Florida allows concealed carry of firearms through two paths. First, constitutional (permitless) carry under Fla. Stat. § 790.01(1)(b) covers any...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Florida allows concealed carry of firearms through two paths. First, constitutional (permitless) carry under Fla. Stat. § 790.01(1)(b) covers any qualifying adult 21 or older who is not a prohibited person - no permit required, in effect since HB 543 (Ch. 2023-18, Laws of Fla.) took force on July 1, 2023. Second, the Concealed Weapon or Firearm License (CWFL) under Fla. Stat. § 790.06 remains the permit-based path, issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), and adds out-of-state reciprocity, NICS-exempt purchases under 18 U.S.C. § 922(t)(3), and the federal Gun-Free School Zone exemption under 18 U.S.C. § 922(q). The permitless and CWFL paths described here authorize CONCEALED carry. Open carry is separately lawful for qualifying adults since September 2025, when the First DCA held Fla. Stat. § 790.053 unconstitutional in McDaniels v. State and the Attorney General directed law enforcement not to enforce the ban. See OPEN_CARRY.
This section covers concealed firearm carry by civilians. Open carry is in OPEN_CARRY; the CWFL issuance process is in PERMIT_BASICS, APPLICATION_PROCESS, FEES_COSTS, and TRAINING_REQUIREMENTS; prohibited places (which apply to permitless carriers and CWFL holders alike, by force of § 790.013(2)) are in PROHIBITED_PLACES. Bottom line on concealment: if you are 21 or older, qualify under § 790.06(2), and keep the firearm concealed from the ordinary sight of another person, you do not need a license to carry concealed in Florida - but you must carry valid ID, and every § 790.06(12) location restriction still applies.
Before HB 543, Fla. Stat. § 790.01 made it a third-degree felony to carry a concealed firearm on or about the person without a CWFL issued under § 790.06. The CWFL was the only general civilian path. HB 543 (Ch. 2023-18, Laws of Fla., effective July 1, 2023) rewrote § 790.01 to add subsection (1)(b), creating a permitless-carry path for adults who already qualify for a CWFL but have not obtained one. The result is that the same conduct - carrying a concealed firearm on or about your person in a public place - can now be lawful under either of two independent legal authorities:
Permitless carry under § 790.01(1)(b). A person who is not licensed under § 790.06, but who otherwise satisfies the criteria for receiving and maintaining such a license under § 790.06(2)(a)-(f) and (i)-(n), (3), and (10), is authorized to carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm.
CWFL carry under § 790.06. A person issued a CWFL by FDACS under § 790.06 is authorized to carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm anywhere in the state for seven years from the date of issuance, subject to § 790.06(12).
HB 543 did not repeal the CWFL. The license remains a separate, more powerful instrument and coexists with permitless carry. A permitless carrier is treated under § 790.01(1)(b) and is subject to the same § 790.06(12) prohibited-places list as a license holder by operation of § 790.013(2). A CWFL holder gets statutory recognition outside Florida, NICS-exempt purchases at federally licensed dealers, the federal school-zone exemption under 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)(B)(ii), and the church/synagogue carry rule of § 790.06(13).
Under § 790.01(1), a person is authorized to carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm - as those terms are defined in § 790.06(1) - only if they are licensed under § 790.06 (paragraph (a)) or qualify for licensure but have not obtained one (paragraph (b)). A person who does not meet either criterion and carries anyway commits an offense.
The grading distinction in § 790.01 is sharp. Under § 790.01(2), unauthorized carry of a concealed weapon (non-firearm - a dirk, metallic knuckles, billie, tear gas gun, chemical weapon or device, or other deadly weapon as defined in § 790.001(4)) is a misdemeanor of the first degree, punishable under §§ 775.082 or 775.083. Under § 790.01(3), unauthorized carry of a concealed firearm (any weapon designed to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive - § 790.001(9)) is a felony of the third degree, punishable under §§ 775.082, 775.083, or 775.084. The penalty stack for an unlicensed and unqualified carrier is therefore much heavier for a handgun than for a billy club, and is the practical reason a Texas-or-Pennsylvania-style "I just forgot my license" defense does not work in Florida - § 790.01(3) is a felony, not a misdemeanor.
