Florida AG Sues Jacksonville for $5 Million Over Alleged Illegal Gun Registry

Attorney General Files Suit Against Jacksonville

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed a $5 million lawsuit against the City of Jacksonville in May 2026, alleging that the city violated a state statute prohibiting local governments from maintaining registries of privately owned firearms or their owners. The lawsuit was filed in Duval County court and marks one of the most prominent uses of Florida's preemption law against a major municipality in recent memory. The action sets up a significant legal confrontation between state and local government over the boundaries of gun-related recordkeeping at public buildings.

The complaint centers on logbooks maintained at two city-owned buildings: Jacksonville City Hall and the Yates Building. According to the attorney general's office, those logbooks recorded the names, birthdates, identification numbers, and types of firearms carried by individuals who entered the buildings between July 2023 and April 2025. More than 140 entries were recorded across the two locations, covering over 100 individuals who arrived at city facilities lawfully carrying firearms under Florida's concealed carry or open carry provisions.

Uthmeier's office argued that keeping those records constitutes precisely the kind of registry that Florida law forbids. The attorney general characterized the practice as a direct threat to the privacy and constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners, and said the state has an obligation to enforce the statutory prohibition regardless of the intent behind the logbooks. The lawsuit seeks $5 million in civil penalties, the maximum allowed under Florida law for violations of the firearms preemption statute.

The Law at the Center of the Case

The legal foundation for the lawsuit is Section 790.335(2)(a) of the Florida Statutes. That provision makes it unlawful for any local government entity to knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of those firearms. The statute was enacted as part of Florida's broader effort to preempt local governments from regulating firearms in ways that exceed or conflict with state policy.

Florida has some of the strongest firearm preemption laws in the country. The preemption framework broadly strips county and municipal governments of the authority to enact or enforce ordinances relating to firearms that go beyond what the state has authorized. That framework has been used in prior years to block local governments from adopting their own gun control measures, but the Jacksonville case focuses not on an ordinance but on an administrative practice carried out at the building level by city employees.

The attorney general's office contends that the logbooks fall squarely within the definition of a registry under Section 790.335. The statute does not require that the registry be formal, comprehensive, or publicly accessible to trigger the prohibition. The office argued that the combination of identifying information and firearm data recorded in the logbooks satisfied the statutory definition regardless of the scope or the purpose behind the practice. Legal scholars are closely watching how Duval County courts interpret the term registry and whether a building security log qualifies under the law's plain language.

How the Logbooks Were Discovered and Ended

The logbooks came to light during a review of security and visitor management practices at city facilities. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan and senior city officials said publicly that they were entirely unaware the practice had been taking place. City leadership characterized the logbook system as the decision of an individual employee who was motivated by concern about building security rather than any policy directive from elected officials or senior administrators at City Hall.

According to the city's account, once the practice was discovered it was immediately discontinued. The city did not specify the exact date the logbooks were found or the precise circumstances of the discovery, but Mayor Deegan's office confirmed that the recordkeeping had been halted well before the attorney general's office became involved. The city maintained that there was no institutional intent to create a firearms registry and that the episode reflected an isolated lapse in judgment by a single employee rather than a systemic policy failure within city government.

Mayor Deegan expressed frustration at the attorney general's decision to pursue litigation, noting that the city had taken corrective action as soon as the logbooks came to the attention of city leadership. She and other city officials argued that the lawsuit was disproportionate given the circumstances and that $5 million in penalties was an excessive response to conduct that ended voluntarily and without any evidence of deliberate wrongdoing by elected or senior appointed officials. The city indicated it would mount a vigorous defense in Duval County court.

State Attorney's Investigation and Uthmeier's Override

Before the attorney general filed suit, the local State Attorney's Office conducted its own investigation into the circumstances surrounding the logbooks. That investigation lasted approximately eight months and involved a thorough review of the circumstances under which the logbooks were created, who had knowledge of them, and whether any city officials directed or encouraged the practice. At the conclusion of that inquiry, prosecutors determined that there was no evidence of deliberate misconduct sufficient to support legal action against city leadership.

The State Attorney's Office did not recommend criminal charges and did not pursue civil action against the city based on its findings. The conclusion was that the logbooks originated with a lower-level employee acting on personal initiative related to building security concerns, without authorization from the mayor's office, the city council, or senior department heads. That finding effectively absolved Jacksonville's elected and appointed leadership of intentional wrongdoing under the applicable legal standards.

Uthmeier declined to defer to the local prosecutor's conclusion. The attorney general exercised the authority of his office to file the civil lawsuit independently, bypassing the State Attorney's determination and bringing the matter directly before Duval County court. That decision immediately drew criticism from Jacksonville officials and Democratic elected leaders who argued that the attorney general was substituting his political judgment for the considered conclusion of the office that had actually conducted the investigation over eight months.

