Gun and Weapons Charges Defense in Miami

Gun cases are also some of the most defensible cases we see. They often depend on a traffic stop, a search, and who actually had the gun. Dennis Gonzalez Jr. is a former Miami-Dade prosecutor who has been defending people since 2012. Our office answers 24 hours a day.

Concealed Carry After the 2023 Law

Since July 1, 2023, Florida no longer requires a license to carry a concealed weapon or concealed firearm, if you qualify. Under the current law, you may carry concealed if you either:

• hold a Florida concealed weapon or firearm license, or
• don't have a license but meet the same eligibility criteria the law sets for getting and keeping one.

Those criteria include, among others, being 21 or older; being a U.S. citizen or a permanent resident (or a certified consular security official) and a resident of the United States; no felony conviction that bars you from having a firearm; not found guilty of a drug crime in the 3 years before applying; no commitment for substance abuse; no chronic and habitual alcohol or drug use (presumed with, for example, two or more DUI convictions in 3 years); no adjudication as incapacitated; no commitment to a mental institution; no withheld adjudication on a felony, or on a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, unless 3 years have passed since probation or other court conditions were completed, or the record was expunged; no active domestic violence or repeat violence injunction against you; no misdemeanor crime of violence (including one with adjudication withheld) unless 3 years have passed since probation or other court conditions were completed, or the record was sealed or expunged; and not being barred from owning a firearm by any other Florida or federal law.

The training course and the application are what you skip. The disqualifiers still apply.

If you carry without a license:

• You must carry valid ID whenever you have the concealed weapon or firearm on you, and show it when an officer asks. Not doing so is a noncriminal violation with a $25 fine.
• You are bound by the same list of prohibited places as a license holder (below).

If you don't qualify and carry anyway: carrying a concealed weapon (such as a dirk, metallic knuckles, or another deadly weapon) or an electric weapon is a first-degree misdemeanor, and carrying a concealed firearm is a third-degree felony. In that prosecution, the State must prove both that you were not licensed and that you were not eligible for a license. That second element is often where these cases are won or lost.

Visitors: a nonresident who is a U.S. resident and 21 or older may carry concealed in Florida if he or she meets the same eligibility criteria, or holds a valid license from his or her home state.

Open carry. The 2026 Florida Statutes still print Florida's open-carry ban: except as otherwise provided by law, openly carrying a firearm or electric weapon on or about your person is a second-degree misdemeanor. In 2025, a Florida appeals court ruled that this ban violates the Second Amendment as applied to ordinary, law-abiding adults, and reversed a conviction under it. That decision came from one of Florida's regional appeals courts, not the Florida Supreme Court, and the Legislature has not repealed the statute. In 2026, a different Florida appeals court, in a case that was not about open carry, wrote that the statute is still on the books and potentially enforceable in its region. The ruling also does not help anyone who is barred from having a gun in the first place. The same section allows open carry of a self-defense chemical spray or a nonlethal stun gun for lawful self-defense. Before you carry a firearm openly, talk to a lawyer about how the law applies to you, where you are.

Where You Still Cannot Carry

A license (or permitless carry) does not let you carry into, among other places:

• police, sheriff, or highway patrol stations; jails, prisons, and detention facilities;
• courthouses and courtrooms;
• polling places;
• meetings of a county, city, school district, special district, or the Legislature;
• school, college, or professional athletic events not related to firearms;
• elementary or secondary school facilities and administration buildings, and career centers;
• the part of a bar or restaurant licensed to serve alcohol on the premises that is primarily devoted to serving it;
• college or university facilities (with a narrow exception for some non-dart stun guns);
• the inside of an airport passenger terminal and sterile area (a firearm encased for checking as baggage is allowed);
• any place where federal law prohibits firearms.

Knowingly and willfully carrying into one of these places is a second-degree misdemeanor. The same law confirms that a license holder may carry or store a firearm in a vehicle for lawful purposes.

Schools carry separate, tougher rules. Possessing a firearm on school property, a school bus, a bus stop, or at a school-sponsored event is generally a third-degree felony, with exceptions, including a firearm kept in a vehicle under Florida's vehicle law (school districts can waive that exception for student and campus parking). For a person who is authorized to carry concealed, the possession offense is a second-degree misdemeanor instead. Discharging a firearm while possessing it on school property or at a school event, or within 1,000 feet of a school during school hours or a school activity (outside lawful defense or another lawful purpose, and with an exception for private property near a school), is a second-degree felony. Since October 1, 2026, a person arrested for that discharge must be held in custody until brought before a judge for bail.

