Two decades after Florida pioneered America's first "stand your ground" legislation, the Sunshine State has taken another controversial step by legalising open carry of firearms - a move that has public health experts deeply concerned about community safety.
The Perfect Storm: Three Laws Converge
In September 2025, a Florida appellate court overturned the state's long-standing prohibition on openly carrying firearms in public. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier immediately declared open carry "the law of the state" and directed law enforcement not to arrest individuals displaying handguns publicly.
This development comes alongside two other significant gun law changes. The original stand your ground legislation, signed by then-Governor Jeb Bush in 2005, removes the traditional legal requirement to retreat from dangerous situations before using deadly force. Additionally, Florida's 2023 permitless carry law allows adults without criminal records to carry firearms without permits or training.
Caroline Light, a Harvard University senior lecturer and author who has extensively studied stand your ground laws, warns that this combination creates a dangerous environment. "In my view, this combination of stand your ground, open carry and permitless carry is likely to make the Sunshine State far less safe," she states.
Evidence Shows Increased Violence
Despite initial promises that stand your ground laws would enhance public safety, two decades of evidence tell a different story. The nonpartisan RAND Corporation discovered that states adopting these laws experienced significant increases in homicide rates, typically between 8% and 11% higher than before implementation.
More specifically, research focusing on 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," Light emphasises. "On the contrary, evidence shows that stand your ground laws lower the legal, moral and psychological costs of pulling the trigger."
Racial Disparities in Enforcement
While stand your ground laws appear race-neutral in their wording, their application reveals troubling patterns. Data from the Urban Institute and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights demonstrates 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.
Light's research indicates these laws don't create racial bias but rather amplify existing prejudices within the criminal justice 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," she explains.
This dynamic has manifested in multiple high-profile cases involving unarmed teenagers, including Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Renisha McBride and Ralph Yarl. Each tragedy illustrates how stand your ground can transform ordinary misunderstandings into lethal outcomes, with armed citizens' claims of "reasonable fear" often reflecting racial stereotypes rather than objective threats.
National Implications and Future Concerns
The impact of Florida's legislative experiment extends far beyond state borders. Over the past twenty years, stand your ground laws have spread to 38 states, while 29 states have enacted permitless carry legislation and 47 technically allow some form of open carry.
Former President Donald Trump has promised to sign a "concealed-carry reciprocity" law that would require all states to honour gun permits from states with more permissive regulations. "Your Second Amendment does not end at the state line," he announced in a 2023 video.
If implemented, this national reciprocity would allow gun owners from permitless carry states like Florida to exercise those rights nationwide, potentially exporting the documented increases in homicide and racial disparities to states with traditionally stricter firearm regulations and lower rates of gun death and injury.
Light concludes that the convergence of these policies represents "the culmination of a 20-year experiment in armed citizenship" with clear results: "more people armed, more shootings and more deaths 'justified.'" As other states consider similar legislation, the question remains whether they will follow Florida's lead despite the evidence of concerning consequences.
