Florida is a constitutional-carry state for concealed carry. As of July 1, 2023, qualifying adults 21 and older may carry concealed firearms without a...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Florida is a constitutional-carry state for concealed carry. As of July 1, 2023, qualifying adults 21 and older may carry concealed firearms without a permit under Fla. Stat. § 790.013, enacted via HB 543 (2023 Reg. Sess.) and signed by Governor DeSantis on April 3, 2023. Open carry became lawful in September 2025, when the First District Court of Appeal held Fla. Stat. § 790.053 unconstitutional in McDaniels v. State and the Attorney General directed law enforcement not to enforce the ban. The Concealed Weapon or Firearm License (CWFL), issued by the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) under Fla. Stat. § 790.06, remains valuable for reciprocity, NICS exemption at the dealer counter, and access to LTC-only carve-outs. Florida has Stand Your Ground (§ 776.012(2)), a strong Castle Doctrine with a presumption of reasonable fear (§ 776.013(2)), and pretrial immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action when the use or threatened use of force was justified (§ 776.032).
If you are a Florida adult who can pass a federal background check:
Deep dives live in PERMIT BASICS, APPLICATION PROCESS, TRAINING REQUIREMENTS, PROHIBITED PLACES, VEHICLE CARRY, USE OF FORCE, CASTLE DOCTRINE, RECIPROCITY, and PREEMPTION.
HB 543 (2023) rewrote Fla. Stat. § 790.01 and added § 790.013. Under § 790.01(1), a person is authorized to carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm if the person either is licensed under § 790.06 (subsection (1)(a)) or is not licensed but otherwise satisfies the criteria for receiving and maintaining a CWFL under § 790.06(2)(a)-(f) and (i)-(n), § 790.06(3), and § 790.06(10) (subsection (1)(b)). The substantive eligibility criteria are the same for permitless carry as for the CWFL: U.S. citizenship or permanent residency; age 21 or older; not a prohibited person under § 790.23; no recent controlled-substance or chronic-alcohol disabilities; not adjudicated incapacitated or committed to a mental institution; no withheld adjudication on a felony or domestic-violence misdemeanor within three years; no domestic-violence injunction in force; and not otherwise prohibited by Florida or federal law.
Under § 790.01(2) and (3), a person who does not meet the § 790.01(1) criteria and carries a concealed weapon (other than a firearm) commits a first-degree misdemeanor; the same conduct with a concealed firearm is a third-degree felony. § 790.01(4) places the burden on the state to prove both that the defendant was unlicensed and ineligible. § 790.01(5) carves out evacuation during a declared emergency (within 48 hours of a mandatory order) and concealed self-defense chemical sprays and nonlethal stun guns.
Section 790.013 adds a carry-ID rule for permitless carriers: a person carrying concealed without a license must carry valid identification at all times in actual possession of a concealed weapon or concealed firearm and must display it on demand by a law enforcement officer. A violation is a noncriminal violation punishable by a $25 fine. The same person remains subject to the § 790.06(12) prohibited-places list on the same terms as a license holder. Constitutional carry travels the same prohibited-places map and does not by itself unlock interstate reciprocity.
HB 543 did not eliminate the CWFL. The license is the affirmative authority where § 790.013 alone is not enough. A Florida CWFL operates as a NICS-alternative permit for Florida residents at the dealer counter and travels through reciprocity to roughly three dozen jurisdictions; permitless carry under § 790.013 does not travel. The CWFL also unlocks two privileges inside Florida that permitless carriers do not get. § 790.06(13) authorizes a CWFL holder to carry on property owned, rented, leased, borrowed, or lawfully used by a church, synagogue, or other religious institution, subject to the institution's right to control its own property. § 790.115(2)(e) reduces a violation of the school-property prohibition by an authorized concealed carrier under § 790.01(1) from a third-degree felony to a second-degree misdemeanor. For an instructor selling CWFL training in a constitutional-carry environment, the case for the license is reciprocity, NICS exemption, religious-property carry, and the reduced school-grounds penalty.
