FLORIDA FIREARMS – Law, Use & Ownership

Can you wear a Covid mask & carry a firearm in Florida?

copyright 2020 by jon gutmacher

        OK, you’ve made the grand mistake of going on social media to try to find out
if you can carry a firearm with your CWL, and also wear a mask to protect yourself, and others from the Covid virus outbreak. You apparently missed my Face Book post on the subject, and are therefore confused as heck because everyone has a different opinion. That’s because most of them don’t know the law, or even the history of the law. So first – let me say – it’s totally legal. Now, let me explain:

     Back in the 1950’s we started school de-segregation in the United States. The KKK was still a big deal, and Florida and many other states started passing statutes making the wearing of hoods, masks, and other regalia often associated with racial animosity unlawful. Thus, Florida created a number of sections in Florida Statute 876 that made wearing any of this stuff in public – illegal. Of course, not everybody who wore a costume, hood, mask, or whatever was a member of the KKK, or was even associated with the KKK. There was Halloween. Masked parties. Masked Balls. All sorts of other totally innocent behavior where wearing a mask or other face covering was the norm, and had no sinister connotations. By 1980 – things had calmed down enough to where a court challenge to the constitutionality of all these statutes was feasible. The answer came to Florida in the case of Robinson v. State, 393 So. 2d 1076 (Fla. 1980), which held that laws such as these were unconstitutionally overbroad, and denied Due Process as they restricted totally innocent, lawful, and usual behavior. Because of that, in the following legislative session in 1981, the Legislature added Florida Statute 876.155, which basically says that unless your wearing of a mask or such in public is for a sinister purpose, or to intimidate others, or to avoid identification if involved in unlawful activity – it is not unlawful. The burden of showing you do not fit these exceptions is likely on the government.

So, what does all that mean to you if otherwise lawfully possessing a firearm, with your CWL, or even without one if (for instance) transporting it “securely encased” in your vehicle, and wearing a mask to protect yourself or others from Covid-19, or for any other medical related reason?

     It means – you are perfectly legal. The case law says it. The statute says it. And, for what it’s worth – I say it, as well.  However,  in case you are in a “public place” that also has a local “declared emergency” where firearms are prohibited, please remember that the prohibitions of the local restrictions control — but only in “public areas”.