Firearms in Florida State Parks: Brevard

Opening: As a member of many online forums for discussion, I read often about things that "just shouldn't be". Through one such forum for citizens to share information about legally carrying a concealed weapon in the state of Florida for self-defense, I heard that many public parks in Florida have signs and 'codes' that state that firearms are not allowed in the parks. Taking concern about this, I found that the county of my residence, Brevard, not only prohibits firearms, but also says that you must get a special permit from Parks and Recreation (even if you have a valid concealed weapons license) to have a weapon in the parks. State law prohibits any county from making such code. I contacted the Brevard County Manager, Howard Tipton, about this on January 13, 2010:

Mr. Tipton,
It has come to my attention that the website for Brevard County Parks 
and Recreation's website states that citizens may not possess firearms 
in Brevard County Parks without receiving a special permit from the 
department. 
 
This is in direct contrast with Florida state statute 790.33(1) [see 
also: 790.33(3a)]. I do not believe the County (nor Parks and 
Recreation) hold the ability to create any ordinances, rules, laws, or 
code to limit firearms. This is covered under the "Joe Carlucci 
Uniform Firearms Act." 
 
Public parks are not listed as an area of exception in 790.06(12). 
 
I would like to see Brevard County embrace legal gun ownership and the 
2nd Amendment. I hope that you are the right person to contact to 
start the process of bringing Brevard County into compliance with 
Florida state law. If not, please do advise me on who I should 
contact, or CC this to them and include myself on that reply. 
 
Sincerely, 
-David A. Pocock 
References: 
1. http://www.brevardparks.com/visittheparks/facility/index.php 
(Regulated Activities) 
2. http://www.brevardparks.com/visittheparks/docs/ord_chp78_76-148_useofparks.pdf 
(Sec. 78-115) 
3. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/ (790.06(12), 790.33(1), 790.33(3a))

Mr. Tipton replied quickly, on January 15, 2010:

Thank you for your email Mr. Pocock. I have forwarded it to our County 
Attorney, Mr. Knox, for his review and comment. A response will be 
forthcoming from his office. 
 
Regards,
 
Howard 
 
Howard N. Tipton 
Brevard County Manager 
2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way 
Building C, Room C-301 
Viera, Florida 32940 
(321) 633-2001 
howard.tipton@brevardcounty.us

The County Attorney replied to Mr. Tipton, who forwarded me his (Scott Knox's) decision on January 21, 2010:

Mr. Pocock: 

The attached opinion from the County Attorney's Office is provided in 
response to your question. At a future date I will be bringing the 
matter to the Board for their direction. 
 
Howard 
 
Howard N. Tipton 
Brevard County Manager 
2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way 
Building C, Room C-301 
Viera, Florida 32940 
(321) 633-2001 
howard.tipton@brevardcounty.us 
 
 
-----Original Message----- 
From: Knox, Scott L 
Sent: Thursday, January 21, 2010 11:15 AM 
To: Tipton, Howard 
Subject: RE: Brevard County Parks and Recreation 
 
Howard: This is our opinion, which you may feel free to forward to Mr. 
Pocock. 
 
Scott Knox, County Attorney 
2725 Judge Fran Jamieson Way 
Melbourne, FL 32940 
(321)633-2090

The attached opinion can be downloaded in PDF (how they provided it to myself) here. There are multiple ways to look at this: The County Attorney agrees (sic: recognizes, understands) that Florida statute 790.33 "declared the sections of Brevard County Code of Ordinances purporting to regulate firearms are null and void." Unfortunately, The County Attorney appears to disagree at a personal level with Florida law, saying, "Public parks and recreational facilities are not among the listed exceptions." This is correct. The correspondence should have ended here; instead, he continues:

This could be the result of legislative oversight, as the statutes specifically prohibit carrying firearms to similar facilities and events, for example, school, college and professional athletic events and school facilities. It is not apparent why the same extension would not apply to little league athletic events, children's playgrounds, and like facilities and events in County parks, recreational facilities and managed lands.

Let's stop for a moment to just analyze this portion of his decision: "...as the statutes..." Emphasis mine, and this may be a simple typo, but the statute (singular, 790.06(12)) that lists exceptions to where a concealed weapon may not be carried is quite clear:

790.06(12) No license issued pursuant to this section shall authorize any person to carry a concealed weapon or firearm into any place of nuisance as defined in s. 823.05; any police, sheriff, or highway patrol station; any detention facility, prison, or jail; any courthouse; 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; any polling place; any meeting of the governing body of a county, public school district, municipality, or special district; any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof; any school, college, or professional athletic event not related to firearms; any school administration building; 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; any elementary or secondary school facility; any career center; 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; inside 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 any place where the carrying of firearms is prohibited by federal law. Any person who 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.