Under Fla. Stat. § 790.06(2), FDACS shall issue a license if the applicant is a U.S. citizen or permanent resident alien (or qualifying consular security official); is 21 or older; can safely handle a firearm; is not a felon or otherwise ineligible under § 790.23; has no chapter 893 controlled-substance conviction within three years and no chapter 397 commitment; does not chronically and habitually use alcohol (with statutory presumptions for habitual offenders under § 856.011(3) and for two or more § 316.193 DUI convictions in three years); demonstrates competence under § 790.06(2)(h); has not been adjudicated incapacitated under § 744.331 or committed to a mental institution under chapter 394; has not had adjudication of guilt withheld on any felony or any domestic-violence misdemeanor unless three years have elapsed; is not subject to a current domestic-violence or repeat-violence injunction; and is not otherwise prohibited. § 790.06(3) requires denial for any misdemeanor crime of violence within three years and revocation on the same triggers.
The § 790.06(2)(h) competency demonstration is satisfied by a hunter-education course approved by the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission; an NRA firearms safety or training course; any firearms course taught by an NRA-, CJSTC-, or FDACS-certified instructor; a law-enforcement firearms course; equivalent experience through organized shooting competition or military service; current or prior CWFL licensure not revoked for cause; or any course by a state-certified or NRA-certified instructor. An instructor relying on the NRA, instructor-school, or state-certified pathway must keep records certifying live-fire observation. There is no minimum hour requirement in the statute.
The application packet under Fla. Stat. § 790.06(4) and (5) must be completed under oath on the FDACS form and submitted to FDACS or an approved tax collector under § 790.0625. The license fee under § 790.06(5)(b) is up to $55 for a new license and up to $45 for renewal, plus fingerprint-processing costs borne by the applicant. Active law enforcement, correctional, and correctional-probation officers under § 943.10(1)-(3) and (6)-(9) are exempt from the licensing requirement entirely and may obtain the CWFL without a background fee; retired officers carry the same exemption for one year after retirement. The packet must include a full set of fingerprints, a 30-day color photograph, and the § 790.06(2)(h) training documentation.
Under § 790.06(6)(c), FDACS must issue or deny within 90 days of receipt of the application packet, with suspension of the clock for unresolved criminal-history hits. A denial must state the ground in writing and inform the applicant of any right to a chapter 120 hearing. The license is valid throughout the state for 7 years under § 790.06(1)(c).
Open carry of a firearm in Florida is lawful for a qualifying adult as of September 2025. Fla. Stat. § 790.053 had made open carry a second-degree misdemeanor, but the First District Court of Appeal held that ban unconstitutional in McDaniels v. State, No. 1D2023-0533 (Fla. 1st DCA, Sept. 10, 2025), and the Attorney General's Sept. 15, 2025 guidance directs law enforcement not to enforce it. Open carry now stands on the same eligibility footing as permitless concealed carry (generally 21 or older and not otherwise prohibited), and it remains subject to the § 790.06(12) prohibited-places list, § 790.115 school grounds, the § 790.10 improper-exhibition statute, and federal law. Because the decision is subject to mandatory Florida Supreme Court review, a later ruling could change this.
Two related rules remain on the books. The § 790.053(1) brief-display clause - a person carrying concealed under § 790.01(1) does not violate § 790.053 by briefly and openly displaying 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 - mattered chiefly under the former ban. And § 790.25(2) catalogs lawful uses operating notwithstanding §§ 790.01, 790.053, and 790.06: armed-forces members on duty or training; state and federal peace officers; guards or messengers of common carriers and financial institutions on duty; members of target, skeet, or trap shooting clubs en route to or from practice; persons engaged in fishing, camping, or lawful hunting or going to or returning from such an expedition (paragraph (h)); firearms-business agents on lawful business; persons discharging a firearm for testing or target practice in a safe place or at an indoor range, or going to or from one; a person traveling in a public conveyance with the firearm securely encased and not in manual possession; a person carrying an unloaded handgun in a secure wrapper between place of purchase, home, place of business, or repair; and a person possessing a firearm at home or place of business. These provisions still authorize possession and use in the listed activities, including for carriers who are not otherwise eligible for general carry.
Long guns are not separately regulated by § 790.01 or § 790.013. Open carry of a long gun by a qualifying adult is now lawful on the same terms as open carry of a handgun. § 790.10 (improper exhibition) still makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to exhibit any firearm "in a rude, careless, angry, or threatening manner, not in necessary self-defense" in the presence of others.
