TAMPA BAY, FLA. — July 4, 2026 | By GunSafety4U

Florida's Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled on June 17 that the state cannot bar law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20 from carrying a concealed firearm, striking down a piece of Florida's post-Parkland gun law as unconstitutional. Attorney General James Uthmeier says his office will not appeal and is directing the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) to implement the ruling. For the first time since 2018, an 18-year-old Floridian who otherwise qualifies can lawfully carry a concealed firearm — with no license, no permit, and no mandatory training of any kind.

What changed — and what didn't — for Florida's newly eligible 18-to-20-year-old concealed carriers.

What the Court Actually Decided

The case, Eubanks v. State (No. 4D2025-1698), started with a 2024 arrest in Broward County. Police responding to a report of someone pulling a handgun near a vehicle detained 18-year-old Jaylen Eubanks and found an unholstered pistol on his waist. He was charged with carrying a concealed firearm and improper exhibition of a firearm — not open carry. A trial court rejected his argument that Florida's age-21 carry requirement was unconstitutional, and Eubanks pled no contest while reserving his right to appeal that ruling.

By the time the case reached the Fourth DCA, Attorney General James Uthmeier's office had already conceded the law was unconstitutional and declined to defend it. The Broward County State Attorney's Office stepped in with its own amicus brief, arguing that 18-to-20-year-olds were treated as minors at the time of the founding and that the age group is disproportionately involved in firearm misuse. A unanimous three-judge panel — Judge Spencer D. Levine, joined by Chief Judge Jeffrey T. Kuntz and Judge Shannon K. Shaw — rejected that reasoning, holding that excluding a class of law-abiding adults from concealed carry while allowing it for everyone 21 and older would reduce the Second Amendment to a "second-class" right for that age group.

The court's 18-page opinion vacated Eubanks' concealed carry conviction and struck down section 790.06(2)(b), Florida Statutes — the age-21 eligibility requirement built into the state's concealed carry licensing law.

How Florida Got Here

Florida raised the concealed carry age to 21 in 2018 following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland. That age floor survived even after Florida adopted permitless "constitutional" carry on July 1, 2023 — because the permitless carry statute still required an unlicensed carrier to independently meet every eligibility criterion for a license, age included. Understanding exactly how that interacts with Florida's optional Concealed Weapon or Firearm License is where a lot of Floridians get confused; GunSafety4U has broken down the differences between permitless carry and a Florida CWFL in detail.

The Eubanks decision is the third major crack in Florida's post-Parkland gun framework in roughly a year. Florida's open carry ban was struck down by the First DCA in 2025. In early June 2026, the state conceded in a separate federal lawsuit that its three-day firearm purchase waiting period is unconstitutional. Eubanks now closes the concealed carry piece for young adults specifically.

What Changes — and What Doesn't

Practically speaking: an otherwise-eligible 18-to-20-year-old in Florida can now carry a concealed firearm in public on the same terms as anyone 21 or older — no license, no permit, no application to FDACS. Everything else about Florida's carry law stays exactly the same for this age group:

• All of the location restrictions under section 790.06(12) — schools, courthouses, polling places, the secured side of airports, the bar area of a restaurant — still apply regardless of age.
• Federal law is untouched by a state court ruling. An 18-to-20-year-old still cannot walk into a licensed dealer and buy a handgun; federal law keeps that purchase age at 21. Only long guns are purchasable from a dealer at 18.
• The ruling is not yet technically final — the opinion itself notes it isn't final until any timely rehearing motion is resolved — though Uthmeier's public statement that his office won't seek further review removes most of the uncertainty.

The Angle Most Coverage Is Missing

Every outlet that covered this ruling focused on the constitutional reasoning — Bruen, Rahimi, "the people," historical analogues. None of them flagged the practical gap the ruling actually opens up. An 18-year-old can now legally carry a loaded, concealed handgun in public with zero required instruction: no live-fire qualification, no legal-use-of-force class, no practice drawing from concealment under stress — while still being legally barred from buying that same handgun from a licensed Florida dealer. In practice, the firearm they're carrying was very likely gifted, inherited, or transferred privately, often by a parent or older relative who assumed the training question was somebody else's job.

That combination — full legal authority to carry, no training requirement attached to it, and no direct retail purchase pathway of their own — is precisely the gap that voluntary, hands-on instruction exists to close. It's the same logic that already makes Florida's optional CWFL worth considering even under permitless carry; see GunSafety4U's CWFL vs. CWP vs. permitless concealed carry comparison for how the license still adds value on top of the legal minimum.

What This Means for Tampa Bay Families

This decision applies statewide, and Tampa Bay's college students, young service-industry workers, and recent high school graduates are now part of the group it directly affects. For parents whose 18-to-20-year-old already carries — or is asking to — the state has removed the licensing hurdle without adding any instruction requirement in its place. That decision now sits entirely with the individual and their family, which is exactly where a short, structured course tends to make the biggest difference: confirming safe handling, understanding Florida's self-defense law, and practicing under supervision before ever carrying in public.

Before You Carry: What We Recommend

Legal eligibility and readiness to carry are two different things. Before carrying concealed for the first time — at any age — we recommend a supervised live-fire course that covers safe handling, drawing from concealment, and Florida's specific rules on justified use of force, plus a clear-eyed look at Florida's excluded-carry locations. GunSafety4U's NRA Basic Pistol and concealed carry safety course is built for exactly this — new carriers who want real instruction before their first day carrying, not after an incident. You can see full scheduling and pricing on our concealed carry and CWFL training course catalog.

