Since 2004 the state of Florida has made it illegal for any government official or agency to “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.”
Despite that, the city of Jacksonville kept a registry of everyone who entered City Hall while exercising their right to bear arms from July 2023 until April 2025. The city stopped entering the names of gun owners into its registry after complaints were made, and State Attorney State Attorney Melissa Nelson launched an investigation into the practice.
Nelson ultimately concluded that no criminal charges were warranted, finding that the list was created by a Public Works manager “because he wanted data about how many people carried firearms into city buildings — believing it would improve preparedness in case of an emergency, not realizing it created a legal problem.”
While he might not have realized that,he still knowingly and willfully kept a registry of gun owners, which is a clear violation of state statute. Now Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has launched an investigation of his own, which could lead to a civil lawsuit against the city.
“I think the local state attorney concluded that it was a lower-level staff person that didn’t know what they were doing,” he said. “Most everybody here knows that ignorance of the law is not typically a defense, so I do believe what happened was wrong and unlawful. We’re taking a hard look at it and we’ll have some updates soon.”
Under Florida law, Jacksonville could face a fine up to $5 million if the registry was kept “with the knowledge or complicity of the management of the governmental entity.” City officials maintain that they were in the dark about the actions of the Public Works manager, but since it was management of the Public Works department that came up with the registry, I’m not sure that matters.
City Council member Matt Carlucci said Jacksonville “made a low-level administrative mistake” on the gun registry that neither Curry nor Deegan knew about and it was “corrected immediately when it come to light.”
“I am so over — like so many people in our community — the political grandstanding on this issue when we have so many other important problems to solve,” he said. “Instead, we sure could use a little partnership from Tallahassee as opposed to constant political posturing.”
Grandstanding? I’d call it accountability. If the registry was nixed once the mayor became aware that it existed, great. The problem, though, is that it never should have been created to begin with, much less maintained for well over a year.
At the very least this suggests a lackadaisical attitude towards knowing the law on the part of the manager who came up with the list, but the response from officials like Carlucci also indicate that the city still isn’t taking this issue as seriously as it should. I have no idea how Uthmeier’s investigation will conclude, but the fact that it’s taking place is a very good thing.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment.
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