Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier made waves when he declared open carry legal statewide after a court struck down the decades-old ban.
Now he's setting his sights on other gun restrictions.
And Florida’s AG just hinted at his next gun rights move that will drive the left crazy.
Uthmeier signals doubts about gun restrictions for licensed workers
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier just dropped a bombshell in a recent advisory opinion that has Second Amendment advocates buzzing and gun control supporters grinding their teeth.¹
Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson asked Uthmeier whether the McDaniels v. State ruling — which declared Florida's open carry ban unconstitutional — affected regulations requiring private investigators, security officers, and recovery agents to get special licenses to carry guns during work.²
Uthmeier's official answer was "no" — the McDaniels decision only addressed open carry for ordinary citizens and didn't touch Chapter 493 regulations for licensed professionals.³
But buried in a footnote, the 37-year-old AG revealed what he really thinks.
"In truth, I harbor doubts whether these two statutory regulations — and particularly the carry prohibition for recovery agents — would pass constitutional muster under the Bruen framework," Uthmeier wrote.⁴
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1968399213546393731
That's not the language of someone who plans to defend these restrictions when they inevitably get challenged in court.
The Bruen framework Uthmeier referenced is the 2022 Supreme Court ruling that fundamentally transformed Second Amendment law by requiring gun restrictions to align with America's historical tradition of firearm regulation.⁵
That decision has triggered over 2,000 lawsuits against state and federal gun laws across the country.⁶
And now Florida's top law enforcement official just telegraphed he won't stand in the way when someone challenges regulations forcing private investigators and repo agents to disarm while doing dangerous work.
Florida's AG has been expanding gun rights since day one
Uthmeier has been Florida's attorney general for less than a year, but he's already established himself as one of the nation's most aggressive defenders of Second Amendment rights.
Governor Ron DeSantis appointed him in February 2025 after Ashley Moody moved to the Senate.⁷
Within months, Uthmeier made headlines by urging the Supreme Court to strike down Florida's law preventing people under 21 from buying rifles — a law passed after the Parkland shooting that killed 17 people.⁸
When gun control advocates accused him of abandoning his duty to defend state law, Uthmeier didn't back down.
"The upshot of Florida's law is that a 20-year-old single mom is powerless to purchase a firearm to defend herself and her child against a menacing ex-boyfriend," his office argued in court filings.⁹
That's not the typical language you hear from state attorneys general.
Most AGs defend whatever laws the legislature passes regardless of personal views.
Uthmeier operates differently.
After the First District Court of Appeal struck down Florida's open carry ban in September 2025, Uthmeier immediately declared it "the law of the state" and ordered prosecutors statewide to stop enforcing the 1987 restriction.¹⁰
He refused to appeal the decision despite having that option.
"As of last week, open carry is the law of the state," Uthmeier announced, making Florida the 47th state allowing open carry in some form.¹¹
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1967601917686636843
The move infuriated Democrats who wanted the Florida Supreme Court to review the ruling.
But Uthmeier — a Second Amendment enthusiast who previously served as DeSantis's chief of staff — wasn't interested in defending gun restrictions he considers unconstitutional.¹²
President Trump recognized Uthmeier's aggressive approach by endorsing him for a full term in 2026, calling him "a true champion for 'MAGA'" who will "Protect our always under siege Second Amendment."¹³
Recovery agents face unique dangers without firearm protection
The specific restriction Uthmeier singled out for criticism prevents recovery agents — commonly known as repo men — from carrying firearms while working on private property during vehicle repossessions.¹⁴
Anyone who's ever watched a repo operation knows these workers face genuine danger.
Recovery agents regularly deal with angry customers who've fallen behind on payments and don't want to lose their transportation.
Florida law currently requires recovery agents to be completely unarmed during these high-risk encounters on private property.¹⁵
https://twitter.com/AGJamesUthmeier/status/1965816318810054966
Meanwhile, ordinary citizens can now openly carry firearms anywhere private property owners don't explicitly prohibit guns.
The disconnect is obvious.
Simpson wanted the Legislature to lift the concealed weapons restriction on recovery agents in 2023, but the proposal went nowhere.¹⁶
Uthmeier's footnote suggests he believes the courts will eventually force the change the Legislature refused to make.