Two carve-outs limit the scope of § 790.01(2)-(3). First, § 790.01(4) places the burden of proving both elements - that the actor is unlicensed and ineligible - on the state. The state must show the actor is "ineligible to receive and maintain such a license" under the criteria of § 790.06(2)(a)-(f) and (i)-(n), (3), and (10). A clean, eligibility-on-paper carrier who simply has no license is not committing a § 790.01 offense at all under HB 543; the state cannot satisfy its (4) burden. Second, § 790.01(5) carves out two specific factual scenarios: (a) lawful concealed carry while in the act of evacuating during a mandatory evacuation order issued under chapter 252 (state-declared emergency) or chapter 870 (locally-declared emergency), where "in the act of evacuating" means immediate movement away from the evacuation zone within 48 hours of the order (extendable by gubernatorial order); and (b) concealed self-defense chemical spray and concealed nonlethal stun guns or dart-firing stun guns. Note that the (5)(b) carve-out applies to electric weapons, not firearms - concealed firearm carry by a person ineligible for a CWFL during a non-evacuation event is still a third-degree felony.
Section § 790.01(6) preserves prosecutorial reach: nothing in § 790.01 precludes prosecution for use of an electric weapon, stun gun, or self-defense chemical spray during the commission of any offense under §§ 790.07, 790.10, 790.23, 790.235, or any other criminal offense.
Section 790.013 is the documentation-and-parity statute for the permitless-carry path created by HB 543. It is short - two operative subsections - and easy to misread.
§ 790.013(1) - ID requirement. A person carrying a concealed weapon or concealed firearm without a CWFL "as authorized under s. 790.01(1)(b)" must carry valid identification at all times when in actual possession of the concealed weapon or firearm and must display that ID upon demand by a law enforcement officer. A violation of subsection (1) is a noncriminal violation punishable by a $25 fine, payable to the clerk of the court. There is no statutory tender-the-ID-immediately-upon-encounter rule beyond the "upon demand" language; the law-enforcement officer must request it. There is no parallel duty to volunteer the fact that you are armed, and no Florida statute creates a § 790.013 duty-to-inform analog (see DUTY_TO_INFORM).
§ 790.013(2) - Prohibited-place parity. A permitless carrier "is subject to s. 790.06(12) in the same manner as a person who is licensed to carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm." This is the load-bearing sentence in § 790.013. The post-HB 543 reality is that the 15-category prohibited-places list of § 790.06(12) - courthouses, polling places, school facilities, K-12 administration buildings, career centers, college and university facilities (with narrow electric-weapon exceptions), the inside-checkpoint-and-sterile area of airports, places of nuisance, police and detention facilities, the bar portion of any liquor establishment, school athletic events not related to firearms, governing-body meetings, legislative meetings, and any place where firearms are prohibited by federal law - applies equally to constitutional carriers and to license holders. The CWFL's § 790.06(13) church-and-synagogue carry authorization, by contrast, runs to license holders only and not to permitless carriers, because § 790.013(2) cross-references (12) and not (13). PROHIBITED_PLACES walks through the list in detail.
The practical takeaway: permitless carry in Florida does not free you from a single § 790.06(12) location rule. It frees you from the seven-year, fingerprint-and-training license process, and that is essentially all it does inside the state.
Florida's "concealed" standard is statutory and not a common-law accident of fit and finish. Under § 790.001(3), "concealed firearm" means any firearm carried on or about a person "in such a manner as to conceal the firearm from the ordinary sight of another person." § 790.001(4)(a) provides the parallel definition for "concealed weapon" - a dirk, metallic knuckles, billie, tear gas gun, chemical weapon or device, or other deadly weapon - using the same "ordinary sight of another person" standard. Florida courts apply an "absolutely invisible" standard only for weapons in deep-pocket or in-purse cases that require a search to find. For an on-the-belt firearm, the question is whether an ordinary observer in the room, glancing in the carrier's direction, would see the firearm. Outline of a holster through a slightly tight shirt is not, on these statutory definitions, a concealment failure - but a printed grip sticking above the belt line is a closer call, and the safer practical approach is to dress around the holster rather than to argue printing.
What separated Florida from a state like Texas was that Florida's "concealed" standard is binary at the statutory level: either you are carrying within § 790.001(3) (concealed) or you are carrying openly, which - since McDaniels struck § 790.053 in 2025 - is itself now lawful for a qualifying adult. There is no Texas-style "intentional display in plain view" carve-out for unintentional flashes. § 790.053 does, however, contain its own narrow safe-harbor: the second sentence of § 790.053(1) provides that "it is not a violation of this section for a person who carries a concealed firearm as authorized in s. 790.01(1) to briefly and openly display the firearm to the ordinary sight of another person, unless the firearm is intentionally displayed in an angry or threatening manner, not in necessary self-defense." A holster shift, a momentary clothing snag, a brief reach across a console - those readings of "briefly and openly display" are protected. Drawing in anger or to threaten is not.
