Open carry officially begins this Thursday in Florida, marking a significant change in the state’s gun laws. So, don’t be surprised if you see some people with a pistol on their hips at your local grocery store.
In an appeals court decision earlier this month, Florida’s ban on openly carrying firearms was deemed unconstitutional and a violation of the Second Amendment.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier quickly embraced the Sept. 10 open-carry decision by a panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal as “the law of the state” and issued guidance for prosecutors, police and sheriffs, warning them not to arrest or put on trial “law-abiding citizens carrying a firearm in a manner that is visible to others.”
According to the court’s decision, the law became legal on this Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, which gave the state 15 days to appeal the ruling.
Here’s everything you need to know about open carry in Florida.
Can you open carry a gun everywhere in Florida?
The short answer is “no.”
In the three-judge panel, 20-page decision, Judge Stephanie Ray wrote, “that is not to say that open carry is absolute or immune from reasonable regulation.” Uthmeier agreed, saying that state and federal restrictions on carrying firearms in specific locations would still apply.
This means that the law is now open to interpretation because the legislation has not caught up to the ruling.
The decision overturned a 1987 law that made it a misdemeanor to display guns visibly. While people in Florida were barred for decades from openly carrying firearms, Floridians could still receive concealed-weapons licenses.
“Open carry” means anyone can publicly carry a legally owned gun that is kept in plain sight or partially concealed. Under previous Florida law, openly carrying a firearm is a second-degree misdemeanor with a $500 fine or a maximum 60-day jail sentence.
Can gun owners open carry in Florida now?
According to the decision, open carry can no longer be prohibited in any place where government property is open to the public and unrestricted. However, further specifications need to be made by Florida lawmakers in the next legislative session.
Can Florida residents wear their guns at Publix?
The decision states that private property owners are still able to prohibit firearms on their property, which includes homes and businesses. According to Uthmeier, any violation of this can be considered armed trespassing – a third-degree felony.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Publix asked back in 2021 for customers not to openly carry guns in their stores in states where open carry is legal, although they allowed concealed carry. Meanwhile, Target asked customers to leave the guns at home in 2014, Trader Joe’s said in 2019 that they “do not welcome weapons of any kind in our stores and never have,” and Walmart bans open carry but allows concealed carry.
Where is open carry not allowed in Florida?
The appeals court ruling affected part of a law that set parameters for concealed-weapons licenses. That law says a concealed-weapons license “does not authorize any person to openly carry a handgun or carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm into” a list of prohibited places, such as jails, bars, legislative committee meetings and police stations.
“Right now (after the appeals court ruling on open carry), in a number of places, the prohibited places don’t technically apply,” Sean Caranna, executive director of the gun rights group Florida Carry Inc., told The News Service of Florida on Sept. 19. “There is going to be a brief period of time here where obviously the statutes have not caught up to the court rulings, and we’re advising that sometimes discretion is the better part of valor and people should abide by the current set of places that are prohibited … when it comes to all forms of carry.”
Currently, these are the locations where there are state and federal bans on open and concealed carry:
- Any place of nuisance as defined in s. 823.05 (sort of an open term that includes places that endanger the health of the community, become “manifestly injurious to the morals or manners” of the community, or “annoy the community,” such as prostitution dens, illegal gambling halls, specified massage parlors and anywhere criminal gang activity happens
- Any police, sheriff or highway patrol station
- Any detention facility, prison or jail
- Any courthouse (although judges may carry in the courtroom and may determine who else can)
- Polling places
- Any meeting of the governing body of a county, public school district, municipality or special district
- Any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof
- Any school, college or professional athletic event not related to firearms
- Professional athletic events
- Any elementary or secondary school facility or administration building
- Any career center
- Any portion of an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, which portion of the establishment is primarily devoted to such purpose
- Any college or university facility
- The inside of the passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport, unless enclosed for shipment to be checked as baggage
- Any place where the carrying of firearms is prohibited by federal law
Caranna said his group will work with legislators and other “stakeholders” to tweak the law during the legislative session that begins in January.
“Nobody is trying to say that we’re going to have a situation where people are allowed to carry into a jail. “Absolutely, there are places where a prohibition is appropriate, and there are going to be parameters around that,” he said.
It’s too early to say which spaces should be deemed off-limits for guns, Caranna said. Any changes would have to be in line with the “historical precedent based on the time of the ratification of the Second Amendment,” Caranna said, pointing to U.S. Supreme Court rulings establishing that gun rights restrictions must be in keeping with the nation’s “historical tradition.”
“They may not be able to meet that burden, just as the state could not meet its burden for a historical precedent for the banning of open carry,” he said.
Not all gun rights advocates agree that some locations should be free of firearms.
How does the decision impact Florida’s “red flag” laws?
According to the decision, the change to open carry only applies to people legally allowed to possess guns, which means it does not affect other restrictions in Florida firearm laws, such as restrictions for those under the age of 21, convicted felons, “violent career criminals” or people who have restraining orders from committing acts of domestic violence.
Florida’s red flag laws for risk protection also still apply. That means guns can be taken away from people who:
- Have been taken into custody for an involuntary examination under the Baker Act
- Have been adjudicated “mentally defective” or have been committed to a mental institution
- Have been temporarily blocked from possessing firearms because a law enforcement officer or agency petitioned the court and stated they were at high risk of harming themselves or others
Florida law also has strict conditions about how long a person can be kept from possessing a gun in those instances and when they can be returned.
contributed to this report.
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