Jacksonville's Defense and Political Dynamics

City attorneys are expected to contest the lawsuit on multiple grounds. Among the anticipated defenses is the argument that the logbooks did not constitute a registry within the meaning of the statute because they were maintained for legitimate security purposes and were not intended to track gun ownership in the broader sense the law targets. The city may also argue that the lack of any deliberate policy decision to create a registry is relevant to whether the statutory standard of knowingly and willfully keeping such records has been met by the municipality.

Mayor Deegan, a Democrat, has been at odds with the Republican-controlled state government on several issues during her tenure. Her administration has previously clashed with Tallahassee over city policies ranging from housing to public safety funding. The lawsuit has been viewed by many in Jacksonville's political community as the latest episode in a broader friction between the city and the state, though the attorney general's office has insisted the action is purely a matter of law enforcement and not a reflection of political considerations.

Jacksonville City Council members on both sides of the aisle have weighed in on the lawsuit. Some Republican members expressed general support for enforcing firearms preemption laws while acknowledging the unusual circumstances of the case. Democrats on the council largely sided with the mayor in criticizing the decision to file suit after the local prosecutor had already cleared city leadership of deliberate wrongdoing and after the practice in question had already been stopped by the city itself.

Florida's Firearms Preemption Law in Context

Florida's firearms preemption statute has been a source of significant litigation and political controversy since its enactment and strengthening over successive legislative sessions. The law was amended in 2011 to add personal liability for elected officials who knowingly violate the preemption framework, a provision that caused considerable alarm among local officials at the time. Subsequent court cases have tested the boundaries of preemption and the circumstances under which penalties can be assessed against municipalities and individual officeholders.

Advocacy groups that support strong firearm rights praised the attorney general's decision to file the lawsuit. Several national organizations with Florida chapters issued statements calling the Jacksonville logbooks an unacceptable violation of gun owner privacy and expressing support for robust enforcement of the preemption statute. They argued that law-abiding citizens who carry firearms should not face the risk of having their personal information and firearm details recorded by local government employees without notice or consent simply because they entered a public building.

Civil liberties groups and some gun control advocates raised a different concern, arguing that the $5 million lawsuit penalizes a city for conduct that ended voluntarily and that was apparently the work of a single employee acting without authorization. They suggested that the attorney general's decision to pursue maximum penalties sends a chilling message to local governments about any administrative practice that could be construed as touching on firearms, even when the purpose is building security rather than surveillance of gun owners.

What the Lawsuit Means for Florida Cities

The Jacksonville case is likely to put local governments across Florida on notice that even informal administrative practices involving firearms can trigger significant civil liability under the preemption statute. City and county attorneys statewide are expected to review their own building access and security protocols in light of the lawsuit to ensure that no visitor logs or security records could be characterized as a firearms registry under the statutory definition. Several municipal legal offices were reported to be conducting internal audits of their visitor management systems shortly after the lawsuit became public.

The case also raises broader questions about the relationship between state preemption law and local government security operations. Buildings that house elected officials, courts, and other sensitive functions have legitimate security needs, and the intersection of those needs with Florida's sweeping firearms preemption framework is not always straightforward. Legal experts following the case suggested that the court's eventual ruling could provide needed clarity on where security-related recordkeeping ends and a prohibited registry begins under Florida law.

For building security professionals employed by local governments, the suit underscores the need for careful legal review before implementing any practice that involves documenting information about individuals who enter public buildings while armed. The financial stakes made plain by the $5 million figure in the Jacksonville complaint give local administrators strong incentive to consult with legal counsel before adopting any access-control measures that touch on firearm information, even in contexts where the motivation is purely safety-related.

Next Steps in the Legal Battle

The lawsuit is pending in Duval County court with no trial date set as of late May 2026. Jacksonville's legal team is expected to file a formal response contesting both the factual allegations and the legal theory underpinning the state's claim for $5 million in damages. Discovery is likely to produce depositions of city employees involved in maintaining the logbooks, along with internal communications showing who was aware of the practice and for how long the logs were in use.

Legal experts said the case could move relatively quickly on the central statutory interpretation question, which may ultimately be decided on motions for summary judgment rather than a full trial. The court will need to determine whether the logbooks satisfy the definition of a registry under Section 790.335 and whether the city's conduct meets the knowingly and willfully standard required to impose civil penalties. Both questions involve legal analysis that can be resolved without an extended evidentiary proceeding.

If the court finds in favor of the state, Jacksonville would face a civil judgment of up to $5 million. Given the profile of the case and the significant statutory questions it raises, an appeal to the Florida First District Court of Appeal is considered likely regardless of which side prevails at the trial court level. The outcome will shape how Florida municipalities approach building security, visitor logging, and compliance with the firearms preemption statute for years to come.