davidsog said:
FACT - The State of Florida does not recognize such signage and bestows no special legal rights upon private owners or give them any special ability to restrict CCL holders entering their property.
Once again, I respectfully submit that you are misstating the situation when you say that the state of Florida "does not recognize" such signage. (And, in fact, in this case there was no signage involved, anyway.)
As I explained above, the situation is that in Florida the signs do not have force of law such that ignoring a sign and carrying on posted property is automatically a criminal offense and subject to instant arrest. The fact that the signs do not have force of law in that context does not invalidate a property owner's right to control what happens on his/her/its property. If you carry where the owner has notified you that firearms are not allowed, then by definition you do not have the owner's permission to be there, and you are trespassing.
Trespass is unlawful, and you can be asked to leave the property. If you refuse to leave after being asked to do so, it becomes criminal trespass and you can be arrested. The charge will be criminal trespass rather than carrying a gun, but it's still an arrest, and it's still as a result of your carrying where you have been notified that you are not allowed to carry.
In the case under discussion here, apparently there were no signs, so the first notice smee78 had was when security told him he wasn't allowed to carry. Fair enough. He then had notice. His choices then were
- Leave
- Surrender the gun temporarily (if offered the option) and stay
- Refuse to leave and refuse to surrender the gun ... and get arrested for trespass
To reiterate: the state of Florida
does recognize the signs. It recognizes them as giving notice to visitors of the owner's policies and desires, and thus as forming the basis for a charge of trespass if you ignore the signs.
davidsog said:
The argument is whether or not the State of Florida bestows special rights upon private owners who place "No Guns Allowed" signs on their property.
I don't think anyone has argued that the signs convey to property owners any special rights. What the signs do is provide notice, thereby triggering the owner's
ordinary right to invoke the law regarding trespass. If you walk past a sign that says "No firearms allowed," you are by definition trespassing. Trespassing is illegal. The state recognizes this, and has codified it in statute.