control (prohibition) laws. A couple have been ruled unconstitutional but new ones get created by idiots that have to learn the hard way that the 2nd Amendment means exactly what it says!
That penalty is actually laughable. How about $500,000.00 would be more appropriate & nationwide. This would help alleviate a lot of the debt placed on the citizens that was created by the scum.
I have definitely been shadow-banned at this site. I get zero replies to my comments now, not even so much as a thumbs up or down. The last 6 weeks has been the sound of crickets – no matter how controversial or agreeable I am.
Relevance?
I’d do her…with YOUR pecker.
lol