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Florida Carry Public Meeting & OC Fishing Events Coming to a Pier Near You TODAY!

spacecoast321

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
31
Location
Cocoa, Florida, United States
Open Carry in Central Florida

Decided to go fishing in Titusville, FL yesterday. Veterans Memorial Fishing Pier - map link
Brought along a family member for company and while we were there another 2A curious family member stopped by to see how things were going. No reaction from anyone walking by, probably very few noticed that I was armed. I have a black pistol, with black holster and I was wearing a dark blue shirt. That the sun was going down on the side opposite my holster may have also made it harder to see I was carrying.

I had laminated a card with the relevant sections of FL STATUES 790 .053 and .25(3)(h) in case a MWAG call resulted in LEO contact due to the FL restricted ability to exercise our right. My fishing companion had instructions to grab our camera, start video and then move back if needed.

We fished for about 1.5 hours and were probably in contact with +125 people if you include the restaurant/bar at the pier entrance. Didn't catch anything :( but bumped into some friends I hadn't seen for awhile while leaving :). Great place to fish or eat, give it a try.
OpenCarryFishing-TVille.JPG
 
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77zach

Regular Member
Joined
Feb 5, 2007
Messages
2,913
Location
Marion County, FL
Decided to go fishing in Titusville, FL yesterday. Veterans Memorial Fishing Pier - map link
Brought along a family member for company and while we were there another 2A curious family member stopped by to see how things were going. No reaction from anyone walking by, probably very few noticed that I was armed. I have a black pistol, with black holster and I was wearing a dark blue shirt. That the sun was going down on the side opposite my holster may have also made it harder to see I was carrying.

I had laminated a card with the relevant sections of FL STATUES 790 .053 and .25(3)(h) in case a MWAG call resulted in LEO contact due to the FL restricted ability to exercise our right. My fishing companion had instructions to grab our camera, start video and then move back if needed.

We fished for about 1.5 hours and were probably in contact with +125 people if you include the restaurant/bar at the pier entrance. Didn't catch anything :( but bumped into some friends I hadn't seen for awhile while leaving :). Great place to fish or eat, give it a try.
View attachment 9927

OMG! A Floridian openly carrying a handgun OMG!
 

ADulay

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
512
Location
Punta Gorda, Florida, USA
We fished for about 1.5 hours and were probably in contact with +125 people if you include the restaurant/bar at the pier entrance. Didn't catch anything :( but bumped into some friends I hadn't seen for awhile while leaving :). Great place to fish or eat, give it a try.

Hey! That sounds amazingly like our monthly Open Carry Fishing meetup on the 2nd Saturday of the month down here in Fort Myers.

Lots of people, good conversations, a few photo ops for the tourists and of course, NO FISH!!

It looks like February 9th will be our next "try" at catching a darn fish so anybody down in the Fort Myers area should come on down to the FtMyers Beach Fishing Pier and give it a try!

AD
 

spacecoast321

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
31
Location
Cocoa, Florida, United States
Monthly Open Carry Fishing meetups are excellent

Hey! That sounds amazingly like our monthly Open Carry Fishing meetup on the 2nd Saturday of the month down here in Fort Myers.

I go to the one in Melbourne, it helped me get up to speed.
Great opportunity to talk with like minded folks, discuss Florida carry law and think about the future.

And there is a Farmers Market on the way home with excellent Thai food.
 

sean39-2

New member
Joined
Feb 25, 2013
Messages
4
Location
Florda
where to go?

Hi everyone I'm new here but I'm in Tampa and wanted to know where the closest meeting to me is and when it is, if you can help me thanks
 

spacecoast321

Regular Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2013
Messages
31
Location
Cocoa, Florida, United States
OC fishing in Melbourne 09/08/2014 report

