The Florida Legislature adjourned its 2026 session on March 13 without passing a single bill on open carry. This is important because open carry in Florida rests on a court decision, not a statute. In September 2025, the First District Court of Appeal held in McDaniels v. State that section 790.053 — the 1987 open-carry ban — violated the Second Amendment, and the Attorney General declined to challenge the ruling. Lawmakers could have codified the decision or clarified which locations stayed off limits. They did neither. HB 321, which would have done part of that work, died in a House subcommittee on the session’s final day. Also, section 790.053 stayed on the books — unenforceable, but unrepealed.
For people who carry, the takeaway: open carry stayed legal because McDaniels stayed good law, but the restricted locations in section 790.06(12) — courthouses, polling places, school events, the bar area of a restaurant — also stayed in force, and carrying in one of them remained a crime.