{"id":115226,"date":"2026-02-20T11:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=115226"},"modified":"2026-02-20T11:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:56:28","slug":"115226","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=115226","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2026 Where Non-Dangerous Felons Really Can Recover Their Gun Rights.<\/a><\/p>\n

Christopher Morgan was convicted in Pennsylvania in 2007 after he was caught carrying a firearm without a state license. Fifteen years later, he was stopped by a Florida officer, whom he told of a pistol in the center console of his car. Morgan was charged in Florida with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He has no other criminal history.<\/p>\n

Before his trial in Florida, Morgan\u2019s defense team made a motion that the state firearm law,\u00a0790.23<\/a>, is \u201cunconstitutional both facially and as applied to him.\u201d However, the trial court denied his motion. Morgan then pleaded no contest to the felon in possession Florida charges but appealed his conviction. He was sentenced to two days in jail and court costs.<\/p>\n

Last week, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier issued a\u00a0response\u00a0<\/a>to Morgan\u2019s appeal, which said that his conviction for possessing a firearm by a felon violates the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

AG Uthmeier actually agreed with Morgan\u2019s legal team.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn studied reflection, the Attorney General has concluded that the conviction does indeed infringe Morgan\u2019s right, as a nondangerous felon, to keep and bear arms,\u201d Uthmeier wrote. \u201cThe state must therefore confess error and urge this Court to reverse.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In the court document, Uthmeier spells out that he is Florida\u2019s \u201cChief Legal Officer,\u201d and that he swore an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is thus the Attorney General\u2019s duty to admit when he believes the State has obtained a conviction in violation of the Constitution,\u201d he wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n

If the court permits him to file a brief for this case, Uthmeier\u2019s team wrote, he will \u201cdiscuss the lack of historical evidence supporting the dispossession of all felons as distinct from the strong historical evidence supporting the dispossession of\u00a0dangerous<\/em>\u00a0felons.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Florida<\/p>\n

Solid Second Amendment History<\/strong><\/h5>\n

This isn\u2019t the first pro-gun move Florida\u2019s Attorney General has made. In fact, the list is getting long.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier recently intervened in a teen\u2019s criminal case by asking a state appeals court to uphold the defendant\u2019s right to carry\u2014a move that even the anti-gun media admitted was a victory for Floridians\u2019 gun rights. The issue involved a 1987 state law, which bars 18, 19 and 20-year-olds from carrying concealed firearms.<\/p>\n

In September of last year, Uthmeier ended a Florida state law that criminalized open carry. He did it with a single post on X.<\/p>\n

Once Florida\u2019s First District Court of Appeals ruled the state\u2019s open carry ban was unconstitutional in\u00a0McDaniels<\/em>\u00a0v.<\/em>\u00a0State<\/em>\u00a0of<\/em>\u00a0Florida<\/em>, Uthmeier posted an important announcement.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cI\u2019m issuing guidance to Florida\u2019s prosecutors and law enforcement in light of the 1st DCA\u2019s decision in\u00a0McDaniels v. State<\/em>,\u201d\u00a0Uthmeier posted on X.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cBecause no other appellate court has considered the constitutionality of Florida\u2019s open carry ban since the SCOTUS decision in\u00a0Bruen<\/em>, the 1st DCA\u2019s decision is binding on all Florida\u2019s trial courts. Meaning that as of last week, open carry is the law of the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Uthmeier first joined Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as deputy general counsel in 2019. Within a year he became general counsel. One year later, DeSantis appointed him chief of staff. Last year, when DeSantis appointed Attorney General Ashely Moody to replace Senator Marco Rubio, he appointed Uthmeier to replace Moody as the state\u2019s 30th<\/sup>\u00a0Attorney General.<\/p>\n

Reaction<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Eric Friday is general counsel for\u00a0Florida Carry, Inc.<\/a>\u00a0He has been a pro-gun attorney in Florida for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames Uthmeier is the most intellectually honest Attorney General we\u2019ve ever had in Florida, while I have practiced law in the state,\u201d Friday said Thursday morning. \u201cThe real question going forward will be a process for people who want a determination of whether their prior conviction is still problematic.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s clemency process, Friday said, has been broken for years. There are long delays after applications are submitted. Many states have a judicial restoration process, but Florida does not.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the only path we have in Florida currently to restore felons in their right to bear arms,\u201d he said. \u201cNew York has a better restoration process for felons to be able to bear arms than Florida.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Florida\u2026 Where Non-Dangerous Felons Really Can Recover Their Gun Rights. Christopher Morgan was convicted in Pennsylvania in 2007 after he was caught carrying a firearm without a state license. Fifteen years later, he was stopped by a Florida officer, whom he told of a pistol in the center console of his car. Morgan was charged … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rights","category-rkba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=115226"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115226\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":115227,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115226\/revisions\/115227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=115226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=115226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=115226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}