{"id":627362,"date":"2026-03-02T18:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/627362\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T18:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T18:12:16","slug":"james-uthmeier-explores-civil-action-against-jacksonville-for-firearm-logbook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/627362\/","title":{"rendered":"James Uthmeier explores civil action against Jacksonville for ‘firearm logbook’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Attorney General James Uthmeier<\/a><\/strong> is taking issue with State Attorney Melissa Nelson<\/strong><\/a>, a fellow Republican, for deciding not to prosecute the city of Jacksonville for maintaining a list of gun owners<\/a><\/strong> entering city buildings.<\/p>\n

Uthmeier concedes his Office lacks jurisdiction to prosecute the case of the \u201cfirearm logbook.\u201d But he says his Office, led by deputy AG Jason Hilborn<\/strong>, will retrieve all evidence in the case, which involves lists kept at City Hall<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Yates Building<\/strong><\/a> between July 2023 and Spring 2025, for potential civil action under Section 790.335(4)(c)<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That statute could permit a $5 million fine against the city for maintaining a list of gun owners or guns that went against the state\u2019s ban on such lists.<\/p>\n

The 4th Circuit State Attorney\u2019s Office said that while Jacksonville officials were guilty of \u201cpoor communication\u201d regarding a registry of people carrying guns, there is no ground for criminal charges related to the practice.<\/p>\n

Gov.\u00a0Ron DeSantis<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and others have pilloried the\u00a0gun registry<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as a violation of constitutional rights by the\u00a0Donna Deegan<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0administration. The \u201cCheck Points and Perimeter Security<\/a><\/strong>\u201d memo from Facility Manager\u00a0Mike Soto<\/strong>\u00a0was drafted June 30, 2023, during the transition between the outgoing\u00a0Lenny Curry\u00a0<\/strong>administration and Deegan\u2019s incoming group. It was revised in July after Deegan was sworn in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

State Attorney Nelson\u2019s\u00a0Office notes that the city \u201cstopped the practice immediately once it was discovered,\u201d but not before \u201cmore than 140 entries recording the names, birthdates, ID numbers, and firearm types of over 100 individuals\u201d were memorialized.<\/p>\n

The SAO concluded that \u201csanctions only apply when a registry is created \u2018knowingly and willfully.\u2019\u201d The Public Works manager who created the registry did so because \u201che wanted data about how many people carried firearms into City buildings \u2014 believing it would improve preparedness in case of an emergency, not realizing it created a legal problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uthmeier\u2019s memo takes issue with this read, and says the SAO\u2019s work does not \u201cwithstand scrutiny.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the logbooks do constitute a record of gun owners, thus violating the law. He also argued that the keepers of the list, including the public works manager blamed for its existence, did some knowingly and willfully.<\/p>\n

\u201cIgnorance of the law is no excuse,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cCity leadership,\u201d he added, either was \u201cfully aware\u201d and \u201cdid nothing,\u201d or \u201cfailed to adequately train and supervise\u201d staff.<\/p>\n

The scrutiny from Tallahassee opens up a new chapter on a book the Mayor\u2019s Office thought was closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe City of Jacksonville fully cooperated with State Attorney Nelson and her office from start to finish, and we thank them for conducting a careful and thorough review,\u201d read a statement from a Deegan administration spokesperson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey confirmed that the policy in question was implemented by an individual employee concerned with building security unbeknownst to Mayor Deegan or her leadership team. This practice immediately ended when it was brought to the administration\u2019s attention. Jacksonville will always follow the law and support constitutionally protected rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Attorney General James Uthmeier is taking issue with State Attorney Melissa Nelson, a fellow Republican, for deciding not…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":627363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,16824,7310,14521,84931,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-627362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-gun-registry","tag-jacksonville","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-melissa-nelson","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116160937974577798","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=627362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/627362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/627363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=627362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=627362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=627362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}