Florida law places no limit on firearm magazine capacity. You can legally buy, own, and carry magazines of any size in the state, whether for a handgun, a rifle, or a shotgun, and no Florida city or county is allowed to impose its own cap either. That is the short answer to any question about Florida magazine capacity law, and it has been the answer for decades.
What Chapter 790 Actually Says
Chapter 790 of the Florida Statutes is the state’s main body of firearms law. It covers licensing, prohibited possessors, bump-fire stocks, and armor-piercing ammunition, among other things. It does not set a magazine capacity limit for any firearm.1Florida Legislature. Chapter 790 Weapons and Firearms The term “large-capacity magazine” is not defined or regulated anywhere in the chapter.2Florida Legislature. Chapter 790 Weapons and Firearms Florida’s concealed carry framework likewise says nothing about magazine size.3NRA-ILA. Florida Gun Laws
Magazine capacity does appear once in Florida criminal law, and it is worth understanding because people sometimes mistake it for a possession ban. Florida Statute 775.087(3) is a sentencing enhancement. If someone is convicted of a qualifying serious felony — the list includes murder, sexual battery, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, carjacking, and drug trafficking — and possessed a semiautomatic firearm with a “high-capacity detachable box magazine” while committing the offense, the court must impose a minimum of 15 years in prison. The statute defines “high-capacity detachable box magazine” as one capable of holding more than 20 centerfire cartridges. The minimum rises to 20 years if the firearm was discharged and to 25 years to life if the discharge caused death or great bodily harm.4Florida Legislature. Section 775.087 Possession or Use of Weapon
Owning or carrying a magazine that holds more than 20 rounds is not itself a crime under this statute. The enhancement only applies when a qualifying felony is committed and the magazine is present during that offense.
Why No Florida City or County Can Set Its Own Limit
Florida bars local governments from regulating firearms or ammunition at all. Florida Statute 790.33 declares that the Legislature occupies “the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition,” including purchase, sale, transfer, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage, and transportation, “to the exclusion of all existing and future county, city, town, or municipal ordinances.” Any local ordinance that touches this field is void, and a court must permanently enjoin its enforcement.5Florida Legislature. Section 790.33 Field of Regulation of Firearms and Ammunition Preempted
A 2011 amendment added teeth. Elected officials who knowingly and willfully pass a preempted ordinance can be fined up to $5,000 personally and removed from office by the governor, and municipalities can face damages of up to $100,000 per lawsuit, plus legal fees.6Giffords Law Center. Preemption of Local Laws in Florida
Those penalty provisions have been litigated. In April 2018, Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, and Pembroke Pines sued in Broward County, arguing the penalties violated legislative immunity, separation of powers, and the home-rule provisions of the Florida Constitution. The suit was explicitly aimed at opening the door to local bans on large-capacity magazine sales.7Everytown for Gun Safety. Broward County Cities and Elected Officials File Lawsuit Challenging Law A Leon County circuit judge ruled the penalty provisions unconstitutional in July 2019, but the state’s immediate appeal stayed the ruling and the penalties stayed in effect.8Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman. Lawsuit Led by Broward City May Transform Rules on Enacting Local Gun Laws In a related case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal confirmed in 2021 that Broward County weapons ordinances violated the preemption statute.9Fourth District Court of Appeal. Broward County v. Florida Carry, Inc. No Florida locality currently enforces any magazine capacity rule.
Bills That Have Tried To Change This
Florida lawmakers have repeatedly filed bills to impose a capacity cap. None have moved.
In 2025, Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith filed SB 1338, which would have prohibited the sale, transfer, and possession of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. It was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn on May 3, 2025, and died in the Criminal Justice Committee on June 16, 2025.10Florida Senate. SB 1338 (2025)
Smith refiled a near-identical measure for the 2026 session as SB 346 on November 4, 2025. It defined a “large-capacity magazine” as any ammunition feeding device capable of accepting more than 10 rounds and would have banned the sale, transfer, and possession of such devices, with exceptions for law enforcement and military personnel. Anyone who already owned a qualifying magazine before the proposed October 1, 2026 effective date would have had to apply for a certificate of possession by October 1, 2027. A sales violation would have been a third-degree felony with a two-year mandatory minimum, and a possession violation a third-degree felony with a one-year mandatory minimum.11Florida Senate. SB 346 Bill Text SB 346 was referred to the Criminal Justice, Judiciary, and Rules committees, never got a hearing in any of them, and died in Criminal Justice on March 13, 2026.12Florida Senate. SB 346 (2026)
The pattern has held through much more than routine sessions. Even after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, both of which involved firearms with large-capacity magazines, the Legislature did not enact a capacity restriction.13Everytown Research. High-Capacity Magazines Prohibited The post-Parkland Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act raised the minimum age for rifle purchases and created risk protection orders, but left magazine capacity alone. Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers.14Florida Politics. Florida Democrats Push Long-Odds Gun Control Measures
What Could Still Change the Answer
Two things outside Tallahassee could override Florida’s current approach.
The first is federal legislation. The Keep Americans Safe Act, introduced in March 2025 by Senator Tim Kaine and 21 Senate colleagues with a House companion bill, would reinstate a nationwide ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds. It would prohibit sale and the possession of any such magazine manufactured after enactment.15Senator Tim Kaine. Kaine, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Ban High-Capacity Gun Magazines The bill faces long odds in a divided Congress, but if it passed it would apply in Florida.
The second is the Supreme Court. Several petitions challenging state magazine bans are pending as of mid-2026, and if the Court decides the constitutional question, that ruling binds Florida courts and legislators alike:
- Duncan v. Bonta (No. 25-198) challenges California’s 10-round limit. The Ninth Circuit upheld the ban, ruling that large-capacity magazines are accessories rather than “Arms” under the Second Amendment. The petition has been repeatedly relisted at conference, most recently for May 14, 2026.16SCOTUSblog. Duncan v. Bonta
- Gator’s Custom Guns Inc. v. Washington (No. 25-153) challenges Washington State’s ban and raises the same threshold question of whether magazines over 10 rounds are constitutionally protected arms. Distributed for the conference of June 18, 2026.17SCOTUSblog. Gator’s Custom Guns Inc. v. Washington
- National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont (No. 25-421) challenges Connecticut’s ban on both AR-15-style rifles and magazines over 10 rounds. Distributed for the conference of June 25, 2026.18SCOTUSblog. National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont
Lower courts are split. Some have held that large-capacity magazines are not “Arms” under the Second Amendment at all. Others assume they are protected but find that historical tradition supports regulation.19SCOTUSblog. The Second Amendment Landscape A ruling under the framework from New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) that struck down state bans would effectively entrench Florida’s current approach. A ruling upholding them would leave Florida free to pass a cap if the Legislature’s politics ever shifted. For now, the answer at every level — state, local, and federal — is the same: there is no limit.