TALLAHASSEE — For nearly 40 years, Florida has had a ban on the open carry of firearms that was signed into law by a Republican governor and defended by a Republican-controlled Legislature against the efforts of gun rights advocates and, more recently, Gov. Ron DeSantis.

But last Wednesday, a state appeals court struck down the 1987 ban as unconstitutional. The First District Court of Appeal was the first court in the country to rule that prohibiting open carry violated the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling prompted celebration, alarm and questions.

Some doubted the First DCA properly interpreted past U.S. Supreme Court decisions on which it relied so heavily. And some questioned whether the ruling applied beyond the district’s jurisdiction, which extends from the Panhandle through the Big

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