The legal showdown in Florida over whether felons should be allowed to bear arms hit a dead end as the state's highest court refused to weigh in. William Edenfield's bid to challenge the ban, which forbids convicts like him from owning firearms, was shut down by the Florida Supreme Court. The decision leaves in place a lower court's ruling that leans on historical precedent to keep guns out of the hands of those who've run afoul of the law.
Edenfield, who found himself on the wrong side of a 2020 shooting incident, was looking to leverage a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that set the bar for gun restrictions against the thread of historical firearm regulation, as detailed by CBS News Miami. His attorney, looking for cracks in the legal armor, argued that the Second Amendment's text made no special mention of "law-abiding, responsible citizens"—a criterion the 1st District Court of Appeal seemingly invented out of thin air.
According to the filing by Edenfield's attorney, Tyler Kemper Payne, first highlighted by Law.com, the appeals court had overstepped by narrowing the scope of the Second Amendment post-Bruen. While the state argued that no court has yet to brand felon-dispossession laws as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, it remains firm on the stance that long-standing prohibitions like Florida's don't step on constitutional toes.
The Florida Supreme Court, in deciding not to proceed with the case, did not elucidate the rationale behind the rebuff. However, it was clear that Edenfield's past, marred by convictions for theft and burglary and his most recent brush with the law, resulted in charges of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon. Edenfield, who is 67 years old, will continue serving his time at the Blackwater Correctional Facility, as reported by the Florida Department of Corrections website.
The repercussions of the ruling are already shaping discussions around gun ownership for medical marijuana patients, indicating that the tussle over Second Amendment rights is far from over.
