Florida Attorney General moves toward civil enforcement over Jacksonville’s gun-owner log kept at city buildings

State review shifts from criminal inquiry to potential financial penalties

Florida’s Attorney General is moving toward possible civil enforcement against the City of Jacksonville following revelations that names and personal information of people carrying firearms into certain city buildings were recorded for roughly two years.

The development comes after the State Attorney’s Office for Florida’s 4th Judicial Circuit завершила an investigation and declined to file criminal charges. Prosecutors concluded the log practice violated Florida’s long-standing prohibition on firearm owner registries, but found insufficient evidence that any individual acted with the knowing and willful intent required for criminal prosecution.

What the city log contained and where it was kept

The practice involved security personnel documenting identifying information about visitors who entered armed, including at Jacksonville City Hall and the Yates Building, which houses constitutional offices. The recordkeeping began in mid-2023 and continued until spring 2025, when it was halted after the issue came to the city’s attention.

Investigators traced the directive to a mid-level city employee. The State Attorney’s review found the measure was implemented without formal approval from senior leadership and without review by city legal counsel. The investigation also stated there was no evidence the collected information was distributed for law-enforcement use or otherwise misused.

Why civil enforcement is still on the table

Florida law bars state and local government entities from compiling or maintaining a list, record, or registry of legally owned firearms or law-abiding firearm owners. While criminal penalties generally require proof that a person knowingly and willfully violated the statute, the law also authorizes civil fines against a governmental entity under specified conditions.

A city can face a fine of up to $5 million if a court determines the registry was compiled or maintained with the knowledge or complicity of the government’s management. The Attorney General is authorized to bring a civil action to enforce any fines assessed under that provision.

Competing accounts of responsibility and oversight

Jacksonville officials have disputed what city leadership knew, when they knew it, and whether the policy originated before or after the July 2023 transition between mayoral administrations. The State Attorney’s report did not attribute approval of the log to either administration’s senior officials, instead describing a breakdown in oversight that allowed the practice to persist.

City Council leaders have warned that civil enforcement could expose taxpayers to significant costs, while other elected officials have argued the matter was resolved by the conclusion of the criminal investigation. The Attorney General’s move toward civil enforcement keeps the issue active and shifts the central question from criminal intent to whether city “management” can be shown to have had knowledge or complicity as defined in state law.

Key points at issue

• Whether the log constituted a prohibited registry under Florida law.
• Whether city management knew of, directed, or allowed the practice to continue.
• Whether civil penalties are warranted even when prosecutors find no criminal intent.

The next phase is expected to focus on administrative accountability: who authorized the procedure, how it remained in place, and what controls failed.

No civil complaint had been publicly adjudicated at the time of the latest developments, and any fine would require court findings under the statute’s civil-enforcement framework.