Our Public Relations Coordinator visited the Florida House Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law & Government Operations to speak on behalf of Big Daddy Unlimited about the permitless carry bill in the House, HB 543.
To see the entire meeting, visit: https://thefloridachannel.org/videos/2-7-23-house-constitutional-rights-rule-of-law-government-operations-subcommittee/
Due to the high volume of speakers, they limited remarks to 1 minute, to see my prepared remarks in full, please read below:
Good afternoon Chairman. My name is Nicholas Lahera. I represent Big Daddy Unlimited and Big Daddy Guns as the head of Public Relations. As one of the largest firearms retailers in the state of Florida, I wanted to speak to the committee today to express my support for HB 543.
The bill is long overdue considering that 25 states have Constitutional Carry. Florida was one of the early adopters of concealed carry back in 1987, but we have let half of the country surpass us in this type of legislation. I am glad to see that the Florida legislature is taking action. Our organization is a staunch advocate for constitutional carry and we will keep fighting for it in its true form.
There have been too many cases where innocent people became victims because a bureaucracy prevented them from being able to protect themselves. So many of these people decided not to carry on their person, despite being in fear for their lives, because they were being compliant with the law. Criminals ignore laws. I am glad to see our state finally allowing Floridians and our hundreds of millions of visitors to express their Constitutional rights.
However, we want to see the bill go further. 47 states allow for open carry. Florida is among 4 states. Do you know who we are in the company of Illinois, and New York. These states are hardly representative of the immense freedom we have in Florida. Florida needs to join the rest of the country and allow open carry.
Tourism is always brought up as the argument against open carry, but Florida has an interesting loophole to open carry. “A person engaged in fishing, camping, or lawful hunting or going to or returning from a fishing, camping, or lawful hunting expedition” may open carry. I am sure most of us in this room enjoy our beautiful Sunshine state waterways, but we don’t see too many firearms. Not to mention, if this is permitted in 47 other states without issue, it shouldn’t be an issue here.
At Big Daddy Unlimited, we have the vision of normalizing and destigmatizing firearms and the gun-buying process. We can only accomplish this by fighting for freedom and the rights afforded to us by the Constitution. I am asking you today to extend the bill to support full Constitutional Carry which includes the right to open carry. Thank you for your time.
Big Daddy Unlimited advocates strongly for Second Amendment rights because we believe that the right to keep and bear arms exists to protect all of the other God-given rights of American citizens. Become a member today to join our community of freedom-loving Americans, and let’s work together to support and defend our Second Amendment rights.
