Florida Carry Guide

Florida lets most law-abiding adults carry a concealed handgun with no license at all. It did not throw out the rest of the rulebook. The places you can't carry, the ID you must have on you, and the rules for buying a gun all still apply. This page is the short version of the book: the rules that come up most. Almost every line points to the chapter that explains it.

If you could qualify for a Florida license, you may carry concealed in Florida, license or not. The license age is now 18, after a June 2026 court ruling. Whether an 18-to-20-year-old may carry without a license is still unsettled, so younger adults should get the license. You don't have to live in Florida to hold one, though whether Florida licenses non-residents aged 18 to 20 isn't confirmed.

A Florida license costs $97 new, lasts seven years, and renews for $45 for a Florida resident, on the fee schedule the department posts (the file was created in January 2025; the page itself carries no date), still posted in September 2026. You'll need proof of training, fingerprints and a photo. A course with live fire is one of seven routes the law accepts. The state must decide within 90 days, or up to 45 days more if your background check turns up an arrest with no outcome on record. You don't need it to carry in Florida. You'll want it to travel, and to skip the three-day wait when you buy.

Since July 1, 2023, an eligible adult may carry concealed in Florida with no license. If you're charged, the state must prove you weren't eligible. Open carry became lawful for "law-abiding, adult citizens" after a September 2025 court ruling, though the old ban is still in print. If the Chapter 2 list rules you out, open carry is no way around it. At 18 to 20 it's unsettled. Neither one gets you into a banned place, and neither one crosses the state line.

Florida's law names 15 kinds of places where you may not carry, open or concealed, licensed or not. Break it on purpose and it's a second-degree misdemeanor. Schools carry the heaviest penalties, and from October 1, 2026, a new felony covers firing a gun within 1,000 feet of one during school hours or a school activity, except in lawful defense, for another lawful purpose, or by an owner, or someone the owner allows, on the owner's own private property. Private businesses can ask you to leave, and staying while armed is a felony. Federal buildings, post offices and military bases follow their own rules.

If you're eligible to carry concealed, you may carry the gun on you in your car, license or not. Anyone 18 or older who lawfully has a gun may keep it in the car if it's "securely encased," and an unlocked glove box counts. In a workplace lot, an employer can't ban a legally owned gun locked in or to your car, with some exceptions; employees are protected only if they're allowed to carry concealed. Flying means unloaded, locked and declared. Greyhound bans guns entirely.

Florida has no magazine-capacity limit, and cities and counties can't make one. A few kinds of ammunition are illegal to make, sell or deliver, or to have loaded in a gun knowing what they are: armor-piercing and exploding bullets, and some specialty shotgun shells. Bump stocks are banned.

You don't have to tell a Florida officer you're armed. You do have to carry valid ID while you carry and show it when an officer asks, or pay a $25 fine. What you say beyond that is your call. The goal is a calm, short stop that everyone walks away from.

You must be 21 to buy a gun in Florida, from a dealer or anyone else, except that certified police and correctional officers and servicemembers may buy a rifle or shotgun at 18. Every dealer sale goes through a state background check. Buying from a dealer, there's a three-day wait, not counting weekends and holidays, or until the check clears if that's later, unless you hold a Florida license (or are a certified officer or servicemember), trade in a gun, or, for a rifle or shotgun, hold a card from a hunter safety course of at least 16 hours, or a Florida hunting license if you're exempt from that course. Each county may choose to require a check and a three-to-five-day wait on any sale, dealer or private, made partly on property open to the public, like a gun show or flea market; Florida license holders are exempt. If you know, or should know, that a child under 16 is likely to get to your loaded gun without permission or supervision, the law says lock it up.

In Florida, gun law is state law. Cities and counties can't write their own gun rules, and officials who knowingly break that law can be fined, sued and removed from office. The one exception that reaches buyers is in the state Constitution: counties may add a background check and a three-to-five-day wait at public-access gun sales. Local governments may still zone gun shops and set rules for their staff.

Visitors 21 and older (18 for servicemembers and honorably discharged veterans) may carry in Florida on their home state's license, or with no license if they'd qualify for Florida's. When you leave, your right to carry without a license stays home. Your Florida license is what other states may honor, on their own terms. Georgia and Alabama both honor it for adults. Under 21 is different: no Georgia source settles whether an 18-to-20-year-old with a Florida license may carry there, and in Alabama you must be at least 19 to have a pistol, with narrow exceptions in Alabama's own law. The details of every crossing are in the Florida Regional Carry Guide: www.sneakypeteholsters.com/florida-regional-carry-guide, or search "Florida Regional Carry Guide" at www.sneakypeteholsters.com.

Florida law lets you use deadly force only when you reasonably believe it's necessary to prevent imminent death, great bodily harm or a forcible felony. There's no duty to retreat if you're somewhere you have a right to be and aren't committing a crime. Showing a gun in anger is a crime of its own. Refusing to leave a building or vehicle when the owner or tenant, or someone either one has authorized, tells you to is a felony if you're armed. If you ever use your gun, call 911, then call a lawyer, and say as little as possible until you have one.

Three state offices run Florida's gun rules. The agriculture department issues carry licenses. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement runs purchase background checks. The Attorney General tells police and prosecutors how to read the law. The statutes themselves are free online. Everything here was checked on September 27 and 28, 2026.