Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) used an X post Tuesday to assure Floridians he will uphold the Second Amendment rights of non-dangerous felons.
Uthmeier described gun ownership as an “American tradition” and self-defense as “a God-given right…enshrined in our Constitution through the Second Amendment.”
He noted that the Supreme Court indicates the Constitutional and American tradition requires “an individual must post a credible threat to the physical safety of others” in order to be denied the exercise of his gun rights. He specifically pointed out that a man “convicted of carrying a firearm without a permission slip from the government in another state” but who is no danger to his community, ought not be “dragged to prison as a felon.”
Uthmeier defended the duty to bar dangerous felons from gun ownership but stressed that individuals who are not dangerous and pose no threat must not be treated as if they do.
The States Newsroom noted that, in 2007, “[Christopher] Morgan was convicted of carrying a firearm without a license in Pennsylvania — a third-degree felony under Pennsylvania law.” He was then pulled over by police in Tallahassee, Florida, with a Glock handgun in his car in 2022, and subsequently arrested for possessing the firearm.
In February 2026, Uthmeier “filed a brief writing that, upon further review, he believed that, as a nonviolent felon, Morgan was being deprived of his Second Amendment rights.”
Uthmeier wrote:
First, the text of the Second Amendment covers Morgan’s act of carrying a concealed firearm. Second, laws disarming nondangerous felons are not consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Third, Morgan’s out-of-state felony conviction for carrying a firearm without a license does not sufficiently evince dangerousness, risk to public safety, or proclivity for breaching the peace sufficient to justify disarming him. Nor does any other evidence in the record.
Gun Owners of America responded to Uthmeier’s brief by writing, “This is what a REAL pro-gun attorney general looks like.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.