Florida Gun Laws: Permitless Carry, Storage, and Penalties

Florida gun laws let adults 21 and older buy firearms after a background check and carry them concealed without a permit, but open carry is banned in almost every situation, a long list of locations are off-limits, and state law overrides any city or county rule. The same statewide framework applies whether you live in Jacksonville, Miami, or a small Panhandle town.

Who Can Own a Firearm in Florida

You must be at least 21 years old to buy any firearm in Florida, including rifles and shotguns. The age floor sits in the same statute that governs background checks and covers every sale through a licensed dealer.¹ Active law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and military servicemembers can buy rifles and shotguns before turning 21.

Several categories of people are barred from buying or possessing a firearm. During the background check, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement screens for whether you have been:

Convicted of any felony, which makes you a prohibited person under both Florida and federal law.
Convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor, which triggers a lifetime federal firearms ban under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9).²
Subject to an active domestic violence injunction protecting an intimate partner or their child.
Adjudicated mentally defective or involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

Medical Marijuana Patients Cannot Legally Buy

Florida runs a legal medical marijuana program, but federal law still classifies marijuana as a controlled substance. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), anyone who uses marijuana is a prohibited person who cannot legally buy, possess, or receive firearms or ammunition.² The ATF Form 4473 that every dealer buyer fills out asks directly about marijuana use, and answering dishonestly is a federal felony. A Florida medical marijuana card does not change the federal rule.

Buying From a Licensed Dealer

When you buy from a licensed dealer, the dealer contacts the FDLE’s Firearm Purchase Program. Florida is a point-of-contact state, so dealers call FDLE rather than the FBI, and an analyst checks your information against state and federal databases.³ The FDLE charges a $5 fee per transaction.⁴

A mandatory three-day waiting period begins after the background check is submitted. Those three days exclude weekends and legal holidays, so a Wednesday purchase typically means a Monday pickup. One detail catches buyers off guard: the waiting period ends after three business days or when the background check clears, whichever is later. If FDLE takes longer than three days to return a result, you wait for the check as well.⁵

Two groups skip the waiting period: holders of a valid Florida concealed weapon or firearm license, and buyers trading in another firearm as part of the transaction.⁵ The background check still runs for both.

Private Sales Between Individuals

Neither federal nor Florida law requires a background check when two private individuals who are not licensed dealers complete a firearm sale. If both parties are Florida residents and neither is a prohibited person, the sale can happen without a dealer. Selling to someone you know or should reasonably suspect is prohibited is still a crime, and if the buyer lives in another state, the sale has to go through a licensed dealer.

Florida also prohibits the state from maintaining any registry of privately owned firearms or their owners.⁶ No agency tracks who owns what, and there is no post-purchase registration step.

Concealed Carry Without a Permit

Since July 1, 2023, eligible adults can carry a concealed firearm in Florida without a state-issued license. If you meet the same criteria that would qualify you for a concealed weapon license — 21 or older, no disqualifying convictions, not otherwise a prohibited person — you can carry concealed in public.⁷

One requirement trips people up. You must carry valid photo identification whenever you have a concealed firearm on you, and you must show it to a law enforcement officer on demand. Failing to produce ID is a noncriminal violation with a $25 fine.⁸ Permitless carriers are also subject to every restricted-location rule that applies to licensed carriers.

Why Some Residents Still Get the License

The formal Concealed Weapon or Firearm License did not go away. Residents still apply because the license provides reciprocity with other states that do not honor permitless carry from Florida, and because it exempts you from the three-day waiting period when buying a firearm. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services runs the application process, which requires a firearms safety course and fingerprinting.⁹

Open Carry Remains Illegal

Florida prohibits openly carrying a firearm or electric weapon in public. This is a separate statute from the concealed carry law, and the ban applies broadly.¹⁰ A violation is a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.

If you are carrying concealed and your firearm is briefly exposed, say by a shirt riding up, that is not a violation unless you intentionally display it in an angry or threatening way.¹⁰ Narrow exceptions let you openly carry while fishing, hunting, camping, or traveling to and from those activities.¹¹ Outside those recreational contexts, your firearm must stay concealed.

Where You Cannot Carry

Permitless carry and licensed carry are both subject to the same restricted-location list. Carrying into any of these places is a criminal offense, and ignorance of the restriction is not a defense:¹²

Any elementary or secondary school facility, administration building, or career center.
Any college or university facility, unless you are a registered student or employee carrying only a nonlethal stun gun.
Courthouses and courtrooms.
Polling places.
Meetings of a county commission, school board, city council, or special district.
Any session of the Florida Legislature or its committees.
Any school, college, or professional sporting event not related to firearms.
Any portion of an establishment primarily devoted to serving alcohol for on-premises consumption.
Jails, prisons, and detention facilities.
Police and sheriff stations.
Inside an airport passenger terminal and sterile area, though a cased firearm may be brought into the terminal to check as baggage.
Any place where federal law prohibits firearms.

Possessing a firearm on school grounds is a third-degree felony carrying up to five years in prison. If an authorized concealed carrier accidentally brings a firearm into a school or university, the charge drops to a second-degree misdemeanor, but it is still a criminal case.¹³

Federal Buildings

Separately from state law, federal law prohibits firearms in any federal building where federal employees regularly work. That covers post offices, Social Security offices, federal courthouses, and similar facilities. A violation in a standard federal facility is punishable by up to one year in prison; possession in a federal court facility carries up to two years.¹⁴ Signs must be posted at public entrances, but actual knowledge of the prohibition is enough for a conviction even without posted signs.

