Gun Retailers Make Changes After Parkland

After a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, on February 14, 2018, two very different responses followed. Corporate retailers such as Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walmart, and Kroger raised their minimum purchase age, pulled certain rifles from store shelves, and cut ties with the National Rifle Association, while Florida lawmakers passed a package of new gun laws, including the state’s first risk protection order statute, giving police and the courts new authority to remove firearms from people considered a danger to themselves or others. In the years since, some of those corporate policies have held while Florida’s own gun laws have continued to shift, expanding the right to carry a concealed or openly displayed firearm even as the state’s red flag law remains active and in regular use.

For gun owners in Palm Beach County, this mix of retailer policy and Florida statute matters most once a firearm has actually been taken away. Criminal defense attorney Brian Gabriel has represented clients throughout West Palm Beach and the surrounding area for more than 30 years, including gun owners fighting to keep or recover firearms seized under a risk protection order, and he can walk you through what a seizure means for your case and what the gun rights restoration process in Florida actually involves.

How Major Retailers Changed Their Gun Sales Policies After Parkland

Responding to consumer pressure and a wave of boycott threats, several large retailers with longstanding ties to the firearms industry announced significant policy changes within weeks of the Parkland shooting. Florida also raised its own minimum purchase age to 21 that same year, which lined up closely with the gun ownership requirements several retailers adopted on their own.

Dick’s Sporting Goods

Dick’s Sporting Goods announced it would stop selling any firearm the company classified as an “assault-style rifle,” along with high capacity magazines, and confirmed it had no plans to ever carry bump stocks. The company also raised its minimum purchase age for any firearm to 21. Dick’s later expanded on this decision, removing guns and hunting ammunition from hundreds of additional store locations over the following two years as part of what its then-CEO called a multi-year initiative.

Walmart

Walmart had already stopped selling modern sporting rifles such as the AR-15 in 2015. After Parkland, the retailer also raised its minimum age for firearm and ammunition purchases to 21 and removed products resembling assault-style rifles, including certain airsoft guns, from its website.

Kroger

Kroger supermarkets stopped selling assault-style rifles at Fred Meyer locations years before Parkland and later raised the purchase age to 21 at those stores. In March 2018, the company announced it would phase out gun and ammunition sales altogether at its remaining Fred Meyer locations, citing softening consumer demand for firearms.

L.L. Bean

L.L. Bean, which sells firearms only through its flagship location in Maine, raised its minimum purchase age for guns and ammunition to 21 and kept its inventory limited to hunting and target shooting firearms rather than any style associated with military or tactical use.

Corporate America Cut Ties With the NRA

Not every company that responded to Parkland sells firearms. A separate wave of businesses chose instead to end discount programs and partnership agreements they had maintained with the National Rifle Association. Companies that ended these programs in the weeks after the shooting included the following.

• Delta Air Lines and United Airlines: both airlines ended discounted fares previously offered to NRA members.
• Hertz, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Avis Budget Group: all three rental car companies discontinued NRA member discount rates.
• Wyndham Hotels and Best Western: both hotel chains ended discounted room rates for NRA members.
• MetLife and Symantec: both companies ended existing sponsorship or discount arrangements tied to NRA membership.

These decisions were symbolic rather than legal changes, and none of them altered a Florida resident’s underlying right to own a firearm. That right is shaped by state statute, not by corporate discount policy, which is why the legal changes that followed Parkland matter far more to gun owners than any retailer’s business decision.

Florida’s Risk Protection Order Law, Explained

Florida’s red flag law, codified at Florida Statute 790.401, passed as part of the same 2018 legislative package that raised the purchase age to 21. The statute allows a law enforcement officer or agency, and only a law enforcement officer or agency, to petition a court for a risk protection order against someone believed to pose a significant danger to themselves or others by having access to a firearm. Unlike red flag laws in some other states, Florida does not allow a family member, spouse, or roommate to file this type of petition directly. A concerned family member can still report safety concerns to police, but the decision to seek an order in court belongs to law enforcement alone.

Once a petition is filed, a judge can issue a temporary ex parte order without the respondent present if the court finds an immediate and present danger. Florida law then requires a full hearing within 14 days, at which the respondent has the right to appear, present evidence, and challenge the petition before a final order is entered. A final risk protection order can last up to 12 months and may be extended for additional 12-month periods if a court finds the underlying grounds still exist, and the respondent is entitled to request one hearing to vacate the order after it is issued and one after each extension. Learn more about how a risk protection order case unfolds in Florida from start to finish.

At that full hearing, the officer or agency seeking the order must prove by clear and convincing evidence, a standard well above what most civil cases require, that the respondent poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to themselves or others by having access to a firearm or ammunition. Courts may weigh any relevant evidence, including a recent act or threat of violence, whether or not that act involved a firearm, and any pattern of threatening behavior within the past 12 months. This standard is meant to sit closer to the burden used in criminal cases than the lighter standard applied in most civil disputes, and if a respondent later asks the court to vacate the order before it expires, that same clear and convincing evidence standard continues to apply at each stage that follows. Because the evidentiary record built at the very first hearing often shapes every hearing that comes after it, having legal representation in place before that first appearance can matter a great deal.