Guns in Your Car After 2023

Florida's vehicle rule still matters, mostly for people who are not eligible to carry concealed (for example, adults 18 to 20). A person 18 or older in lawful possession of a handgun may keep it inside a private vehicle if it is securely encased or otherwise not readily accessible for immediate use, but may not carry it on his or her person.

"Securely encased," as Florida law defines it, means in a glove compartment (locked or not), snapped in a holster, in a gun case (locked or not), in a zippered gun case, or in a closed box or container that needs a lid or cover opened to get to it.

A person who is authorized to carry concealed under the current law may carry on his or her person inside the vehicle. Long guns carried for a lawful use may be anywhere in a private vehicle.

Possession of a Firearm by a Convicted Felon

Florida makes it a crime to own, or to have in your care, custody, possession, or control, any firearm, ammunition, or electric weapon, or to carry a concealed weapon, if you have been:

• convicted of a felony in Florida;
• found to have committed a delinquent act in Florida that would be a felony for an adult, if you are under 24;
• convicted of a federal felony;
• found delinquent in another state, territory, or country for an act that would be a felony punishable by more than 1 year for an adult, if you are under 24; or
• found guilty of a felony in another state, territory, or country punishable by more than 1 year.

It does not apply if your civil rights and firearm authority have been restored, or if your record was expunged under the statute's listed provision.

Penalty: a second-degree felony, or a first-degree felony for someone who qualifies for the criminal-gang enhancement. Under 10-20-Life, possessing a firearm as a convicted felon carries a 3-year minimum mandatory, which rises to 10 years if the person has a prior listed forcible felony and actually possessed a firearm during that earlier crime.

Many of these cases turn on possession. Ammunition in a shared car, a gun in a home where several adults live, a weapon found in a common area: proving that a particular person knew about it and controlled it is the State's burden.

The Federal Counterpart: 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)

Federal law makes it unlawful for nine groups of people to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition, or to receive one that has moved in interstate or foreign commerce. The groups are anyone who:

1. has been convicted in any court of a crime punishable by more than one year;
2. is a fugitive from justice;
3. is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, a controlled substance;
4. has been adjudicated a mental defective or committed to a mental institution;
5. is a noncitizen who is in the United States illegally, or (with exceptions) was admitted on a nonimmigrant visa;
6. was dishonorably discharged from the Armed Forces;
7. has renounced U.S. citizenship;
8. is subject to a qualifying court order protecting an intimate partner or the partner's child, issued after a hearing with notice and a chance to participate; or
9. has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.

A knowing violation is punishable by up to 15 years in federal prison. Federal law also bars a person under indictment for a crime punishable by more than a year from receiving, shipping, or transporting a firearm or ammunition.

The same gun can be charged in state court, federal court, or both. Where a case lands changes everything, and early representation can matter.

Showing a Gun: Improper Exhibition

Exhibiting a firearm or other weapon in a rude, careless, angry, or threatening manner, in the presence of one or more people, not in necessary self-defense, is a first-degree misdemeanor. If the facts include a threat that creates a well-founded fear, prosecutors may charge aggravated assault with a deadly weapon instead, a third-degree felony. See Violent Crimes Defense and Assault & Battery Charges.

Firing a Gun: Public Places, Homes, Vehicles, Buildings

• Discharging in public or on residential property: knowingly firing in a public place, on or over a paved public road, or over occupied premises, or recklessly or negligently firing outdoors on property used mainly as a home site or zoned only residential, is a first-degree misdemeanor. It does not apply to someone lawfully defending life or property.
• Recreational shooting outdoors (including target shooting) in an area you know or should know is mainly residential, with one or more homes per acre, is a first-degree misdemeanor, with exceptions, including an accidental discharge and a discharge that poses no reasonably foreseeable risk.
• Firing from a vehicle: an occupant who knowingly and willfully fires from a vehicle within 1,000 feet of any person commits a second-degree felony. A driver or owner who knowingly directs someone to fire from the vehicle commits a third-degree felony.
• Shooting into a building or vehicle: wantonly or maliciously shooting at, within, or into any public or private building (occupied or not), or a vehicle of any kind being used or occupied by any person, a boat, or certain other conveyances, is a second-degree felony.

10-20-Life: Florida's Firearm Minimum Mandatories

When a listed felony involves a firearm, Florida law sets prison terms the judge cannot go below, cannot suspend, and cannot withhold adjudication on.

The listed offenses (including attempts): murder; sexual battery; robbery; burglary; arson; aggravated battery; kidnapping; escape; aircraft piracy; aggravated child abuse; aggravated abuse of an elderly person or disabled adult; unlawful throwing, placing, or discharging of a destructive device or bomb; carjacking; home-invasion robbery; aggravated stalking; drug trafficking offenses under s. 893.135(1); possession of a firearm by a felon; and human trafficking.

