Florida’s new open carry ruling combines with ‘stand your ground’ to create new freedoms – and new dangers
As of September 2025, Florida has taken significant steps towards expanding gun rights, allowing both open carry and permitless carry of firearms, alongside its controversial “stand your ground” law. Originally enacted in 2005 under Governor Jeb Bush, the stand your ground law was framed as a measure to protect law-abiding citizens from prosecution when using force in self-defense. However, a historian’s examination of these laws reveals troubling trends: rather than enhancing safety, they may have contributed to increased violence and homicide rates. The law has since spread to 38 states, raising concerns about its implications for public safety.
The combination of Florida’s open carry and permitless carry laws creates a permissive environment for gun ownership and use. Open carry allows individuals to display firearms in public without concealment, which, when coupled with the absence of training or permitting requirements, raises the stakes for everyday interactions. This legal framework effectively removes the duty to retreat, allowing individuals to use lethal force based on their perception of threat, which can escalate ordinary situations into deadly confrontations. Studies indicate that states with stand your ground laws see significant increases in homicide rates, with Florida experiencing a staggering 31.6% rise in firearm homicides following the law’s implementation. Additionally, the enforcement of these laws often reveals racial disparities, with data showing that homicides involving white shooters are more likely to be deemed justified compared to those involving Black victims.
The implications of Florida’s laws extend beyond state borders, as the push for national reciprocity could allow individuals from permissive states to carry firearms in more regulated areas, potentially exacerbating the issues of violence and racial bias seen in Florida. Critics argue that this convergence of laws marks a dangerous trend towards normalizing armed encounters, with the potential for increased fatalities justified under the guise of self-defense. As Florida becomes a model for gun rights advocates, the question remains whether other states will adopt similar measures, further entrenching a cycle of violence and legal immunity for armed individuals. The ongoing debate underscores the urgent need for a reevaluation of these laws and their impact on community safety across the nation.
As of September 2025, Florida allows open carry and permitless carry, in addition to its stand your ground law.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images News
Twenty years ago, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush signed the first “stand your ground” law, calling it a
“good, common-sense, anti-crime issue
.”
The law’s creators promised it would
protect law-abiding citizens from prosecution
if they used force in self-defense. Then-Florida state Rep. Dennis Baxley, who cosponsored the bill, claimed – in the wake of
George Zimmerman’s controversial acquittal
for the killing of Trayvon Martin – that
“we’re really safer
if we empower people to stop violent acts.”
I’m a
historian
who has studied the roots of stand your ground laws. I
published a book on the subject
in 2017. My ongoing investigation of the laws suggests that, 20 years on, they have not made communities any safer, nor have they helped prevent crime. In fact, there is reliable evidence they have done just the opposite.
In the past 20 years, stand your ground has spread to 38 states.
Then, in September 2025, an appellate court
struck down Florida’s long-standing ban
on the open carry of firearms.
Florida’s attorney general, James Uthmeier, quickly announced that
open carry is now “the law of the state
,” directing law enforcement not to arrest people who display handguns in public.
Under the state’s permitless carry law
, enacted in 2023, adults without a criminal record also
don’t need a permit or any training
to carry firearms publicly.
In my view, this combination of stand your ground, open carry and permitless carry is likely to make the Sunshine State far less safe.
Let’s look at the evidence.
What ‘stand your ground’ means
Under traditional self-defense law, a person had a
duty to retreat
– to try to avoid a violent confrontation if they could safely do so – before resorting to deadly force.
The main exception to the duty to retreat was known as the
castle doctrine
, whereby people could defend themselves, with force if necessary, if they were attacked in their own homes.
Stand your ground laws effectively expand the boundaries of the castle doctrine to the wider world, removing the duty to retreat and allowing people to use lethal force anywhere they have a legal right to be, as long as they believe it’s necessary to prevent death or serious harm.
On paper, the expansion of the right to self-defense may sound reasonable. But in practice, stand your ground laws have
blurred the line between self-defense and aggression
by
expanding legal immunity
for some who claim self-defense and shifting the
burden of proof to prosecutors
.