Vehicle carry is governed by § 790.25(4). A person 18 or older in lawful possession of a handgun may possess it within a private conveyance if it is securely encased or otherwise not readily accessible for immediate use; a person carrying under that paragraph may not carry on the person. § 790.25(4)(b) preserves two parallel rights: a legal long gun may be carried anywhere in a private conveyance for a lawful use, and a person authorized to carry concealed under § 790.01(1) may carry concealed on the person inside a private conveyance. § 790.25(4)(c) directs courts to construe the rule liberally in favor of lawful use and self-defense.
Florida codifies Stand Your Ground, the Castle Doctrine, defense of property, and pretrial immunity in chapter 776 of the Florida Statutes.
Under § 776.012(1), a person is justified in using or threatening non-deadly force when and to the extent the person reasonably believes the conduct is necessary to defend against another's imminent use of unlawful force, with no duty to retreat. § 776.012(2) is the deadly-force Stand Your Ground provision: a person is justified in using or threatening deadly force if he or she reasonably believes such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm or the imminent commission of a forcible felony. The actor has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground if not engaged in a criminal activity and in a place where he or she has a right to be. The two operative limits are simple: lawful presence, and no criminal activity at the time. A person carrying concealed in violation of § 790.01 is engaged in criminal activity and forfeits the § 776.012(2) Stand Your Ground floor.
Under § 776.013(1), a person who is in a dwelling or residence in which the person has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and use or threaten non-deadly or deadly force on the same reasonable-belief standards as § 776.012. § 776.013(2) creates the Castle Doctrine presumption: a person is presumed to have held a reasonable fear of imminent peril of death or great bodily harm when using or threatening defensive force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm if (a) the person against whom force was used was in the process of unlawfully and forcefully entering, or had unlawfully and forcibly entered, a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, or had removed or was attempting to remove another against that person's will from the dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle; and (b) the person using force knew or had reason to believe that the unlawful and forcible entry or act was occurring or had occurred. The Florida presumption runs broader than the typical home-only formulation: it covers dwelling, residence, and occupied vehicle.
§ 776.013(3) excludes the presumption when the person against whom force was used has the right to be in or is a lawful resident of the location (subject to a domestic-violence-injunction or no-contact-order exception); when the person sought to be removed is a child, grandchild, or other lawful ward of the person against whom force was used; when the person using force is engaged in criminal activity or is using the location to further criminal activity; or when the person against whom force was used is an identified law enforcement officer in the performance of official duties. § 776.013(4) adds an intent presumption: a person who unlawfully and by force enters another's dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle is presumed to be doing so with the intent to commit an unlawful act involving force or violence. § 776.013(5) defines "dwelling" to include any roofed building or conveyance designed for nighttime occupancy, including a tent.
§ 776.031 authorizes non-deadly force to terminate trespass or unlawful interference with real or personal property, and deadly force to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony, with the same no-duty-to-retreat rule.
§ 776.032 is Florida's pretrial-immunity statute and the procedural backbone of the Stand Your Ground framework. § 776.032(1) provides that a person who uses or threatens to use force as permitted in § 776.012, § 776.013, or § 776.031 is justified and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action; "criminal prosecution" expressly includes arresting, detaining in custody, and charging or prosecuting. The only carve-out is for force used against a clearly identified law enforcement officer. § 776.032(2) bars a law enforcement agency from arresting a person for force described in subsection (1) unless the agency determines probable cause that the force was unlawful. § 776.032(3) requires a court to award reasonable attorney's fees, court costs, lost income, and all defense expenses to a defendant who successfully establishes immunity in a civil action. § 776.032(4) is the procedural mechanism: once a prima facie claim of self-defense immunity is raised at a pretrial immunity hearing, the burden of proof by clear and convincing evidence shifts to the party seeking to overcome the immunity. The pretrial immunity hearing is the procedural feature that distinguishes Florida from most other Stand Your Ground states.