The minimums:

• Actual possession of a firearm during a listed offense: 10 years. For possession of a firearm by a felon or burglary of a conveyance: 3 years.
• Discharging a firearm during a listed offense (other than felon in possession): 20 years.
• Discharge causing death or great bodily harm: 25 years to life.
• With a semiautomatic firearm and a high-capacity detachable box magazine (more than 20 centerfire rounds) or a machine gun: 15 years for possession, 20 years for discharge, and 25 years to life if the discharge causes death or great bodily harm. This list also includes sale, manufacture, or delivery of a controlled substance.

What the State must prove. For the minimums, possession means carrying the firearm on the person, or having it within immediate physical reach with ready access with the intent to use it during the offense, proven beyond a reasonable doubt. A gun in the trunk is not the same as a gun in the waistband.

Stacking. If a person is convicted of more than one qualifying felony, the court must impose the minimums consecutively, one after another. No gain-time or discretionary early release applies before the minimum is served. Since July 1, 2025, the law also lets the judge run a 10-20-Life minimum consecutively to the sentence for a different, non-listed felony committed along with it. The date of the offense matters.

Reclassification. Separately, when a weapon or firearm is carried, displayed, used, or threatened during a felony that doesn't already have a weapon as an element, the felony is bumped up one degree (third to second, second to first, first to life).

Whether the firearm was real, whether it was actually possessed or discharged, and whether those facts are properly charged and found are where 10-20-Life cases are fought.

Safe Storage and Minors

• Safe storage. If you store or leave a loaded firearm at a place under your control where you know or reasonably should know a minor (under 16, for this law) is likely to get to it without permission or required supervision, you must keep it in a securely locked box or container, in a place a reasonable person would believe is secure, or with a trigger lock, unless you are carrying it on your body or close enough to use it as quickly. If the minor gets the gun and possesses or exhibits it in a public place, or in a rude, careless, angry, or threatening manner, it is a second-degree misdemeanor. It does not apply if the minor got the gun through an unlawful entry by anyone.
• Minors and guns. A minor under 18 may not possess a firearm, other than an unloaded firearm at home, except for lawful hunting, marksmanship or recreational shooting (with age and supervision rules), and transporting an unloaded firearm directly to or from those events. A first offense by the minor is a first-degree misdemeanor with up to 5 days in secure detention and 100 hours of community service; a second offense is a third-degree felony. The court may also revoke the minor's driver license or delay when the minor can get one.
• Parents. A parent, guardian, or other responsible adult who knowingly and willfully permits a minor to possess a firearm in violation of these rules commits a third-degree felony.

Firearms possessed or used by a minor in violation of this law are seized by law enforcement. For more on cases involving young people, see Juvenile Crimes.

Risk Protection Orders ("Red Flag" Orders)

A risk protection order is a civil case, separate from any criminal charge. Under Florida law:

• Only a law enforcement officer or agency can file the petition, in circuit court. No filing fees, no bond, and no attorney fees are awarded either way.
• The petition must allege that the person poses a significant danger of causing personal injury to himself or herself or others by having or getting a firearm or ammunition, backed by a sworn affidavit of specific facts.
• A judge may issue a temporary ex parte order (without hearing from you first) on reasonable cause. A full hearing must be held within 14 days.
• After the hearing, the judge must issue the order if the petitioner proves the danger by clear and convincing evidence. The order can last up to 12 months, and it can be extended.
• The person must surrender all firearms, ammunition, and any concealed weapon license. The license is suspended.
• The person may request one hearing to vacate the order (and another after each extension), but at that hearing the person has to prove by clear and convincing evidence that he or she is not a significant danger.

How it interacts with a criminal case: having or buying a firearm or ammunition while knowing an order prohibits it is a third-degree felony. Lying under oath at the hearing is also a third-degree felony. The red flag law doesn't limit police from seizing firearms under other lawful authority. And an active risk protection order is one of the things that blocks the return of a firearm seized at an arrest (below). The hearing is sworn testimony. If there is also a criminal investigation, talk to a lawyer before you or your family testify.

Lying on a Gun Purchase Form and Straw Purchases

• Florida: a buyer who willfully and knowingly provides false information or false identification in a firearm purchase commits a third-degree felony. So does a person who knowingly acquires a firearm intended for the use of someone who is prohibited by state or federal law from having one. Florida also bars anyone under 21 from purchasing a firearm (with exceptions for law enforcement, correctional officers, and servicemembers buying a rifle or shotgun).
• Federal: knowingly making a false statement to a federally licensed dealer (or other federal licensee) about a fact material to the lawfulness of the sale is punishable by up to 10 years. Federal law separately makes it a crime to knowingly buy a firearm for, on behalf of, or at the request of someone you know or have reason to believe is prohibited, or intends to use it in a felony, terrorism, or drug trafficking: up to 15 years, or up to 25 years if the buyer knows or has reason to believe the gun will be used in one of those crimes.

