Florida Knife Laws: What You Can Carry, Concealed and Open

The Short Version

Florida regulates one thing about knives: concealment. You may own any knife except a ballistic knife, carry any knife openly at any length, and carry a common pocketknife, a folder with a blade of about 4 inches or less, concealed at any age with no license. For everything else carried concealed, a fixed blade, a dagger, a bowie, a longer folder, the rule since July 1, 2023 is that you need no license if you are 21 or older and would qualify for one: section 790.01(1)(b) authorizes anyone who meets the license criteria to carry a concealed weapon, and 790.013 asks only that you carry photo ID and stay out of the places a license does not cover. Automatic knives have never been restricted in Florida. Schools are the one place every knife is off limits.

The Common Pocketknife Rule

Section 790.001(20) defines a weapon as "any dirk, knife, metallic knuckles, slungshot, billie, tear gas gun, chemical weapon or device, or other deadly weapon except a firearm or a common pocketknife, plastic knife, or blunt-bladed table knife." Because a common pocketknife is not a weapon, the concealed carry statute, the school possession ban, the felon statute and the rule on giving knives to minors all pass it by. The Legislature never defined the term. The Florida Supreme Court did, in L.B. v. State (1997): a type of knife "occurring frequently in the community," with a blade that folds into the handle, and it adopted a 1951 Attorney General opinion that a pocketknife with a blade of 4 inches or less qualifies. The knife in the case had a 3.75-inch blade. The court added, in a footnote, that "neither the Attorney General nor this Court maintains that four inches is a bright line cutoff," so 4 inches is the safe side of the line rather than the line itself.

Three things the rule does not settle. Whether an automatic counts as common: a 2010 juvenile case treated a switchblade as uncommon, and no higher court has ruled, so treat an OTF as a weapon for concealment purposes if you are not eligible to carry one. Whether a butterfly knife counts: it folds, but it is not what most people picture, and the same caution applies. And whether a visible pocket clip makes a knife unconcealed: Florida courts ask whether the knife is hidden from "the ordinary sight of another person," and a clip has helped defendants before, but it is a fact question for a jury, not a rule. Since 2023 all three questions matter only to people who cannot carry a concealed weapon in the first place: anyone under 21 and anyone who would fail the license criteria.

Concealed Carry Since 2023

Before July 1, 2023, carrying any knife other than a common pocketknife concealed required a Florida concealed weapon license. House Bill 543 rewrote 790.01: a person is authorized to carry a concealed weapon, which 790.06(1) defines to include a knife, if he or she holds a license or "otherwise satisfies the criteria for receiving and maintaining such a license." The criteria that matter, from 790.06(2): a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. 21 or older, or 18 as a service member or honorably discharged veteran under 790.062. No felony conviction. No drug conviction in the past three years. No chronic alcohol or drug impairment. No adjudication of incapacity or commitment to a mental institution. No withheld adjudication on a felony or a domestic violence misdemeanor within three years. No active domestic violence injunction. Not otherwise barred from possessing a firearm. The firearms training requirement in paragraph (h) is left out, so you do not need a class to carry a knife.

Two duties come with it. Section 790.013 requires you to carry valid identification whenever you have the concealed weapon on you and show it on demand. Forgetting is a $25 noncriminal violation. And it makes you "subject to s. 790.06(12) in the same manner as a person who is licensed," which is the list of places in section 06. The license itself still exists, costs up to $55 for seven years, and is worth having if you travel, because other states honor the card and not Florida's statute. In a prosecution for carrying without authorization the state has to prove you were ineligible, not the other way round.

Open Carry and Blade Length

Florida sets no maximum blade length for a knife carried openly, and no statute forbids the open carry of a knife. The open carry ban in chapter 790 is written for firearms and electric weapons. A fixed blade on the belt, a machete on a trail, a folder clipped to a pocket in plain view are all lawful on the street at any age. The only statute that reaches an openly carried knife is 790.10, improper exhibition: showing "any dirk, sword, sword cane, firearm, electric weapon or device, or other weapon" in "a rude, careless, angry, or threatening manner," not in self-defense, in front of anyone, is a first-degree misdemeanor. Carrying a knife is not exhibiting it. Waving one is.

Blade length matters in exactly one place: the common pocketknife rule in section 02, which decides whether a folder can be carried concealed by someone who is not eligible to carry a concealed weapon. There is no other number in the statute.

Automatics, Butterfly Knives and the One Ban

Florida has never had a switchblade law. Automatic knives, side-opening and OTF, are legal to buy, own and carry, and 790.225(2)(a) removes any doubt by saying the ballistic knife ban "shall not apply to any device from which a knifelike blade opens, where such blade remains physically integrated with the device when open." Concealed, an automatic follows the same rule as any other weapon: 21 and eligible. Open, it is legal for anyone. The same goes for butterfly knives, karambits, daggers, dirks, double-edged blades, push daggers, swords and metallic knuckles: all legal to own, all legal to carry openly, all covered by the 21-and-eligible rule when concealed. There is no intent element in Florida's carry statute and no "dangerous knife" category. The type of knife decides nothing except whether it is a common pocketknife.