The § 790.053(1) brief-display safe-harbor runs only to a person carrying "as authorized in s. 790.01(1)" - meaning either a CWFL holder under § 790.01(1)(a) or a qualifying permitless carrier under § 790.01(1)(b). This clause mattered chiefly under the former open-carry ban. Since McDaniels struck § 790.053 in 2025, open carry by any qualifying adult is lawful in its own right, so the incidental-exposure question the safe-harbor addressed rarely arises.
The eligibility floor for permitless carry under § 790.01(1)(b) is the same as the CWFL issuance criteria of § 790.06(2)(a)-(f) and (i)-(n), (3), and (10), minus the firearm-competence demonstration in (h). The working list a Florida instructor needs:
The single most important practical point: § 790.06(2)(b) requires age 21 for both license issuance and permitless carry. A 19-year-old in Florida cannot carry concealed under either path. Anyone who tells you HB 543 lowered the age is wrong.
The single most important practical difference between the two paths: a CWFL applicant must additionally demonstrate firearm competence under § 790.06(2)(h); a permitless carrier under § 790.01(1)(b) need not. Permitless carriers still benefit in real life from training, but the statute does not require it. TRAINING_REQUIREMENTS covers the (h) options.
| Offense | Citation | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| Carrying a concealed weapon (non-firearm) without authorization | Fla. Stat. § 790.01(2) | Misdemeanor of the first degree |
| Carrying a concealed firearm without authorization | Fla. Stat. § 790.01(3) | Felony of the third degree |
| Failure of a permitless carrier to carry valid ID or display upon demand | Fla. Stat. § 790.013(1) | Noncriminal violation, $25 fine |
| Knowing/willful violation of § 790.06(12) prohibited-place by a CWFL holder (and, by force of § 790.013(2), by a permitless carrier) | Fla. Stat. § 790.06(12)(d) | Misdemeanor of the second degree |
| Open carrying of a firearm by a qualifying adult | Fla. Stat. § 790.053 (held unconstitutional in McDaniels) | No longer enforceable |
| Possession of a firearm by a convicted felon | Fla. Stat. § 790.23 | Felony of the second degree |
The grading rule a Florida instructor must drill into students: Florida § 790.01(3) is a felony. Some other states grade their plain-view-display offenses as misdemeanors, but a Florida resident who carries concealed without meeting the § 790.01(1)(b) eligibility floor commits a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years' imprisonment and a $5,000 fine under § 775.082 and § 775.083. The grading is deliberate: HB 543 narrowed § 790.01's reach by carving out qualifying carriers, but it left the underlying penalty grade alone for non-qualifying carriers.
A common student question in 2026 is whether Florida is now "the same as Texas." On carry mode, the answer is now much closer to yes. Texas under H.B. 1927 made open carry of holstered handguns by qualifying adults lawful in a single statute. Florida got to the same place in two steps: HB 543 (2023) created a permitless concealed-carry path under § 790.01(1)(b), and the McDaniels decision (2025) struck § 790.053, the open-carry ban. A Floridian who walks into a 7-Eleven with a holstered handgun on their hip in plain view is not committing a § 790.053 offense today, whether they hold a CWFL or carry permitlessly. Open carry is subject to the prohibited-places rules, the § 790.10 improper-exhibition statute, and federal law, and the McDaniels decision is subject to mandatory Florida Supreme Court review.
The other practical difference: Florida still has a meaningfully more restrictive prohibited-places list than post-2021 Texas. § 790.06(12) lists 15 categories (courthouses, polling places, schools, college campuses, the inside-checkpoint of airports, the bar portion of liquor establishments, etc.), and § 790.013(2) extends every one of them to permitless carriers. There is no Florida analog to certain other states' LTC-only carve-outs for hospitals, alcohol-revenue establishments, or amusement parks - those Florida prohibitions in § 790.06(12) bind license holders and permitless carriers identically.
Permitless carry covers most everyday in-Florida concealed carry by a qualifying adult. The CWFL is still meaningfully different in five ways an instructor should be able to explain.
Reciprocity outside Florida. § 790.01(1)(b) is a Florida-only rule. The Florida CWFL is honored under unilateral or bilateral reciprocity arrangements with roughly three dozen states, with the current list maintained by FDACS. A permitless carrier crossing a state line has no statutory authority in the receiving state unless that state independently recognizes Florida residence under its own permitless-carry statute. RECIPROCITY covers operational details.
