New Florida Concealed Carry Ruling: What Changed for 18-to-20-Year-Olds

Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal held that the state’s ban on concealed carry by adults under 21 was unconstitutional. This article explains what Eubanks v. State changed, what it left in place, and why the difference matters if you carry — or face a charge — in Central Florida.

What did Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal decide?

Can an adult between 18 and 20 years old lawfully carry a concealed firearm in Florida? For years, the answer was no. On June 17, 2026, the Fourth District Court of Appeal, which sits in West Palm Beach, changed that answer in a case called Eubanks v. State. The court held that the age requirement in Fla. Stat. § 790.06(2)(b) — the provision that limited concealed carry eligibility to people 21 years of age or older — was facially unconstitutional under the Second Amendment, and it reversed Eubanks’s felony conviction for carrying a concealed firearm.

To understand why one subsection mattered so much, you need to see how Florida’s carry laws fit together. Since 2023, Florida has allowed concealed carry without a license under Fla. Stat. § 790.01 — what most people call permitless carry. But permitless carry was never open to everyone. Section 790.01 authorizes a person to carry concealed only if he or she meets the eligibility criteria that apply to license applicants under § 790.06(2) — the statute incorporates nearly all of them, though not the firearms-training requirement — and one of the incorporated criteria was age: 21 or older. This is so because the Legislature built the 2023 permitless carry law on top of the existing license framework instead of replacing it. The practical result was that an 18-, 19-, or 20-year-old who carried a concealed firearm committed a third-degree felony under § 790.01 — the exact charge the Fourth District reversed in Eubanks.

Does the ruling mean an 18-to-20-year-old can carry a firearm anywhere?

The answer is no. The ruling removed the age barrier to carrying concealed. It did not touch the long list of places where no one — at any age, licensed or not — may carry a firearm.

Fla. Stat. § 790.06(12) lists those prohibited places: elementary and secondary school facilities, college and university facilities, courthouses, polling places, meetings of governing bodies, career centers, the portions of establishments primarily devoted to serving alcohol, airport passenger terminals, and police stations, among others. Also, Fla. Stat. § 790.115 separately makes it a crime to possess a firearm on school property. Those restrictions applied before Eubanks, and they apply after it, to every person in Florida.

So the honest summary is narrower than the headline: an adult aged 18 to 20 may now carry a concealed firearm where any other adult could lawfully carry one, and remains subject to every location restriction and every other disqualification — a prior felony conviction, for example — that applies to everyone else.

Can an 18-to-20-year-old buy a firearm in Florida now?

No. This is where people will get into trouble if they read only the headline, because Florida’s carry rules and Florida’s purchase rules run on separate tracks.

Fla. Stat. § 790.065(13), enacted in 2018, prohibits a person younger than 21 from purchasing a firearm. The statute’s only exceptions allow law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and servicemembers younger than 21 to buy rifles and shotguns. Eubanks did not disturb that statute. Also, the federal courts examined the purchase ban and upheld it: in 2025, the full United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc, ruled in NRA v. Bondi that § 790.065(13) was constitutional. As the video explains, that litigation continued — further review was still being pursued — but the purchase ban remained the law.

That is not a contradiction in the legal sense. Florida’s state courts must follow the United States Supreme Court on federal constitutional questions, but they are not bound by the lower federal courts. The Fourth District addressed carrying; the Eleventh Circuit addressed purchasing. Different statutes, different questions, different outcomes. Put the two rules side by side and the current state of the law comes into focus: a 20-year-old may lawfully carry a concealed handgun under Eubanks, but may not walk into a gun store and buy one.

What does Eubanks mean for firearm charges in Polk County?

The Fourth District covers South Florida counties such as Palm Beach and Broward. Polk County sits in the Tenth Judicial Circuit, and its appeals go to the Sixth District Court of Appeal in Lakeland. So does a West Palm Beach ruling matter in a Bartow courtroom? It does. Under long-standing Florida Supreme Court precedent, when one district court of appeal has decided a question and no other district has disagreed, that decision binds trial courts throughout the state. Unless another district reaches a conflicting result, or the Florida Supreme Court takes up the issue, Eubanks is the controlling statement of Florida law on this question. And after the decision, Florida’s Attorney General announced that the State would not seek further review and would work to implement the ruling.

This is important because the ruling has immediate, practical consequences. A charge of carrying a concealed firearm that rests entirely on the accused person’s age — an 18-to-20-year-old who would otherwise have been authorized to carry — now rests on a provision that a Florida appellate court has held unconstitutional. Anyone in that position, and anyone who recently entered a plea to such a charge, should have a defense lawyer review the case promptly. Each case is different, and the deadlines for challenging a plea or a conviction are strict, so timing and procedure matter.

Also, keep the limits in view. The ruling did nothing for a person disqualified for reasons other than age, and nothing in it authorized carrying in the prohibited places listed above. Firearm law in Florida is moving quickly in both state and federal court, and the video’s closing advice was the right one: stay current on the law before you rely on it.

Key moments

• 0:00 — The ruling: Eubanks v. State and the § 790.06 age bar
• 0:22 — Where you still cannot carry, at any age
• 0:44 — The under-21 purchase ban and NRA v. Bondi
• 1:25 — The bottom line: stay on top of the law

Full video transcript

Can 18-to-20-year-olds now carry concealed in the state of Florida? The answer, according to the Fourth District Court of Appeal out of West Palm Beach, is yes. In a case titled Eubanks v. State, on June 17th of this year, the court ruled that Florida Statute 790.06, which disqualifies 18-to-20-year-olds from carrying concealed, is unconstitutional.

Now, does this mean that 18-to-20-year-olds can carry anywhere, or can carry concealed anywhere? No. This applies to people in general — you cannot carry concealed everywhere. There are many sensitive locations where you still cannot carry, even if the firearm is concealed. You cannot carry in schools, for example. You cannot carry in colleges. So it is not a free-for-all.

And under Florida Statute 790.065, subsection 13, 18-to-20-year-olds are still prohibited from purchasing firearms. This is being challenged in federal court, but keep in mind that in the case of NRA v. Bondi, the federal courts — the Eleventh Circuit — ruled that the statute prohibiting 18-to-20-year-olds from purchasing firearms was constitutional. That ruling is currently being challenged.

So, yes, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled that 18-to-20-year-olds can now lawfully carry concealed firearms. However, there are still laws on the books prohibiting the purchase of firearms, and of course there are still laws on the books prohibiting the possession of firearms, whether concealed or open, in sensitive locations. So make sure you stay on top of the law.

My name is Tonmiel Rodriguez. I am a Florida Board Certified Criminal Trial Lawyer practicing here in Central Florida. Thanks for watching, and I will see you in the next one.

Legally reviewed by Tonmiel Rodriguez · Last reviewed July 2026

Tonmiel Rodriguez is a criminal defense attorney in Bartow, Florida, and is Board Certified in Criminal Trial Law by The Florida Bar. He has defended weapons and firearm cases throughout Polk, Highlands, Hardee, Osceola, and Hillsborough Counties, and he handles concealed carry and other firearm charges across Central Florida. If you or someone in your family faces a firearm charge, call The Rodriguez Law Office at (863) 774-4556 to discuss the case.