patrick.net

https://bearingarms.com/camedwards/2025/07/17/seventh-circuit-says-illegal-aliens-have-no-second-amendment-rights-n1229290

Patrick says

Do you have a rifle, Pat?

Three years ago, in the midst of the pandemic’s second full year, on a scorching Independence Day in 2022, freedom-minded Florida resident Victor McDaniels made his stand. Victor took up his post at a major intersection in downtown Pensacola, holding a copy of the U.S. Constitution in one hand and waving at cars with his other hand. He’d set up a camera to film himself. Most importantly, he had a loaded pistol tucked into his pants using a waistband holster that was plainly visible to startled passers-by.

Only took about ten minutes for someone to call 911 and make an anonymous complaint —probably someone named “Karen”— before alert cops arrived on the scene. They checked Victor’s ID and found it valid. They asked for his concealed carry permit, and he produced it. They ran his priors and found his record clean. So they took his pistol, let him keep his holster, and charged Victor with a criminal violation of Florida’s concealed carry law, § 790.053.

According to the police report, Victor told the cops he’d planned to be charged, and intended to fight the charges “to the supreme court.” That’s Florida Man for you. All he needed to complete the scene was a pet alligator. Anyway, that’s where the story gets even more interesting.

Presumably according to plan, Victor’s lawyer moved to dismiss all charges, arguing that §790.053 violated the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. Victor’s judge, probably sensing he was paddling around in deeper legal waters than he was comfortable swimming by himself, denied the motion. But —and this is remarkable— he, the judge, certified the question to Florida’s 1st Appellate Court. ...

Last week, on September 10th, Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeals finally struck down §790.053, the statute requiring citizens to smuggle their firearms instead of wearing them on their hips. In a remarkable opinion that liberally cited dusty old 1800’s case law, the court colorfully noted that, from the time of the Founding, “The right to keep and bear arms did not extend to the carrying of weapons in secret, which was regarded as the practice of the cowardly and the disreputable and as incompatible with the legitimate exercise of the right of self-defense.”

In other words, the Founders despised concealed carry. On the other hand, the judges noted, “open carry was understood to be the manner of bearing arms that gave full effect to the rights secured by the Second Amendment.”