Well after a lengthy hiatus I was finally able to go the Open Carry fishing event in Melbourne. Sadly I RSVP'd too late, about an hour before the event, on MeetUp and the host (I later found out) had gone to a different event. I arrived and noted I was the only one there, but decided to stay and fish a little (I do enjoy it, I'm just not any good at it).
Talked to a fellow fisherman for about an hour, he never commented on my very visible chrome 1911, we were too busy talking about fishing.
A seemingly retired couple did walk onto the dock and engage me in conversation. The man was hostile in tone and questions, the female was simply curious.
Man, "I sure hope you are a police officer!" Me, "Nope". Man, "Are you expecting trouble?" Me, "I sure hope not". Man, "You expecting a shark?" Me, "No, but it is always better to eat than be eaten".
Woman, "Do you need a special type of permit to carry it (my firearm) like that?" Me, "No, the Florida statutes have exemptions for some activities like fishing, hunting, shooting (told her there was a 4th but it slipped my mind). And while traveling engaged in those activities." Woman, "My daughter has a pistol and practices with it a lot. Can she have it on the seat next to her in the car?" Me, "No. It has to be encased in some manner. Either a case of some kind, in the glove box or in the trunk." I inquired if her daughter had a Concealed Carry permit and strongly recommended she acquire one.
The woman continued to have a very pleasant conversation with me, and openly lamented that there were too many laws. Her apparently annoyed male companion walked away.
That 5 minute encounter made my day. Lots of reading posts from other states where Open Carry is legal left me ready to deflect the hostile questions with short answers and an even demeanor. I believe that opened the door for the truly curious questions.
It is always curious to me that those people who oppose Open Carry for whatever reason feel no fear to approach someone who is practicing it and be hostile, critical and argumentative.

ps (I did remember that camping was the 4th exemption, but the conversation had already moved on)
 

georg jetson

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
2,416
Location
Slidell, Louisiana
WOW! 27 pages of pure venom about the one about to happen down the road here.

http://www.pensacolafishingforum.com/f22/open-carry-fishing-event-navarre-pier-121644/

Close family of mine just built a house in Navarre, so I'll be spending a lot of time there. Can I get some comments about how the local Leos are about OCing while camping fishing etc? Will they arrest you and make you use that statute as a defense?

Did the OC event at Navarre pier ever take place?
 

ixtow

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
5,038
Location
Suwannee County, FL
Close family of mine just built a house in Navarre, so I'll be spending a lot of time there. Can I get some comments about how the local Leos are about OCing while camping fishing etc? Will they arrest you and make you use that statute as a defense?

Did the OC event at Navarre pier ever take place?
It's sad that this is a necropost...

One more reason why we call it Floriduh.

To answer your question... Populated areas, unless consulted first, and even then, there are always stragglers, are not up to date on it.

Good-ol-boys areas are fully aware, but don't give a **** and will attack you anyway and make up a story about how you were drunk/high, watching child porn, and threatening them with the gun in your hand, even as they murder you and your family in your sleep at 3am... Fortunately, Navarre isn't in Citrus County...

The bottom line is that it's a mixed bag of ridiculous extremes.

Florida has so many cops, in so many departments, scattered all over the place... Even if you make an effort to give them a friendly heads up, there will still be those who don't get the memo, those who deliberately do not propagate the memo, those who think of the memo as nothing but a self-imposed APB on someone to kill/harass... If you say nothing at all, expect full-on felony stop procedures, up to and including being shot at and killed.

There are members of this forum who are buddies with cops in certain areas, have special service-related privileges extended to them, etc, and like to portray that treatment as the norm. It most certainly is not.

Even people with Concealed Weapons Permits, carrying in the prescribed manner, are attacked, harassed, and even murdered. Nothing is ever done to punish the cops who do it.

Florida has, by far, the most corrupt and violent judicial/police entity in the country. Most of what they do doesn't even make the news anymore because it's become so commonplace. The "above the law" attitude is not just attitude, but actions based upon it are now SOP because the line has been crossed hundreds of thousands of times and the courts always support them no matter what it is. They've learned to leave no witnesses and police reports are pretty much copy-paste "furtive movement," "felt threatened," "for my safety," "suspicious," "aggressive," "assault."

You better have several cameras rolling, and even that probably won't help you.

If you're not OCing as part of an organized event, pre-advertised to the cops, just don't.

I'm pretty sure Floriduh is where the worst of the worst in the cop industry come to get away with anything they want. I had a gang of 6 root through my car and backpack just because I was shopping at a 24 hour Wal Mart, and apparently that was "suspicious."

"Why are you out shopping at this hour?"

"Uh, why is Wal Mart open at 1am if that's a crime?"

Immediate search and detainment with no consent. Found my RFB, chambered a round and pulled the trigger... Tried to blame it on me! Why the **** was there a booger hook on the bang switch at all?

Fortunately, as with most of my run-ins with Floriduh Cops, they made such a mess of it that they ended up sweeping it under the rug to save their own egos...
 
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ADulay

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
512
Location
Punta Gorda, Florida, USA
If you're not OCing as part of an organized event, pre-advertised to the cops, just don't.

Sheesh! Why not just make Florida a prison and call it a day! For awhile there you were posting up some pretty good stuff, then this most recent post came out and it's the "old" Ixtow all over again.

So much negativity.