The one ban is 790.225: it is unlawful "to manufacture, display, sell, own, possess, or use a ballistic self-propelled knife," a device that fires the blade as a projectile by spring, elastic or compressed gas. It is a first-degree misdemeanor, the knife is declared contraband and seized, and there is no license or collector exception.

Where You Cannot Carry

• Schools, school buses, bus stops and school eventsNo weapon, "including a razor blade or box cutter," on the property of any school, from preschool through college, on a school bus or at a bus stop, or at a school-sponsored event. Possessing one is a third-degree felony. For a person authorized to carry concealed it is a second-degree misdemeanor. A common pocketknife is not a weapon under the possession clause, but exhibiting any knife, "including a razor blade, box cutter, or common pocketknife," in a threatening manner at a school or within 1,000 feet of one during school hours is a felony, and every district's code of conduct bans pocketknives anyway. Leave it in the car.
  790.115
• The license listCourthouses and courtrooms. Police, sheriff and highway patrol stations. Jails and prisons. Polling places. Meetings of a county, city, school board or special district, and of the Legislature. School, college and professional athletic events. Elementary and secondary school buildings and career centers. College and university facilities. The part of a bar or restaurant "primarily devoted" to serving alcohol. The passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport. Anywhere federal law bars firearms. A concealed weapons license does not cover these places, and 790.013 applies the list to permitless carry in the same way. Knowingly carrying into one is a second-degree misdemeanor.
  790.06(12)
• AirportsNo knives past the checkpoint under federal rules, and the terminal itself is on the list above.
  TSA
• Private propertyBusinesses, employers and homeowners set their own policy. A posted "no weapons" sign is not a crime to ignore, but refusing to leave when asked is trespass.
  Posted rules

Florida's preemption statute covers firearms and ammunition, not knives, so a city or county may write its own knife rule. Most rely on state law. The ones that exist tend to keep weapons out of parks and public buildings. If you carry in a Florida city you do not know, check its code.

Cars, Camping and Evacuations

Section 790.25 lists the situations the concealed carry statute does not reach. In a private vehicle, anyone 18 or older may keep a weapon "securely encased or otherwise not readily accessible for immediate use," which 790.001(15) defines to include a glove compartment, locked or not, a snapped holster, or a closed box or container. The knife may not be on your person unless you are authorized to carry concealed anyway. A person engaged in fishing, camping or lawful hunting, or going to or from it, may carry and use weapons regardless of 790.01, so a fixed blade on the belt on the way to the campsite is lawful at any age. So is any knife at home or at your place of business. And since 2015 a person "in the act of evacuating" under a mandatory evacuation order may carry a concealed weapon for 48 hours after the order, a window the Governor can extend.

Minors and Felons

Florida sets no minimum age for owning or carrying a knife. The age rule sits in the concealed carry criteria: under 21, you may carry a common pocketknife concealed and any knife openly, but not a weapon concealed, unless you are a service member or veteran. Two statutes govern the adults around a minor. 790.17 makes it a first-degree misdemeanor to sell, lend or give a minor under 18 "any dirk, electric weapon or device, or other weapon, other than an ordinary pocketknife," without the permission of a parent or guardian. With that permission, a parent may buy a teenager a fixed blade for camp. 790.18 is stricter for dealers: selling a minor a bowie knife or dirk knife, or metallic knuckles, is a second-degree felony, with no parental exception.

A person with a felony conviction may not carry a concealed weapon under 790.23, a second-degree felony, and cannot meet the license criteria, so the 2023 change does nothing for them. A common pocketknife is not a weapon, so a folder of about 4 inches or less in the pocket is lawful. A fixed blade or an automatic is lawful to own and to carry openly, never concealed. Rights restoration under 790.23(2) lifts the bar.

Penalties

What the Internet Gets Wrong

Four things, most of them written before 2023. First, that 4 inches is Florida's legal knife length: it is the common pocketknife threshold for concealed carry by someone who cannot carry a weapon. An eligible adult may carry any length concealed, anyone may carry any length openly, and the court said the number is not a bright line. Second, that you need a concealed weapons license to carry a fixed blade or an OTF concealed: not since July 1, 2023, if you are 21 and would qualify for one. Third, that switchblades are illegal, or legal only with a license: Florida has never banned them, and the ballistic knife statute names an integrated blade as an exception. Fourth, that a common pocketknife is fine at school because it is not a weapon: the possession clause does pass it by, but school conduct codes do not, and exhibiting one is a felony. The current law is the list on the board at the top of this page.

TEKTO Knives for Florida

Every TEKTO manual folder is a common pocketknife under L.B. v. State: the F1 Alpha (3.1 in), F2 Bravo (3.3 in), F4 Echo (3.4 in) and F3 Charlie (3.8 in) all fold and all sit under 4 inches, so they can ride in a pocket at any age, licensed or not, anywhere outside a school or the listed places. If you are 21 and eligible, the OTFs follow with no paperwork: the A5 Spry, A5 Spry Mini, A2 Badger, A7 Zastava and A4, double-edged versions included, since Florida draws no line between single and double edge, and the A3 Delta side-opener and the X1 Atlas fixed blade. Under 21, carry the automatics and the Atlas openly or keep them in the glove box, and put a manual folder in your pocket.