Bottom Line

Florida just added a new group of legal concealed carriers overnight, without adding a single hour of required training alongside it. The law changed. The responsibility for competence didn't move with it — it landed on individual carriers and their families. For Tampa Bay's newly eligible 18-to-20-year-olds, that's a decision worth making with real instruction behind it, not just a court ruling.

Sources:
Eubanks v. State, No. 4D2025-1698 (Fla. 4th DCA, June 17, 2026) — full opinion
Florida Statutes § 790.06 — License to Carry Concealed Weapon or Firearm
Courthouse News Service — "Florida appeals court shoots down concealed carry age restrictions"
AmmoLand News — AG Uthmeier's implementation response

GunSafety4U Editorial Team | Tampa Bay & West Florida | 8 min read

Four acronyms, one license, and a lot of confusion. Here's what CWFL, CWP, CCW, and CWL actually mean — and what Florida really requires before you carry.

If you've spent any time researching concealed carry in Florida, you've probably run into a wall of acronyms that all seem to mean the same thing but never quite line up. Is a CWP different from a CWFL? Does Florida even call it a CCW? And now that permitless carry exists, do you even need any of these anymore?

The short version: these are almost all the same license wearing different names. The confusion comes from the fact that Florida's license has been renamed over the years, gun owners from other states bring their own state's terminology with them, and national gun-culture language (like "CCW") gets used loosely across all 50 states regardless of what each state officially calls its permit.

Let's clear it up term by term, then walk through what actually matters: what the license does for you, what it takes to get one, and whether you need it at all now that Florida allows permitless carry.

The Four Terms, Defined

So when someone asks "do I need a CCW in Florida," what they're really asking is whether they need a CWFL. Same question, different vocabulary.

What's the difference between Florida's CWFL, CWP, and CCW — at a glance.

CWFL vs. CPL: A Related but Different Mix-Up

You may also run across "CPL" (Concealed Pistol License), which is the official term used in states like Michigan and Washington — not Florida. If you're comparing a CPL from another state to Florida's CWFL, the core function is identical: both authorize the holder to carry a concealed firearm. The application process, training requirements, and reciprocity agreements differ by state, which matters if you're relocating to Florida or plan to carry while traveling.

Does My Out-of-State Permit Work in Florida?

Generally yes — Florida has reciprocity agreements with the vast majority of other states, meaning a valid permit from your home state (CPL, CHL, CWP, whatever it's called there) is honored here. The reverse is also true: a Florida CWFL is currently honored in 37+ states, making it one of the most widely recognized concealed carry credentials in the country. Always verify current reciprocity status with FDACS before traveling, since agreements can change.

What Florida's CWFL Actually Requires

Regardless of which name you've heard, here's what it actually takes to get a Florida CWFL:

The four steps to getting a Florida CWFL, from training to renewal.

1. Complete an Approved Firearms Training Course. Florida requires proof of firearms competency — typically a certificate from an NRA-certified course, a hunter education course, or military/law-enforcement experience. The course must cover safe handling and, in most cases, live-fire qualification.

2. Submit Your Application to FDACS. Applications go through the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services — yes, the same agency that handles agriculture also issues concealed weapon licenses. This includes fingerprinting and a background check.

3. Pass the Background Check. FDACS reviews state and federal criminal history, cross-referenced against the FBI's National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Most approvals take a matter of weeks, though processing times vary.

4. Receive and Renew Your License. Once approved, your CWFL is valid for seven years. Renewal requires a new application but typically does not require retaking the training course unless your certificate has expired or specific circumstances apply.

What Kind of Training Course Actually Qualifies?

This is where a lot of confusion creeps back in. A "Florida CWP class" advertised as a 2–3 hour session technically meets the legal minimum — but minimum and adequate aren't the same thing. At GunSafety4U, our NRA Basic CCW course exceeds the state's training requirement with a full 9 hours of classroom and live-fire range time, covering drawing from concealment, stoppage remediation, and the legal and mental-preparation side of carrying — not just enough to check a box. If you're earning the credential to advance professionally rather than for personal carry, our Florida Armed Security G License course covers the separate, higher-level requirement for armed security work. You can browse every NRA-certified course we offer to find the right fit, all taught to the NRA's national training standards.

CWFL vs. Permitless Carry: Do You Even Need a License Anymore?

In 2023, Florida passed permitless carry (sometimes called "constitutional carry"), allowing eligible residents to carry a concealed firearm without any license at all. This raises a fair question: if you don't legally need a CWFL, why would you still get one?

CWFL, CWP, CWL, and CCW — the same Florida license, side by side.

"Permitless carry removes the legal requirement for training — it doesn't remove the need for it."

There are also practical reasons that have nothing to do with skill level:

Factor	Permitless Carry	Florida CWFL
Legal to carry in FL	Yes, for eligible residents	Yes
Reciprocity in other states	None	Honored in 37+ states
Formal training required	No	Yes (course certificate)
Background check on file	No	Yes (FDACS-verified)
Works for non-residents	Florida residents only*	Available to non-residents

*Permitless carry eligibility rules can be specific — verify your status before relying on it.

If you ever plan to carry outside Florida, a CWFL is the only one of the two that travels with you. If you want documented proof of training and a clean background check on file — useful in licensing for certain jobs, or simply as a personal safeguard — the CWFL still does something permitless carry cannot. Either way, the law only sets the legal floor. Many students go further with our Defensive Pistol course or Personal Protection Outside the Home certification to build real confidence and skill beyond the minimum.