Outside of a legitimate Chapter 870 local "State of Emergency" order, I do not believe so for an otherwise law-abiding citizen with a FCWFL, but IANAL! See Chapter 790 of Florida Statutes, 790.06(12)(a):

790.06 License to carry concealed weapon or firearm.—
(12)(a) A license issued under this section does not authorize any person to openly carry a handgun or carry a concealed weapon or firearm into:
1. Any place of nuisance as defined in s. 823.05;
2. Any police, sheriff, or highway patrol station;
3. Any detention facility, prison, or jail;
4. Any courthouse;
5. Any courtroom, except that nothing in this section would preclude a judge from carrying a concealed weapon or determining who will carry a concealed weapon in his or her courtroom;
6. Any polling place;
7. Any meeting of the governing body of a county, public school district, municipality, or special district;
8. Any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof;
9. Any school, college, or professional athletic event not related to firearms;
10. Any elementary or secondary school facility or administration building;
11. Any career center;
12. Any portion of an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, which portion of the establishment is primarily devoted to such purpose;
13. Any college or university facility unless the licensee is a registered student, employee, or faculty member of such college or university and the weapon is a stun gun or nonlethal electric weapon or device designed solely for defensive purposes and the weapon does not fire a dart or projectile;
14. The inside of the passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport, provided that no person shall be prohibited from carrying any legal firearm into the terminal, which firearm is encased for shipment for purposes of checking such firearm as baggage to be lawfully transported on any aircraft; or
15. Any place where the carrying of firearms is prohibited by federal law.
(b) A person licensed under this section shall not be prohibited from carrying or storing a firearm in a vehicle for lawful purposes.
(c) This section does not modify the terms or conditions of s. 790.251(7).
(d) Any person who knowingly and willfully violates any provision of this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.

 

My personal opinion: Why would you want to attend or participate in a "protest?" Given the trends of "peaceful" protests turning violent in a flash, why would you want to even be there? Armed or not.... I would avoid "protests."

 

I'll attend a protest if I can be part of the line of citizens who protect leo's like these guys did in Baltimore. I'd get involved with something like this in a heartbeat. Time to start slitting throats. And notice the picture closely, no antifa's/rioters want to move into these people faces like the do the leo's.

 

@BeerHunter Thanks for posting that. I did reresh and read up on that prior to asking. I did not see anything in there to prevent from concealed carry during a protest but I wanted to be sure I didn't miss or misconstrue anything. So, if someone can please confirm that my assumption in that one can carry during a protest I would appreciate it. Or point out what I missed.

@racer88 Because this isn't really supposed to be a protest but a sit in which is in my small upper middle class bedroom community with local police participating and I want to use it as a teaching moment for my son. I truly believe this will remain a non violent come together moment. I just remember that in other states there are laws preventing carrying during such and want to make sure we can.

 

FWIW, I happen to think the apparent prohibition on possession of firearms in public in F.S. Chapter 870 [there is debate here on FCC about that] is Unconstitutional BECAUSE it would deprive an otherwise law-abiding citizen their Constitutional RTKBA that happens to find themselves within a declared SOE, precisely when they may need their RTKBA the most, and thus the prohibition would likely fail if challenged in a "test case," even if it had to go all the way to SCOTUS to do it. I personally am not [yet] in a position where I'm able to say I could endure as a test case for several reason. However, I do also know it's rather be judged by 12 than carried by six!

One more thing: I believe you might be waiting for a long time for someone here to tell you, "yes, go ahead!" This forum should never be considered a source for legal counsel to support what you can do. There will be lots of opinions on what the law says one cannot do, but if you're looking for legal advice that you can be reasonably confident will keep you out of the crosshairs of the legal system, you'll likely need to depend upon the advice of your legal counsel.

 

 

Basically, if it's not prohibited, it's legal.

 

Thank you @racer88

 

It was a teaching moment for my son and it was my first protest (if you can even call it that) too. More of a public get together. There was about 100 to 200 people. Peaceful, short and nice. Most of the people were from our city which is an upper middle class neighborhood.

 

I just noticed this thread. I agree with you completely that attending a peaceful protest is a good thing. Peacefully protesting something is part of the backbone of this great country I believe. The only certainty in the law is uncertainty.

Having said that, concealed carry is likely permissible during a protest. There are a couple situations that might be problematic. The first is proximity to other people. If you carry at 4 o’clock like I do, it always gives me the creeps when somebody bumps me. I would worry about someone bumping into me and announcing “he has a gun“. In an orderly peaceful protest that’s probably not a problem. I just know that personally when I’m bumper-to-bumper with people like that I’m constantly twisting and moving so as to not have someone bump me at 4 o’clock.

The second situation that might be a problem is if the local government declares an emergency under chapter 870 or declares the area or crowd a nuisance under Florida statutes. There’s probably a constitutional issue there because if you were at a protest and an emergency was declared at 3 PM while you were there you would have no notice. Technically, at the moment it was declared an emergency or a nuisance you’d be toast. The definitions in the nuisance statute are pretty vague. There is a provision prohibiting carrying a concealed firearm in a place of Nuisance under chapter 823.05 but the actual definition of nuisance is in chapter 823.01 and is vague.

I always look at things in the context of “in the worst case scenario, if someone really wanted to cause you trouble” however, IANAD.

Congrats to you and your son for participating.

 

I just noticed this thread. I agree with you completely that attending a peaceful protest is a good thing. Peacefully protesting something is part of the backbone of this great country I believe. The only certainty in the law is uncertainty.

Having said that, concealed carry is likely permissible during a protest. There are a couple situations that might be problematic. The first is proximity to other people. If you carry at 4 o’clock like I do, it always gives me the creeps when somebody bumps me. I would worry about someone bumping into me and announcing “he has a gun“. In an orderly peaceful protest that’s probably not a problem. I just know that personally when I’m bumper-to-bumper with people like that I’m constantly twisting and moving so as to not have someone bump me at 4 o’clock.

The second situation that might be a problem is if the local government declares an emergency under chapter 870 or declares the area or crowd a nuisance under Florida statutes. There’s probably a constitutional issue there because if you were at a protest and an emergency was declared at 3 PM while you were there you would have no notice. Technically, at the moment it was declared an emergency or a nuisance you’d be toast. The definitions in the nuisance statute are pretty vague. There is a provision prohibiting carrying a concealed firearm in a place of Nuisance under chapter 823.05 but the actual definition of nuisance is in chapter 823.01 and is vague.

I always look at things in the context of “in the worst case scenario, if someone really wanted to cause you trouble” however, IANAD.

Congrats to you and your son for participating.

carrying at 4:00 in a crowd isnt a real issue if one consciously covers their firearm with their arm...ive been shoulder to shoulder in even fast moving crowd situations and the occasional bump usually goes without notice of what they are bumping at all...

the declared emergency situation would really be a stretch and i would suspect easily defended...turning a situation into another and using it to arrest someone who was previously within the law is kind of ex post facto law enforcement...kind of like waiting for someone to walk into the woods on a hiking trail, then nailing up a no trespassing sign at the entrance...

 

I’ve never been to one so not sure I’d carry for my first

 

I agree with you on both points generally. You can’t protect your weapon all the time and I’m just overly cautious I guess.

With respect to the declared emergency situation, that’s why I commented with the sentence before the part you highlighted. You would probably win on a constitutional challenge as I indicated but whowants to have to fight that battle?

 

Just posted another thread about this.
Concealed carrier at a protest in Tallahassee "brandished" his gun, was arrested, then not charged because it was self defense.

 

Which is consistent with many posts in this thread, particularly posts #2 & #20.