NICS-exempt purchases under federal law. A current Florida CWFL issued after the federal qualification process is recognized by the ATF as a Brady alternative under 18 U.S.C. § 922(t)(3). A CWFL holder skips the NICS check on a 4473 purchase. A permitless carrier does not.
Federal Gun-Free School Zones Act exemption. 18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)(B)(ii) exempts persons "licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located" if the licensing process verified the licensee. A Florida CWFL qualifies. Permitless carry does not, because there is no licensing process to verify against. This matters most for Floridians who live or routinely drive within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school. Florida itself does not enforce § 922(q), but federal prosecutors can.
Church and synagogue private-property carry. § 790.06(13) authorizes a CWFL holder to carry concealed on property "owned, rented, leased, borrowed, or lawfully used by a church, synagogue, or other religious institution," subject to the institution's own private-property prohibitions. The cross-reference in § 790.013(2) runs only to § 790.06(12), not (13), so this carve-out is license-only.
Statewide preemption. § 790.06(16) declares the Legislature's intent to "occupy the field of regulation of the bearing of concealed weapons or concealed firearms" and prohibits FDACS from imposing burdens beyond the statute. The combined effect of § 790.06(16) and the Florida Firearms Preemption Act (covered in PREEMPTION) is that local rules cannot lawfully add restrictions on CWFL carry.
If a student carries only inside Florida, only outside § 790.06(12) places, and only on property where private-owner permission is unambiguous, the CWFL is largely a convenience document. For instructors, professionals who travel, frequent firearm purchasers, parents who live near schools, and anyone who carries on church or synagogue property, the CWFL is still worth getting. APPLICATION_PROCESS, FEES_COSTS, and TRAINING_REQUIREMENTS cover how to obtain one.
Concealed carry intersects with USE_OF_FORCE the moment a carrier needs to draw. Florida's justification framework runs through Fla. Stat. §§ 776.012, 776.013, 776.031, and 776.032. A defensive draw responsive to an articulable threat raises no open-carry problem: § 790.053 is no longer enforceable after McDaniels, and even under its terms § 790.053(1) expressly excluded display "in necessary self-defense" from the angry-or-threatening-manner clause. A defensive draw also does not violate § 790.01 because the carrier authorized under § 790.01(1)(a) or (1)(b) was lawfully carrying concealed in the first place - drawing the firearm does not retroactively un-conceal anything. USE_OF_FORCE and CASTLE_DOCTRINE walk through the justification framework in detail. The short version for an instructor: a clean defensive draw against an articulable threat is not a § 790.01 or § 790.053 violation, even if the firearm becomes briefly visible.
A CWFL holder must carry valid ID at all times when in actual possession of a concealed weapon or concealed firearm and display it upon demand by a law enforcement officer (§ 790.06(1)(c)). The penalty is a $25 noncriminal fine. § 790.06(1)(c) requires "valid identification," not the license card itself - but most Floridians carry the wallet card because it short-circuits the eligibility inquiry during a stop.
A permitless carrier under § 790.01(1)(b) must carry valid ID under § 790.013(1), with the same $25 penalty. There is no "permitless-carry card" issued by FDACS; a driver's license or state ID suffices.
Neither path imposes a statutory duty to volunteer the fact of concealed carry to a peace officer. Florida is not a duty-to-inform state. DUTY_TO_INFORM covers the framework. Practical advice is unchanged from Texas or Pennsylvania: cooperate, identify yourself, answer truthfully if asked whether you are armed, keep your hands visible, and do not reach toward the firearm.
A few scenarios an instructor should be able to walk through cold:
The practical takeaway: HB 543 lowered the entry barrier to lawful concealed carry, but it did not change the penalty for getting the eligibility or location analysis wrong. A Florida instructor's job in the post-HB 543 world is to walk every student through the § 790.06(2) eligibility list and the § 790.06(12) prohibited-places list before that student leaves the classroom. Permitless does not mean unregulated.
<!-- federal-context-block:added-2026-05-20 -->N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen (2022). Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), eliminated "proper cause" / "good cause" discretionary CCW frameworks and required states to apply objective issuance criteria. The decision converted formerly may-issue states to shall-issue. States that were already shall-issue or permitless before Bruen experience the case primarily through its broader historical-tradition test for evaluating subsequent Second Amendment claims.
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