His reasoning is straightforward under the Bruen framework: if there's no historical tradition of disarming people engaged in lawful but dangerous work, the restriction can't survive constitutional scrutiny.
"For the same reasons the Legislature apparently adopted these restrictions, including the professions' heightened safety risks, it strikes me these professionals shouldn't be stripped of their rights to constitutional self-defense," Uthmeier wrote.¹⁷
That's the voice of an attorney general who won't defend restrictions he views as indefensible.
Uthmeier made clear his advisory opinion only addressed whether McDaniels changed existing regulations — not whether those regulations could withstand a Bruen challenge.¹⁸
Translation: someone needs to file the lawsuit, but when they do, Florida's AG won't be standing in their way.
Historical tradition test reshapes gun law landscape
The Bruen decision Uthmeier keeps citing fundamentally changed how courts evaluate gun restrictions.
Before 2022, courts used a two-step test that weighed government interests against Second Amendment burdens.¹⁹
That framework gave legislators wide latitude to restrict guns if they could argue the laws promoted public safety.
Bruen threw that approach in the trash.
Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the 6-3 majority that gun regulations must be "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation" — meaning they need parallels from America's founding era.²⁰
The decision explicitly rejected weighing modern policy concerns against constitutional rights.
"The government may not simply posit that the regulation promotes an important interest," Thomas wrote.²¹
Instead, states must prove historical precedent exists for their restrictions.
That standard has proven brutal for gun control laws with no colonial-era equivalent.
A federal judge in Mississippi recently struck down the machine gun ban using Bruen's framework.²²
Multiple states have seen assault weapon bans, high-capacity magazine restrictions, and concealed carry requirements fall in court.²³
Courts must now examine 18th and 19th century firearms regulations to determine if modern laws pass constitutional muster — a task Justice Stephen Breyer called "deeply impractical" in his dissent.²⁴
But that's exactly the framework Uthmeier plans to use when evaluating whether Florida's restrictions on licensed professionals violate the Second Amendment.
And based on his advisory opinion, he's already concluded they probably do.
The left will absolutely lose their minds when lawsuits start hitting Florida's professional firearm restrictions.
But Uthmeier has made his position crystal clear — he's not interested in defending gun laws that don't align with America's historical tradition of respecting the right to armed self-defense.
Even for people doing dangerous work that the Legislature acknowledges creates "heightened safety risks."
¹ Mitch Perry, "Uthmeier: Open carry ruling doesn't impact regs for private investigators, security officers," Florida Phoenix, October 30, 2025.
² Ibid.
³ Ibid.
⁴ Ibid.
⁵ "New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen," Supreme Court of the United States, June 23, 2022.
⁶ Yuki Murayama, "Musket vs. AR-15: Judges Are Throwing Out Gun Restrictions Because of Antiquated Laws From America's Founding," The Trace, June 4, 2025.
⁷ Jackie Llanos, "James Uthmeier sworn in as Florida attorney general," Florida Phoenix, February 17, 2025.
⁸ "Uthmeier urges US Supreme Court to strike down Florida gun-buying age law," WUSF, August 21, 2025.
⁹ Ibid.
¹⁰ "Attorney general: People can openly carry guns in all parts of Florida, starting Sept. 25," WGCU, September 17, 2025.
¹¹ Alex Griffing, "Florida AG confirms open carry is now state law," The Hill, September 18, 2025.
¹² Liv Caputo, "Trump is backing James Uthmeier for Florida attorney general in 2026," Florida Phoenix, October 8, 2025.
¹³ Ibid.
¹⁴ Mitch Perry, "Uthmeier: Open carry ruling doesn't impact regs for private investigators, security officers," Florida Phoenix, October 30, 2025.
¹⁵ – ¹⁸ Ibid.
¹⁹ "New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen," Supreme Court of the United States, June 23, 2022.
²⁰ Ibid.
²¹ Ibid.
²² Yuki Murayama, "Musket vs. AR-15: Judges Are Throwing Out Gun Restrictions Because of Antiquated Laws From America's Founding," The Trace, June 4, 2025.
²³ "Tracking How SCOTUS's Bruen Ruling Changes State Gun Laws," The Trace, October 14, 2022.
²⁴ "New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn., Inc. v. Bruen," Supreme Court of the United States, June 23, 2022.