When You Can Use a Firearm in Self-Defense

Florida’s self-defense laws eliminate the duty to retreat. If you are in a place where you have a legal right to be, you are not engaged in criminal activity, and you reasonably believe deadly force is necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm, or a forcible felony, you can use that force without first trying to escape.¹⁵ That applies on the street, in a parking lot, at a park, anywhere you have the right to be.

Inside your home, vehicle, or any dwelling where you have the right to be, the protections go further. Florida law creates a legal presumption that you had a reasonable fear of death or great bodily harm if someone was unlawfully and forcibly entering your dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or trying to forcibly remove someone from it.¹⁶

The home-defense presumption does not apply in several situations: if the person you used force against had a legal right to be there (a co-owner or roommate, absent a domestic violence injunction), if the person being removed was a child in the lawful custody of the alleged intruder, if you were committing a crime at the time, or if the intruder was an identified law enforcement officer performing official duties.¹⁶

Safe Storage Around Minors

Florida requires you to secure loaded firearms if you know or should know that a child under 16 could access them. You satisfy the rule by keeping the firearm in a locked container, in a location a reasonable person would consider secure, or by using a trigger lock. Carrying the firearm on your body also counts.¹⁷

If you fail to secure the firearm and a minor gains access and then displays or carries it in public or in a threatening manner, you face a second-degree misdemeanor. The charge does not apply if the minor obtained the firearm through an unlawful break-in. The duty only kicks in when a minor actually gains access and misuses the weapon, not simply because an unsecured firearm sits in your home.

Risk Protection Orders

A risk protection order lets a court temporarily remove firearms from someone who poses a significant danger to themselves or others. Only a law enforcement officer or agency can file the petition; family members and private citizens cannot go directly to the court.¹⁸

A judge can issue a temporary order without the subject present if the petition shows immediate danger. The subject must surrender all firearms and ammunition to law enforcement. A full hearing must occur within 14 days, at which the court decides on clear and convincing evidence whether to extend the order for up to 12 months.¹⁹

Knowingly possessing a firearm or ammunition while subject to an active risk protection order is a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.¹⁸ The underlying proceeding is civil, aimed at removing access rather than punishing the subject, but violating the order triggers criminal penalties.

State Rules Override Local Ones

Florida has one of the strongest preemption statutes in the country. The legislature has declared that it occupies the entire field of firearm and ammunition regulation, covering purchase, sale, possession, and transportation. No county, city, or other local government can enact its own firearm ordinance, and any existing local rules are void.²⁰

The statute goes beyond simply voiding local ordinances. A local elected or appointed official who knowingly and willfully passes a firearm regulation in violation of preemption can be personally fined up to $5,000, removed from office, and barred from using public funds for a legal defense.²⁰ You do not need to research city-by-city rules when traveling across the state.

Penalties for Illegal Possession and Carrying

Consequences vary widely by offense. The most serious involve possession by people who are categorically prohibited.

A convicted felon who possesses a firearm commits a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.²¹ A gang-related enhancement can elevate the charge to a first-degree felony punishable by up to life in prison.

Carrying a concealed firearm when you do not meet the eligibility criteria is a third-degree felony carrying up to five years in prison. Carrying a concealed non-firearm weapon like a knife or baton under the same circumstances is a first-degree misdemeanor with up to one year in jail.⁷

Selling a firearm to anyone under 21 through a licensed dealer is a third-degree felony.¹ Transferring a firearm to a minor under 18 outside the dealer system is also a third-degree felony, though a parent or guardian may transfer ownership to a minor so long as the parent maintains possession of the weapon.

Traveling With Firearms

Flying out of a Florida airport with a firearm, TSA requires the weapon to be unloaded, locked in a hard-sided case, and placed in checked baggage only. You must declare the firearm to the airline at the ticket counter each time you fly.²² Airlines may charge fees or impose their own rules, so check with your carrier before arriving.

When driving across state lines, Florida’s permitless carry law stops at the border. The federal Firearm Owners’ Protection Act gives some cover for travelers passing through states with stricter laws, but only if the firearm is unloaded and not readily accessible, such as locked in the trunk or in a case in the cargo area. If you plan to carry in another state, check whether that state honors Florida’s concealed weapon license, which is the main practical reason residents still apply for one.

1
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.065 – Sale and Delivery of Firearms
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
3
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Firearm Purchase Program FAQs
4
Florida Department of Law Enforcement. FDLE Dealer Manual
5
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.0655 – Purchase and Delivery of Firearms; Mandatory Waiting Period
6
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.335 – Prohibition of Registration of Firearms
7
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.01 – Carrying of Concealed Weapons or Concealed Firearms
8
The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 790.013 – Carrying of Concealed Weapons or Concealed Firearms Without a License
9
Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Concealed Weapon License Possession Restrictions
10
Florida Senate. Florida Code 790.053 – Open Carrying of Weapons
11
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.25 – Lawful Ownership, Possession, and Use of Firearms and Other Weapons
12
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.06 – License to Carry Concealed Weapon or Concealed Firearm
13
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.115 – Possessing or Discharging Weapons or Firearms at a School-Sponsored Event or on School Property
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 930 – Possession of Firearms and Dangerous Weapons in Federal Facilities
15
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 776.012 – Use or Threatened Use of Force in Defense of Person
16
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 776.013 – Home Protection; Use or Threatened Use of Deadly Force
17
FindLaw. Florida Code 790.174 – Safe Storage of Firearms Required
18
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.401 – Risk Protection Orders
19
Florida Senate. Florida Code 790.401 – Risk Protection Orders
20
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.33 – Field of Regulation of Firearms and Ammunition Preempted
21
Florida Statutes. Florida Code 790.23 – Felons and Delinquents; Possession of Firearms, Ammunition, or Electric Weapons
22
Transportation Security Administration. Transporting Firearms and Ammunition