Signs barring firearms at St. Augustine's Visitor Information Center have been removed after a legal challenge from a gun rights organization | Photo courtesy City of St. Augustine
Published on November 6, 2026 at 12:05 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
The city of St. Augustine is paying out $40,000 to settle a lawsuit over the right to carry guns on public property.
The nonprofit organization Florida Carry sued the city in July arguing that signs prohibiting firearms at the city’s downtown Visitor Information Center violated state statutes regarding guns.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“Local governments are forbidden from regulating firearms in any way,” reads a press release from Florida Carry. “The legislature, not the St. Augustine City Commission, decides where firearms are and are not allowed. Nowhere in statute are publicly owned visitors centers deemed prohibited places.”
READ MORE: State takes aim at Jacksonville over ‘gun registry’
The organization has filed legal challenges all over the state in situations where it argues that, according to Florida Carry’s website, “ill-conceived gun control laws” infringe on the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
The signs at the city’s Visitor Information Center have since been removed.
Gun laws across Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law in 2023 allowing people to carry firearms without any training or government-issued permits. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier took things a step further after an appellate court ruling last year, saying Floridians could openly carry firearms.
Private businesses can bar guns from their property, and the state does prohibit people from bringing firearms into a number of locations including schools, polling places or locations where government bodies meet, but that does not extend to all government-owned property.
Florida Carry’s case against the city of St. Augustine was dismissed earlier this week, and St. Augustine city spokeswoman Melissa Wissel confirmed that the organization accepted the city’s settlement.
Florida Carry did not respond to Jacksonville Today’s request for comment.