Federal restrictions apply in Florida regardless of state authority. 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) prohibits felons, persons subject to qualifying domestic-violence protective orders, persons with misdemeanor crime of domestic violence convictions, unlawful drug users, persons committed to mental institutions, and others from possessing firearms in or affecting interstate commerce; Florida § 790.23 incorporates many of these and adds a state-felon prohibition. 18 U.S.C. § 930 criminalizes possession of a firearm in a federal facility regardless of CWFL status. 18 U.S.C. § 922(q) (the Gun-Free School Zones Act) restricts possession within 1,000 feet of a school, with a license-holder exception inside the licensing state; Florida § 790.115 sits on top and applies to anyone, with the § 790.115(2)(e) reduced penalty for authorized § 790.01(1) carriers and a § 790.25(4) parking-vehicle exception. 18 U.S.C. § 926A protects interstate transport of an unloaded firearm. 18 U.S.C. § 926C (LEOSA) authorizes carry by qualified active and retired law-enforcement officers. Under the National Firearms Act (26 U.S.C. § 5801 et seq.), suppressors, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, machine guns, destructive devices, and "any other weapons" require federal registration in the NFRTR; Florida's CWFL definition in § 790.06(1)(a) excludes machine guns as defined in § 790.001.
Fla. Stat. § 790.06(12)(a) lists 15 categories of places where neither open carry nor concealed carry is authorized under the CWFL: places of nuisance under § 823.05; police, sheriff, and highway patrol stations; detention facilities, prisons, and jails; courthouses and courtrooms; polling places; meetings of the governing body of a county, school district, municipality, or special district; legislative meetings and committees; school, college, or professional athletic events not related to firearms; elementary or secondary school facilities; career centers; portions of establishments primarily devoted to on-premises alcohol consumption; college or university facilities (narrow stun-gun exception); airport passenger terminals (with a baggage-check exception); and any place federal law prohibits carry. § 790.06(12)(b) preserves the right to carry or store a firearm in a vehicle for lawful purposes; § 790.06(12)(d) makes a knowing and willful violation a second-degree misdemeanor. § 790.115 separately criminalizes possession on school property and within 1,000 feet of a school during school hours, with the license-holder penalty reduction described above.
Florida enacted its red-flag law as part of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act in 2018. Fla. Stat. § 790.401 creates the Risk Protection Order (RPO) cause of action. Only a law enforcement officer or law enforcement agency may petition; private petitioners are not authorized. The petition must allege that the respondent poses a significant danger of causing personal injury by having or acquiring a firearm or ammunition, supported by a sworn affidavit. § 790.401(3) requires a hearing within 14 days; the burden at the final-order hearing is clear and convincing evidence, and the order may run for up to 12 months. § 790.401(4) authorizes a temporary ex parte order on a reasonable-cause finding. § 790.401(7) requires the respondent to surrender all firearms and ammunition, and any CWFL, to the local law enforcement agency on issuance. § 790.401(11)(b) makes possession in violation of an RPO a third-degree felony. The mechanics, statistics, and litigation history of RPOs live in RED FLAG.
Fla. Stat. § 790.33 is among the strongest firearms-preemption statutes in the country. § 790.33(1) declares that the Legislature occupies the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition, including purchase, sale, transfer, taxation, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage, and transportation, to the exclusion of all county, city, town, or municipal ordinances and any administrative regulations or rules, and declares any such existing local rules null and void. § 790.33(3) layers civil consequences. A court that finds a violation must declare the offending rule invalid and issue a permanent injunction. If the violation was knowing and willful, the court must assess a civil fine of up to $5,000 against the elected or appointed local official under whose jurisdiction the violation occurred, public funds may not be used to defend or reimburse the official, and the official may be removed from office by the Governor. § 790.33(3)(f) provides a private right of action for damages up to $100,000, plus reasonable attorney's fees and costs, to a person or organization adversely affected by a preempted local rule. § 790.33(4) preserves narrow exceptions for ordinary zoning of firearms businesses, law-enforcement regulations governing duty firearms, employer regulation of employees' duty firearms (subject to § 790.251), and Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission regulations on taking wildlife and commission-managed shooting ranges. The full preemption analysis under the Joe Carlucci Uniform Firearms Act lives in PREEMPTION.
This page covers one part of our Florida concealed carry guide.
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