Leon County put an AR-15 and long-gun ban ask on its 2027 wish list for places where handguns are already off limits. Keep Florida Gun Owners fighting before it becomes a bill number.
Here’s what actually happened for gun owners this week:
On Tuesday, Leon County adopted its wish list for the 2027 session, and one line on it asks the Legislature to take the places where a handgun is already off limits, courthouses, police stations, prisons, and government meetings, and extend that ban to every firearm, meaning the rifle, the shotgun, and the AR-15 they keep naming in the writeup. House Bill 321 and Senate Bill 406 already tried this in 2026, and both died without a hearing. Tuesday was the county telling them to file it again.
They will call it closing a loophole, but their own paperwork admits section 790.06 talks about handguns and does not expressly cover an openly carried long gun in those buildings, and they also admit nobody is pouring into the courthouse with a rifle. A right people aren’t using is still a right, and the usual next step is to close it on paper before anybody treats open carry like it counts.
DOJ’s under-21 handgun window is still the biggest federal story, and it is not a Florida green light, because the statute is still on the books and Florida’s own age rules are still Florida’s. The Fifth Circuit’s Elite Precision ruling cracked interstate handgun sales, and the mandate has not issued, and that circuit is not ours. Florida is on the list of states where a qualifying SilencerCo suppressor purchase is being offered on a Form 4473, the appeal window on that Texas case closes October 5, and the company itself says keep it in the state where you bought it until the transport question is answered.
So don’t celebrate like Tallahassee already settled this. The ask is written down now, while it is still a county priority and not a bill number.
For Freedom,
Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Florida Gun Owners
P.S. A “loophole” nobody is using is how they talk about a right they want gone before session starts, so stay subscribed and stay sharp.