1865 Fla. Laws 23, 25-27

Abstract

This Act imposed significant restrictions on the possession and use of firearms and the formation of military organizations within the State. It prohibited individuals from forming, participating in, or assisting unauthorized military organizations, classifying such conduct as a misdemeanor and authorizing substantial penalties, including fines, imprisonment, pillory, and whipping. The Act imposed even greater potential penalties on individuals who accepted offices within such organizations, reflecting particular concern with organized or armed groups operating outside state authority. Separately, the Act prohibited hunting or ranging with a gun on another person's enclosed land without the permission of the owner, tenant, or person exercising control over the property. Violators were subject to the penalties prescribed by the preceding section. Together, these provisions demonstrate the Act's regulation of firearms not only as instruments of individual conduct on private property, but also as potential tools of organized military activity. The provisions therefore combined property-based restrictions on the use of guns with broad prohibitions on unauthorized armed organization, backed by severe and discretionary criminal penalties.