The Nation - News from Oct. 8, 1987

The Florida House voted unanimously to close a loophole in a permissive new gun law that allowed people to carry guns openly in public, but the Senate delayed action for a day. A loophole in the law, which took effect Oct. 1 and replaced an array of local gun ordinances, inadvertently allowed anyone to carry guns visibly--an oversight that police feared would create a “Dodge City” mentality in a state already plagued by the nation’s second highest rate of violent crime. The Senate was expected to approve the bill today and will send it to Gov. Bob Martinez.