A Florida Mayor Beat the Gun Lobby, but Battle With the State Still Looms

Back in January, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum appeared before a federal court to defend his city against a lawsuit brought forward by Florida Carry and the Second Amendment Foundation, two guns rights organizations. The groups sued the city in 2014, arguing that a pair of decades-old city laws banning the use of firearms in public parks violated state law—retroactively.

On Friday, Florida’s First District Court of Appeal ruled in favor of Tallahassee. The appellate court confirmed that it couldn’t compel the city’s government to repeal local ordinances that the city wasn’t enforcing anyway. It was a narrow ruling, however. The court also decided against Tallahassee’s counter-claim that parts of the state’s preemption law were unconstitutional.