Florida CWL Reciprocity

Reciprocity is an agreement between states to honor each other's concealed carry licenses. If State X has reciprocity with Florida, State X will generally recognize your Florida CWL and let you carry there.

Three things people consistently get wrong:

1. Reciprocity honors the license, not Florida law

When you carry in another state, you follow that state's rules — their prohibited locations, their duty-to-inform requirements, their magazine restrictions, their rules about vehicles. Your Florida license gets you in the door. It does not bring Florida's rulebook with it.

2. Permitless carry does not travel

This is the single most dangerous misunderstanding in Florida right now. Carrying without a license is lawful in Florida. Cross into a state that requires a license, without one, and you have committed a serious crime in a jurisdiction where you have no standing and no local attorney.

3. The lists change

Reciprocity agreements are added and withdrawn. A state that honored your license last year may not this year. Check before every trip — not once, and then never again.

The authoritative source for which states currently honor a Florida CWL is Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS), which maintains the official reciprocity list. We deliberately do not publish a state-by-state table here, because a stale list on a website is worse than no list at all.

Your checklist before any trip with a firearm:

1. Check FDACS for current Florida reciprocity.
2. Check the destination state's attorney general or state police website — they publish their own recognition list, and it is the one that matters if you are stopped there.
3. Check every state you drive through, not just the destination. A road trip is a series of jurisdictions.
4. Check the specific rules of each state — duty to inform, vehicle carry, magazine capacity, prohibited locations.
5. Check federal rules for national parks, federal buildings, and military installations.

Driving through, not stopping

Federal law provides certain protections for transporting firearms through a state where you cannot legally carry, but the conditions are specific — generally involving how the firearm and ammunition are stored and the continuity of the journey. Understand those conditions before relying on them.

Flying

Firearms in checked baggage are subject to TSA and airline rules — declared, unloaded, in a locked hard case. Never in a carry-on. The sterile area of an airport is a prohibited location.

Duty to inform

Some states require you to proactively tell an officer you are carrying during a stop. Others do not. Not knowing which kind of state you are in is how a routine traffic stop turns into something else.

Magazine capacity

Several states restrict magazine capacity. A standard magazine that is perfectly legal in Florida can be a felony elsewhere.

If you take one thing from this page: permitless carry is a Florida-only benefit, and Florida is not the only place you will ever be.

The $50 course and the license behind it are what turn your right to carry into something that survives a state line. For anyone who drives north, travels for work, or visits family out of state, that is the entire argument.

Get your CWL for $50 — two hours, register at the door.