Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a $5 million civil lawsuit against the City of Jacksonville this week, alleging that city officials maintained an illegal registry of law-abiding concealed carriers in direct violation of Florida's firearm preemption statutes, Bearing Arms reported on May 13. The suit was filed in Duval County Circuit Court.

The alleged registry took the form of logbooks maintained by security officers at government buildings, including City Hall, between July 2023 and April 2025. According to the complaint, those logbooks contain more than 140 entries recording the names, birthdates, state-issued ID numbers, and firearm types of more than 100 individuals who were lawfully carrying when entering city facilities. The practice began around the time Mayor Donna Deegan took office in July 2023.

Florida Statute §790.335 bars any government entity in the state from knowingly and willfully maintaining a list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or their owners. Uthmeier argued that Jacksonville crossed that line deliberately, and that a 2007 city memo had explicitly warned the municipality against collecting exactly this type of data. The Duval County State Attorney's Office had previously reviewed the matter and acknowledged the practice was unlawful, but declined to pursue criminal charges on the grounds that the city manager who approved the logbooks lacked criminal intent and that the violation reflected a systemic "breakdown in communication." Uthmeier disagreed and moved forward with a civil enforcement action, overriding the local prosecutor's decision to pass.

The $5 million figure reflects the penalty framework available under Florida's preemption statute. First Coast News and Jacksonville Today both covered the filing. Jacksonville's city administration has not announced whether it will contest the suit.

The case arrives as gun-owner privacy has become a national flashpoint. In New Jersey, the state attorney general is simultaneously subpoenaing licensed dealers for a decade of Glock customer data through a separate civil lawsuit — precisely the kind of database Florida's statute was written to prevent government entities from building. Florida's preemption law has historically been one of the country's broadest, extending enforcement rights to both the attorney general and private citizens who sue local governments for violations.

The Duval County Circuit Court will determine the applicable penalty. Gun rights advocates are watching the case as a potential enforcement model for other preemption states that have similar statutes on the books but limited track records of civil enforcement.