Anyway, I do believe you've given some pretty bad information to the guy from Navarre.

The law is specific. If he wants to fish with his sidearm openly carried, it's perfectly legal. Many of us do it and have done it for quite some time.

He may be asked a few questions should somebody make a unwarranted "complaint" to the local LEO, but it's still in black and white. It's legal.

AD
 

georg jetson

Regular Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2009
Messages
2,416
Location
Slidell, Louisiana
Sheesh! Why not just make Florida a prison and call it a day! For awhile there you were posting up some pretty good stuff, then this most recent post came out and it's the "old" Ixtow all over again.

So much negativity.

Anyway, I do believe you've given some pretty bad information to the guy from Navarre.

The law is specific. If he wants to fish with his sidearm openly carried, it's perfectly legal. Many of us do it and have done it for quite some time.

He may be asked a few questions should somebody make a unwarranted "complaint" to the local LEO, but it's still in black and white. It's legal.

AD

I can appreciate what ixtow is saying.

I figured if I was standing on a pier with a pole in the water then Mr Leo would probably not bother me. However, the law also includes camping... that's a bit less obvious. If I'm confronted on the way to, or from, these activities, is it likely ill be left alone after I say "I'm on my way to my campsite officer", or "the house I'm camping in is right over there".
 

ixtow

Founder's Club Member
Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
5,038
Location
Suwannee County, FL
All of this, and yet you still chose to live there! Amazing! If all of this is true, you must be crazy to stay. There is the other possibility.
Until recently, there was no place in the country with a suitable climate which had open carry.

Now that there is, it's too late to move.

And, frankly, a nation full of people with no brains, way too many hormones, and downright sh!tty attitudes, has ruined my desire to find anywhere in the country to continue living.

It's of the trash, by the trash, for the trash. Image, fads, and buzzwords are all that matter.

Living among well-dressed filth isn't for me. I'm buying a sailboat, and renouncing my citizenship is on the table.

The unforgivable trash that is the majority simply doesn't deserve my caliber of person to continue making the sacrifices I have made, and fighting for it's rights anymore. All that happens is that I am mocked for 20 years for making statements of fact, only to have someone else come along and pretend like they figured it out way past too late, advocate the exact same things, while still telling me that I don't deserve to exist for saying and fighting for the exact same things... With countrymen like that, who needs enemies?

It's just a struggle to make a name and take credit. Which shouldn't matter. The fight and the deed is secondary, and the only reason it concerns me. These ******** don't actually give a damn, they just want to make a name for themselves and put down anyone that they see as a threat to that status symbol. Disgusting.

Which state can I live in where that won't be considered normal and admirable? That's right, none of them. Americans have made absolute sh!t of themselves.
 
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ADulay

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
512
Location
Punta Gorda, Florida, USA
Wow.

Can't believe it's been over 5 years that I've been doing these "2nd Saturday Open Carry" events. Got another on in today at my usual Fort Myers spot downtown at one of the park piers.

At least now I have a routine.

Stop at McD's and pick up a coffee and sandwich, continue to ride to the fishing pier. Eat a leisurely snack while reading the WSJ with a fishing line in the water.

Answer the occasional question from some citizen and before you know it, it's noon and time to ride home on the bike, open carrying, of course.

The local PD has long since abandoned watching us with unmarked cars like they used to.

AD
 

hammer6

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2008
Messages
1,461
Location
Florida
Wow.

Can't believe it's been over 5 years that I've been doing these "2nd Saturday Open Carry" events. Got another on in today at my usual Fort Myers spot downtown at one of the park piers.

At least now I have a routine.

Stop at McD's and pick up a coffee and sandwich, continue to ride to the fishing pier. Eat a leisurely snack while reading the WSJ with a fishing line in the water.

Answer the occasional question from some citizen and before you know it, it's noon and time to ride home on the bike, open carrying, of course.

The local PD has long since abandoned watching us with unmarked cars like they used to.

AD


wait- you walk in to mcdonalds open carrying?
 

ADulay

Regular Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
512
Location
Punta Gorda, Florida, USA
wait- you walk in to mcdonalds open carrying?

Uh-oh. Busted!

Actually I did, once, accidentally because I just flat forgot about it.

The normal routine is to ride up on the bike, get my cover fishing shirt out of the side bag and throw it on for the time I'm in the restaurant.

Once I get back outside, the cover shirt comes off and I'm back on the bike headed to the fishing/shooting spot.

On that accidental carry into the McD's? Nobody said anything and nothing happened. No police chasing me down the road.

Like I've always maintained. Most people really don't care or don't even notice

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