A Central Florida student was arrested Wednesday, Dec. 3, after having 1,500 rounds of 9mm ammunition delivered to his dorm room.
Constantine Demetriades, 21, also had an unloaded AR-15 rifle under his bed at Rollins College in Winter Park inside an “unsecured black carrying case” with one loaded magazine and five empty magazines, according to the arrest affidavit.
A black tactical vest, ear protection, a pistol storage case and a box of 50 9mm rounds were also found during an administrative search of his room. That’s when Winter Park police were called in, the affidavit said. Demetriades, who is on the Rollins rowing team, told police he shoots as a hobby and previously worked as an armed security guard in Orlando clubs.
Demetriades was charged with possession of a firearm on school property, a third-degree felony that can be punished a fine up to $5,000 and/or up to five years in prison. The senior was released without a bond from the Orange County Jail Thursday.
He told officers that he had no bad intentions, he as aware firearms were not allowed on campus and that he usually keeps firearms at a friend’s home off campus but legally bought the rifle in New Jersey during Thanksgiving break. He brought it back to Florida but came straight home “because it was late and he was tired,” the affidavit said. He ordered the ammunition online, police said.
Rollins College policies prohibit weapons in dorms with a threat of immediate dismissal. In a statement, the college said the student would not be allowed on campus while a student conduct process was performed.
What’s legal for gun possession in Florida now?
Is Florida an open carry state?
Openly carrying a firearm has been legal in Florida since September, when a three-judge panel in the 1st District Court of Appeal declared Florida’s law banning open carry to be unconstitutional and a violation of the Second Amendment.
State Attorney General James Uthmeier soon declared open carry to be “the law of the state.”
However, that left some confusion and inconsistencies in Florida statutes. Laws on the books include a list of sensitive areas where open carry is still prohibited such as police stations, courthouses, polling places, government meetings, bars and more.
Both the judge writing for the appeals court panel decision and Uthmeier said that state and federal restrictions on carrying firearms in specific locations such as these would still apply.
Florida legislators may address those inconsistencies in the next session. HB 321, Carrying Weapons and Firearms, from Christine Hunschofsky, D-Parkland, would explicitly state that open or concealed carry would not be allowed in the existing list of locations.
Are guns and other firearms allowed on Florida school campuses?
No. Florida Statute 790.15 prohibits the possession or discharge of weapons or firearms at:
“School” in this statute includes “any preschool, elementary school, middle school, junior high school, secondary school, career center, or postsecondary school, whether public or nonpublic.”
Exceptions apply for law enforcement and corrections officers. In 2019, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill allowing qualified teachers to carry weapons as school guardians if their local school district approves.
Open carry is allowed in some areas “immediately adjacent to campus,” Florida State University PD Chief of Police Jason Trumbower told FSView in November while discussing two demonstrators carrying firearms in the nearby College Town neighborhood. The demonstrators, calling themselves “Second Amendment auditors,” said they were conducting an open-carry walk while filming it in a 50-minute livestream by the YouTube channel TheRealPressNHNow.
Florida’s worst mass shooting of 2025 was at a school in April, when a gunman opened fire at the Tallahassee campus of Florida State University, killing two people and injuring six more. Overall, however, mass shootings are down in Florida and across the country this year.
Where can and can’t I wear my gun in Florida?
Florida laws on licensed and concealed carry list a wide variety of other locations where state and federal ban open or concealed carry (with exemptions for law enforcement and correctional officers), such as:
Private property owners can prohibit firearms on their property, which can include homes and businesses. Violation is considered armed trespass, a third-degree felony, Uthmeier said.
Gun rights advocates arguing against open carry restrictions
Some gun-rights advocates disagree, saying that the decision casts those restrictions in doubt.
“We do not believe that every place currently listed as a prohibited place is constitutionally allowed to be a prohibited place,” Eric Friday, the general counsel for Florida Carry, told The USA TODAY Network’s Lakeland Ledger in October, calling it a “very open question.”
David Marsey, general counsel of the Florida Police Chiefs Association, also claimed in a memo that with the “abrogation” of the state’s open-carry ban, “the prohibited places statute does not expressly prohibit the open carrying of long guns in prohibited places,” The News Service of Florida reported.
(This story was updated with new information.)
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Are guns allowed on Florida campuses? What we know after student arrest
Reporting by C. A. Bridges, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Tallahassee Democrat
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
