Florida Gun Laws After Permitless Carry: Where Things Stand in 2026
Florida has rewritten its gun laws faster in the last three years than in the thirty before them. Permitless concealed carry arrived in July 2023. An appeals court struck down the open-carry ban in September 2025 and the state let the ruling stand. In June 2026 another appeals court opened the Concealed Weapon License to adults of 18 to 20. Some rules have not moved at all: you must be 21 to buy any firearm from a dealer, and most dealer sales carry a three-day wait. This page sets out where things stand as of September 2026 for a buyer, a carrier and a parts customer. It is a summary, not legal advice; Chapter 790 of the Florida Statutes controls.
What is a firearm and what is a part
Under federal and Florida law the regulated part of a gun is the frame or receiver, the piece with the serial number. A trigger group, a barrel, a slide, a sight set, a grip, a spring kit, an upper receiver and a magazine are parts. They ship to your Florida address by ordinary carrier, need no background check and carry no waiting period. Only a complete firearm, or a bare serialized frame or receiver, goes through a dealer. Everything that follows about waiting periods and age applies to those and nothing else.
Buying from a dealer
Since 2018 Florida has required a buyer to be 21 or older to buy any firearm from a licensed dealer, handgun or long gun. A bill to lower the long-gun age passed the House in 2026 and died in the Senate, so 21 stands. The dealer submits your details to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which runs the state and federal checks. Section 790.0655 then imposes a waiting period of three days, excluding weekends and legal holidays, or until the check is complete if that is later. Concealed Weapon License holders, buyers trading in another firearm and long-gun buyers who hold a hunter safety card are exempt. Counties may extend the wait to five days, and Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Alachua and several others do. A handgun bought from a Florida dealer must go to a Florida resident under federal law.
Carrying
Since July 1, 2023, anyone who meets the eligibility rules for a Concealed Weapon License may carry a concealed handgun without holding one, provided they carry valid identification and show it to an officer on request. Since the First District Court of Appeal's September 2025 decision in McDaniels, open carry is also lawful; the Attorney General did not appeal. The licence itself is still issued by the FDACS Division of Licensing, with applications taken at many county tax collector offices, and it remains worth holding: it is honoured by a long list of other states and it exempts the holder from the three-day wait. In June 2026 the Fourth District Court of Appeal held that the statutory bar on 18 to 20-year-olds was unconstitutional, and FDACS now accepts their applications.
Where you may not carry
Section 790.06(12) lists the places that remain off limits with or without a licence: police stations, jails and courthouses, polling places, government and legislative meetings, schools and school events, career centres, colleges and universities, the bar area of any establishment serving alcohol, airport terminals, and anywhere federal law prohibits. Private property may be posted, and an employer may restrict carry at work while allowing a gun locked in a vehicle.
Preemption
Florida preempts local firearms regulation, so a city or county may not add its own rules on parts, magazines, carry or purchase beyond the county waiting-period extension the statute allows. The rules on this page apply from Pensacola to Key West.
Magazines, features and triggers
Florida has no magazine capacity limit and no restriction on rifle features, so standard-capacity magazines, threaded barrels, adjustable stocks and the rest ship normally. Florida law prohibits any device that converts a semi-automatic to fire more than one round per trigger pull; every trigger we sell fires one round per press and we sell nothing that changes that.
Vehicles and travel
Florida lets an adult who may lawfully possess a firearm keep one in a private vehicle without a licence, securely encased or otherwise not readily accessible, and since 2023 a person eligible for the licence may carry it concealed in the vehicle as well. Employers may not bar a lawfully kept firearm in an employee's locked vehicle in most cases. Travelling out of state, federal law protects transport of an unloaded, cased firearm through any state, but carry rules change at the border; a Florida licence is honoured by many states and by no state that does not list it.
Hunting and the outdoors
Deer, hog and turkey seasons are set by the FWC by zone, and legal firearms are broad: centerfire rifles, shotguns, handguns and muzzleloaders for deer, with rimfire excluded. Hogs on private land can be taken year-round with landowner permission and no licence. The city pages list each county's zone and the nearest FWC-managed public range.
Storage and children
Section 790.174 requires a loaded firearm to be stored in a locked container or secured with a trigger lock if a minor under 16 is likely to gain access, with criminal penalties if a child does. A quick-access safe for the loaded home gun and a locked cabinet for the rest satisfies it.
In short
- Parts ship to your door with no check and no wait; firearms go to a dealer.
- Buy from a dealer at 21, with a three-day wait unless exempt; some counties make it five.
- Concealed carry without a licence since 2023; open carry lawful since 2025; the licence now open at 18.
- No magazine limits, no feature rules; conversion devices prohibited.
The buying guide walks through the transfer and the wait, and the city pages carry each county's details. Browse triggers and rifles in the catalogue.
General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.
