Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed a $5 million lawsuit against the City of Jacksonville, alleging that the city knowingly and willfully maintained an illegal gun registry in violation of Florida state law.
In a statement, Uthmeier said, “We are taking the City of Jacksonville to court for knowingly and willfully keeping an illegal gun registry in violation of Florida law.”
The lawsuit follows Uthmeier’s challenge in March to state attorney Melissa Nelson’s decision not to pursue criminal charges after it was discovered that city security logbooks recorded privately-owned firearms and their owners entering two city buildings.
In a letter responding to Nelson’s January 2, 2026, decision, Uthmeier stated his office lacks jurisdiction to prosecute but has a duty under Florida Statutes to enforce state law consistently. Uthmeier cited Section 790.335(2)(a) of the Florida Statutes, which prohibits “local governments” or “employees of government entities” from “knowingly and willfully keeping or causing to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms.”
The attorney general’s complaint states that logbooks maintained from July 2023 through April 2025 contained over 140 entries documenting the names, birthdates, identification numbers, and firearm types of more than 100 individuals. Uthmeier concluded these records constitute a forbidden “list, record, or registry” because they documented privately-owned firearms, regardless of whether the log explicitly stated private ownership.
Uthmeier also rejected Nelson’s finding that no one acted with “knowledge or willfulness,” noting the statute requires only that a person intended to keep a log and knew it documented privately owned firearms. He emphasized ignorance of the law is not a defense. In a prior statement, Uthmeier described the city’s creation of a gun registry as “unlawful and reprehensible.”
An eight-month investigation by the State Attorney’s Office found no criminal wrongdoing, with the report indicating the city employee involved did not realize their actions violated the law. However, Uthmeier argued that as far back as 2007, city attorneys had addressed the issue of tracking gun owners entering city buildings. The attorney general alleged that in 2007, a memo drafted by city attorneys specifically warned the city could not create or maintain a gun registry.
Uthmeier further claimed the logbook policy was “compiled and maintained with the knowledge or complicity of City management” because it was crafted by the city facility manager and approved by the City’s Deputy Chief Administrative Officer. The complaint alleges former Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Charles Moreland approved the logbook policy on July 13, less than two weeks after Mayor Donna Deegan took office—a claim that contrasts with the State Attorney’s Office report, which stated the directive was never reviewed or approved by “any senior official in either the Curry or Deegan administrations.”
Moreland, appointed by former Mayor Lenny Curry in 2022, served as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer under Mayor Deegan for approximately two months.
