The City of Winter Garden removed a sign banning guns from a city park this week after Florida’s attorney general threatened legal action, saying state law does not allow local governments to regulate firearms.
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The sign had been at the Tucker Ranch Recreation and Nature Preserve since the park opened in 2018. Since then, no one has been cited, trespassed or arrested for bringing weapons into the park, city and police officials told the Orlando Sentinel.
It is not clear how Attorney General James Uthmeier, who aggressively champions gun rights, learned about the sign in the west Orange County city.
But in a letter dated Wednesday and posted to X, Uthmeier declared the sign “null and void,” and said the city had until Aug. 15 to confirm it had been removed. Similarly worded signage elsewhere, he added, “must also be revised accordingly.”
A city spokesperson said no other Winter Garden park had a similar sign.
Under Florida law, if the city failed to comply with Uthmeier’s demands, it could face fines and the firing or removal of officials who were involved in creating or enforcing the gun rule.
The spokesperson said Thursday that Winter Garden has not formally received Uthmeier’s letter, but officials quickly moved to take down the sign. A Sentinel photographer did not see any signs forbidding guns during a visit to the park on Thursday.
“The City of Winter Garden is aware of the sign referenced in Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier’s letter,” City Manager Jon Williams said in a statement. “The sign was removed as soon as the oversight was brought to our attention.”
Florida law generally prohibits its cities and counties and from issuing rules and ordinances regulating guns. In a 2021 case cited in Uthmeier’s letter, a divided Florida appeals court struck down a Broward County ordinance prohibiting people from carrying weapons, including guns, into taxis and airports, citing state law.
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Uthmeier wrote in his letter, “Winter Garden is not permitted to enforce any rule purporting to prohibit firearms in this way. Any attempt to do so may lead to civil enforcement actions.”
Since being appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis in February 2025, Uthmeier has used his office to fight for gun rights, even opposing Florida’s own regulations.
A month after his appointment, he announced that he had directed his office not to defend a law banning people younger than 21 from purchasing guns. That law was passed soon after the Parkland school shooting massacre that left 17 students and staff dead.
In August, his office went further by filing a 17-page brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up an appeal by the National Rifle Association, which wants the 21-and-under ban found unconstitutional, a highly unusual move by a state attorney general.
Uthmeier cited a couple of hypothetical examples in arguing the law was unjust: A 20-year-old single mother seeking to protect herself from a “menacing ex-boyfriend” and a teen living in a neighborhood fearing gang violence.
“To be sure, some young adults may be able to borrow a firearm from a parent or other older adult,” the brief said. “But the exercise of a vaunted constitutional right should not depend on that chance.”
In September, Uthmeier praised a state appeals court ruling striking down Florida’s 1987 ban on open carry as unconstitutional, calling it “a big win for the Second Amendment right of Floridians.” He also said he would not appeal and that open carry was now the law across the state.
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