The County Attorney's interpretation of "similar" is far more liberal than my own. I believe that he does not support the 2nd Amendment, and does not understand the place in society of good citizens legally defending their own lives. This is especially clear when he closes with: "....guns in parks present a legitimate and compelling health, safety and welfare concern." The only person who has any concern about their 'health, safety, (or) welfare' around a citizen carrying a concealed firearm for legal self-defense is a criminal. The citizen legally carrying a concealed weapons license has passed a state and NRA approved course that covers not only firearm safety and marksmanship, but also the law concerned with when and where they may legally defend themselves. Any criminal who is carrying a gun illegally has already chosen to ignore the law: Any code restricting where they may possess a gun - they will equally ignore.

I replied to Mr. Tipton the same night (January 21, 2010):

Howard,
Thank you for sending this my way. 

I have read their decision. It is quite sad that despite seeing a law 
that is over 20 years old the County Attorney still seems to believe 
that citizen's legitimate rights to protecting themselves are a 
"health, safety and welfare concern" at public parks. I do not believe 
he is aware that Brevard County Parks and Recreation is stating that 
you must have an additional permit from their department - even if you 
have a valid concealed weapons license - to carry in our parks. 
 
Is the County Attorney not who should be pushing efforts to overturn a 
County code that - by Florida law - is illegal? 
 
Please let me know when/if there are going to be any meetings with the 
Board about this issue which the public can attend. I hold quite an 
interest in this, particularly after such a poor response from the 
County Attorney. 
 
-David A. Pocock

Update from 2010/03/01

Received a call from Matt Reed at Florida Today earlier today about this exact topic. Somehow the Brevard County Attorney's decision that I received had made its way to him. He asked what response I was expecting, why I was concerned about this, etc. He seemed open-minded enough and able to see each side of the argument. (Even though the issue here is not an argument about guns being in parks, nor the legality of it, as that is already on the books properly. The only trouble is the poor information available from parks and recreation that may confuse people)

I explained that ultimately I want the law to be clear and there to not be conflicting local signs that may be confusing to both citizens and law enforcement/park rangers. We spoke briefly about the ability to carry in Federal parks, and the fact that a criminal who is out to commit a crime is not going to be thwarted by the fact that they're carrying a weapon illegally to commit a crime.

Apparently on February 23rd, Brevard County Board of Commissioners met and (I'm forgetting the right words here but I'll try) put forth a motion for referendum to amend the parks and recreation ordinances. So it sounds like they are making some headway and are going to come into compliance, but I have not been able to confirm this yet.

I've no idea of how the article will work to present this topic, but it is my understanding that he's also gathered other information about this topic from other members of this board and is working to prepare an article on it.

Update from 2010/03/02

Today the Florida Today article broke. Shortly after I commented on the article stating that carrying in parks has been legal, and that you still cannot carry to school-sponsored events - even if they are in a park (none of this is new) and that all I wanted was for Parks and Recreation to get rid of their illegal signs and ordinances - comments were disabled. You can see their notice that comments are disabled here.

Despite comments being disabled (after 70 were posted) on floridatoday.com, their blog still allows them.

Local radio host Bill Mick also spoke about this issue this morning during his 8AM segment. You can list to the podcast here. It is about 30 minutes into the 36 minute podcast.

You can also see the WFTV thoughts on this here.

The Palm Bay Post also covered this.

Channel 9's report is here.

You'll notice due to syndication that some of these news articles are the same, simply that the comments sections are separate.

Update from 2010/03/03

I phoned in today and spoke shortly on the Bill Mick radio show during his 7AM segment. You can listen to the podcast here. I am at the beginning of the segment.

I also today found that the Around O-Town Orlando Crime Report and Firearms Blog covered this story.

2010/03/04

A nice update from the Around O-Town Orlando Crime Report and Firearms Blog.

2010/03/05

Looks like Florida Today needed to re-establish some more fear into the hearts of citizens... This article has me dripping with disgust.

Also, Bill Mick's show interviewed Florida Today Columnist Matt Reed about this yesterday during the 7AM segment (About 12 minutes into the segment). It's amazing how he presents the facts here vs his Florida Today article.

Sources

Other Notes

Rinzler v. Carson, 262 So. 2d 661 (Fla. 1972):

Municipal ordinances are inferior in stature and subordinate to the laws of the state. Accordingly, an ordinance must not conflict with any controlling provision of a state statute, and if any doubt exists as to the extent of a power attempted to be exercised which may affect the operation of a state statute, the doubt is to be resolved against the ordinance and in favor of the statute.