While supporters of these laws claim they mitigate crime and make people safer,
evidence shows the opposite
. The nonpartisan RAND Corp. discovered that states adopting stand your ground laws experienced
significant increases in homicide
, typically between 8% and 11% higher than before the laws took effect.
A study of violent crime in Florida revealed
a 31.6% increase in firearm homicides
following the 2005 passage of the stand your ground law. There is
no credible evidence
that these laws deter crime.
On the contrary, evidence shows that stand your ground laws
lower the legal, moral and psychological costs
of
pulling the trigger
.
Stand your ground and race
While the language of stand your ground laws is race-neutral, their enforcement is not. Data from the
Urban Institute
and the
U.S. Commission on Civil Rights
show that in states with stand your ground laws, homicides are far more likely to be deemed “justified” when the shooter is white and the victim is Black.
I’ve found that
these laws have redefined
not only when force is justified but who is justified in using force.
In my assessment, these laws don’t create racial bias. Rather, they magnify the biases already present in our criminal legal system. They give broader discretion to a legal system in which law enforcement officers, judges, prosecutors and juries often hold unacknowledged biases that associate
Black men with criminality
, while perceiving white people who say they were defending themselves as credible.
Seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin was unarmed when George Zimmerman shot and killed him on March 20, 2012, in Sanford, Fla. Zimmerman claimed he killed Martin in self-defense and was acquitted by a jury.
Gerardo Mora/Getty Images News
That dynamic is visible in a growing multitude of cases, such as the shootings of unarmed teenagers
Trayvon Martin
,
Jordan Davis
,
Renisha McBride
and
Ralph Yarl
.
Each instance illustrates how stand your ground transforms ordinary mistakes or misunderstandings into lethal outcomes, and how armed citizens’ claims of “reasonable fear” often reflect racial stereotypes more than objective threats.
A dangerous mix
Florida’s legalization of open carry intersects with the state’s permitless carry and stand your ground laws in alarming ways.
Open carry increases the visibility
– and
perceived legitimacy
– of guns in everyday life.
Combined with the removal of licensing procedures and training requirements, laws that broaden the right to use deadly force create a
permissive environment
for opportunistic violence.
When everyone is visibly armed, every encounter can
look like a potential threat
. And when the law tells you that you don’t have to back down, that perception can turn lethal in seconds.
Florida has become a model for what
gun rights advocates
call “freedom” but what
public health experts
see as a recipe for more shootings and more death.
National implications: ‘Reciprocity’ and expansion
Two decades later,
stand your ground laws have spread
, in various forms, to 38 states. While 30 states have legislatively enacted stand your ground statutes like Florida’s, eight others implement stand your ground
through case law and jury instructions
that effectively remove the duty to retreat.
On top of this, 29 states have enacted laws allowing permitless carry, and 47
technically allow open carry
, though restrictions vary across the states.
President Donald Trump has made clear he wants to take this deregulatory approach nationwide. While on the campaign trail, he
promised to sign a “concealed-carry reciprocity” law
, which would require all states to allow people from states with permissive laws to exercise those rights in all 50. “Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line,” he
announced in a 2023 video
.
If that vision becomes reality, it would mean the most permissive state laws will set the standard for the entire country. National reciprocity would allow Floridians, and other gun owners from permitless carry states, to carry their firearms – and potentially claim stand your ground immunity – in any other state, including those with stricter rules and
lower rates of firearm death and injury
.
This prospect raises deep questions about states’ rights, safety and justice. Research shows that stand your ground laws increase homicide and exacerbate racial disparities. National reciprocity would export those effects nationwide.
In my view, the convergence of stand your ground, open carry and national reciprocity marks the culmination of a 20-year experiment in armed citizenship. The results are clear: more people armed, more shootings and more deaths “justified.”
The question now is whether the rest of the nation will follow Florida’s lead.
Read more stories from The Conversation about
Florida
.
Caroline Light is affiliated with GVPedia and collaborates with Giffords.