Self-Defense

Many gun cases begin with someone protecting themselves. Florida's firearm statutes build that in: improper exhibition excludes necessary self-defense, and the public-discharge law does not apply to someone lawfully defending life or property. Florida's broader self-defense and immunity law is explained on our Stand Your Ground page.

Traffic Stops With a Gun in the Car

Practical guidance, not a script for every situation:

1. Keep your hands visible and do not reach for the gun, the glove box, or the console unless the officer tells you to.
2. Have your ID. If you carry concealed without a license, Florida law requires you to carry valid ID and show it when an officer asks. A license holder has the same duty.
3. Stay calm and polite, and say as little as possible about where you've been or where the gun came from. You can ask for a lawyer.
4. You can say you do not consent to a search. Say it calmly and do not physically resist. Resisting can become its own charge. See Resisting Arrest.
5. Afterward, write down the time, place, officers' names, and what was said, and call us.

Whether the stop, the questions, and the search were lawful is often the whole case. See Motions to Suppress.

Getting Your Firearm Back

Under Florida law, an officer who makes an arrest takes possession of weapons found on the person. If they are not held as evidence or subject to forfeiture, they must be returned on request within 30 days if the person:

1. has been released from detention;
2. shows government-issued photo ID; and
3. for a firearm, passes a criminal history background check showing he or she is not prohibited from possessing one under state or federal law, including by an injunction, a risk protection order, or another court order.

The sheriff or police chief may not require a court order to release weapons that weren't seized as evidence, unless there are competing ownership claims. If the person is acquitted or the charges are dismissed, the weapons are returned, but they must be claimed within 60 days. A conviction for an offense involving the use or attempted use of the weapon results in forfeiture. This statute has an exception for cities in counties with constitutional home rule, which can affect how the process works in Miami-Dade, so ask us before you go to the property room.

If the firearm was surrendered under a risk protection order, it is returned only after the order is vacated or ends without extension and a background check confirms eligibility.

Immigration Consequences

For a noncitizen, a firearm conviction can carry its own immigration consequences, separate from any jail sentence. Federal law also bars certain noncitizens from having a firearm at all. See Immigration Consequences of Criminal Charges.

Bond in Gun Cases

Some firearm charges, including discharging a firearm near a school and violent felonies, can require you to stay in custody until first appearance, and the State may ask to hold you without bond. See Bond & Nebbia Hearings.

How We Defend Gun and Weapons Cases

• The stop and the search. Was there a lawful reason to stop, detain, or search? Evidence from an unlawful search can be suppressed.
• Possession. Who knew about the gun, and who controlled it? Shared cars and homes create real doubt.
• Eligibility. In an unlicensed-carry case, the State must prove you were not eligible for a license, not just that you lacked one.
• The prior record. In a felon-in-possession case, is the prior really a qualifying conviction, and were rights restored?
• The 10-20-Life facts. Actual possession, discharge, and great bodily harm must be charged and proven.
• Self-defense. Threatened or used force may be justified, and immunity may apply.

Why Choose Dennis Gonzalez Law, P.A.

• Former Miami-Dade prosecutor.
• Defending people since 2012.
• Super Lawyers recognition and an Avvo Rating of 10.0.
• Bilingual office — se habla español.
• We answer 24 hours a day. Call (305) 209-0384.

You can read about some of our past cases on our Results page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I still need a license to carry a concealed gun in Florida?

Not if you meet the eligibility criteria the law sets for a license. Since July 1, 2023, an eligible person may carry concealed without one. A license can still be useful, including for travel to other states.

Can I carry if I'm 18, 19, or 20?

Not concealed on your person: the eligibility criteria require age 21. An adult 18 or older in lawful possession of a handgun may keep it securely encased or not readily accessible in a private vehicle.

I'm on probation for a withheld felony. Can I have a gun?

Talk to us before you touch one. A withheld adjudication on a felony affects license eligibility, and federal and state possession rules are separate questions that depend on your exact record.

What happens if I bring my gun into a bar?

Carrying into the part of an establishment primarily devoted to serving alcohol on the premises is a second-degree misdemeanor if done knowingly and willfully.

Can the police take my guns without charging me?

Yes, through a risk protection order, which is a civil case filed by law enforcement. You have the right to a hearing and to ask the court to vacate the order.

How fast can you help?

Our office answers 24 hours a day. Call (305) 209-0384.