Floridians have sometimes called their home "The Gunshine State" because of its gun control laws, or the lack thereof. However, the state had a lot of problematic bits of legislation on the books for a long time, such as waiting periods. Now, they have red flag laws and an age restriction on legal adults buying long guns.

They're not as gun-friendly as a lot of people like to tell themselves.

I mean, they don't even have open carry in any way, shape, or form. They have laws expressly against doing so except under specific circumstances such as while hunting, fishing, or camping.

But a new development may well mean that the ban on open carry is in its final days.

Florida’s Republican attorney general won’t fight a challenge to the state’s ban on openly carrying firearms, sidestepping a court fight in the nation’s third largest state.

Ashley Moody, who was first elected in 2018, has routinely sued President Joe Biden’s administration and publicly complained about authorities who refuse to follow the law. But her office turned down requests to represent a state prosecutor and a county sheriff who were the named defendants in a federal lawsuit brought by a gun rights organization that argues the ban violates the 2nd and 14th Amendment.

This means that Moody, a rumored candidate for governor in 2026, is skipping a potentially game-changing lawsuit that could result in guns being carried publicly in the tourist-dependent state.

The state attorney being sued in the lawsuit asked Buddy Jacobs — who has been a long-time lobbyist for the association that represents prosecutors — to represent him in the case after Moody’s office turned down a request to represent the prosecutor. Jacobs told POLITICO that Moody’s office also declined a request by the St. Lucie County sheriff to get involved in the case.

Kylie Mason, a spokesperson for Moody, would not say why the attorney general had declined to defend Florida’s open carry law. Mason only said in an email that “our office may become involved at a later stage.”

Moody is currently defending the constitutionality of the age restrictions in state law, so it's not like she's just such a pro-gun crusader that she won't defend gun control laws. She's simply declining to defend this one.

What we don't know precisely is why.

However, if she remains neutral on this one, there is every possibility that the state's ban on open carry could be coming to an end. That's big news for gun rights advocates throughout the state who have had profound issues with this aspect of Florida's gun laws for quite some time.

This also suggests a path forward for attorneys general in other states that have anti-gun laws on the books that need to be eliminated. Just because there's a challenge to state law, the AG doesn't necessarily have to defend that law. He or she can decline to do so, which opens the door wide open to overturning the gun control measure in question without having to deal with legislative debates and backroom deals.

Whether that's what Moody has in mind is beyond me. I don't know what she's thinking here and I won't pretend to do so, especially when she is defending arguably worse laws. But it is a way to deal with them.

It'll be interesting to see how this particular case goes.