What Happens to Your Firearms During a Risk Protection Order Case

Once a risk protection order takes effect, whether temporary or final, the respondent must immediately surrender every firearm, all ammunition, and any concealed weapons license in their possession to local law enforcement. If firearms are not turned over voluntarily, officers may seek a search warrant to recover them. This process can move quickly and often happens before the affected gun owner has had any opportunity to speak with an attorney.

Being served with a risk protection order does not require a criminal conviction, an arrest, or even a criminal charge. A person can lose lawful access to every firearm they own based solely on a law enforcement officer’s petition and a judge’s finding of risk, which is why many gun owners describe the process as a wrongful weapons seizure even when no crime has taken place. If a court later vacates the order, firearms are generally returned only after law enforcement confirms through a new background check that the person remains legally eligible to possess them.

Common Reasons Florida Gun Owners Face a Risk Protection Order Petition

Risk protection order petitions in Florida tend to follow a handful of recurring patterns. Recognizing these triggers can help a gun owner understand why a case was filed and what a defense may need to address.

Common triggers include a documented mental health crisis or involuntary examination under the Baker Act, statements or social media posts that law enforcement interprets as a threat of violence, a welfare check that escalates after a family dispute, and referrals connected to a domestic violence call, even when no domestic violence charge is ultimately filed. A prior surrender of firearms during a separate criminal investigation, a report from a coworker or neighbor, or an escalating series of 911 calls to the same address can also prompt an agency to file a petition.

Because the standard for issuing a temporary order is based on a law enforcement officer’s assessment of risk rather than a finding of guilt, two people with similar underlying situations can end up facing very different outcomes depending on how the initial report and petition were written, how quickly an attorney becomes involved, and what evidence is available by the time of the 14-day hearing.

Florida’s Gun Laws Have Kept Changing Since Parkland

The years since Parkland have not moved in a single direction. Florida’s 2023 permitless carry law, sometimes called constitutional carry, removed the requirement that a resident obtain a concealed weapons license before legally carrying a concealed firearm, as long as that person otherwise meets the same eligibility criteria the license process required. More recently, Florida’s First District Court of Appeal ruled the state’s open carry ban unconstitutional in September 2025, finding that the prohibition could not be reconciled with the framework the U.S. Supreme Court set out in its 2022 Bruen decision.

None of these changes affect how a risk protection order works, and none of them restore firearm rights lost through a felony conviction or a concealed weapons violation. A person subject to an active risk protection order, or disqualified under federal or state law for another reason, cannot lawfully possess a firearm simply because carrying rules have loosened elsewhere in the statute. If anything, the wider gap between who can carry a gun in public and who is legally disqualified from owning one at all has made it more important to understand exactly where a specific case stands.

What to Do If You Are Served With a Risk Protection Order

The hours after a risk protection order is served tend to move quickly, and how a gun owner responds in that window can affect the rest of the case. Surrendering firearms and ammunition to the officers on the scene, rather than resisting or arguing at the door, keeps the immediate encounter from escalating into a separate criminal matter. Once the firearms are secured, the more important work begins well before the 14-day hearing.

Before that hearing, it is worth requesting a copy of the actual petition and any supporting affidavit from the clerk of court, since the specific factual claims inside that document, not just the general allegation of danger, are what a defense ultimately has to address. Gathering records that speak to the circumstances behind the petition, such as medical records, text messages, or witness statements, before the hearing date gives an attorney more to work with than trying to respond to the allegations for the first time in the courtroom. Because the 14-day window moves fast, contacting an attorney as soon as an order is served, rather than waiting to see how serious the case becomes, generally preserves the most options.

Protecting Your Right to Own a Firearm in Florida

Whether a case involves a pending risk protection order, a felon in possession of a firearm charge, or a broader federal weapons offense, the facts behind how firearms were seized, reported, or discovered often shape what options remain. A hearing to vacate a risk protection order, a petition to restore civil rights after a conviction, and a defense to a weapons charge all require different evidence and a different strategy, so an early case review can help identify which path applies before deadlines pass.

Some gun owners are dealing with more than one of these issues at once, such as a pending weapons charge that also triggered a risk protection order petition, or an old felony conviction that is now standing in the way of a firearm purchase a background check flagged. Sorting out which deadline or hearing takes priority is often the first practical question a case raises, and getting that sequencing right from the outset can make the rest of the process considerably more manageable.

Frequently Asked Questions About Gun Rights and Risk Protection Orders in Florida

Contact a Florida Gun Rights Attorney Today

Attorney Brian Gabriel began his legal career as an Assistant State Attorney in West Palm Beach, where he handled criminal cases from the prosecution side before opening his own criminal defense practice in 1995. In the years since, he has represented Palm Beach County gun owners in matters ranging from risk protection order hearings to firearms charges and petitions to restore civil rights after a conviction. That background on both sides of the courtroom shapes how our firm reviews the police report, the petition, and the underlying circumstances behind every seizure we are asked to challenge.

If your firearms have been seized under a Florida risk protection order, or you are working to restore gun rights lost after a conviction, the steps you take early in the process can affect what options are still available to you. We offer a free consultation to review the circumstances of your case and outline the potential paths forward, so contact our office today to get started.