Florida Knife laws

Popsickle

Popsickle

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Jul 25, 2010
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My wife and i are considering a move to Orlando Florida for a job... all ive found is stuff on concealed carry seems to be a big no no with no mention of anything on size of blade. Can anyone in this area comment on this?

i currently live in myrtle beach, sc where you can openly carry a sword legally lol.... i choose a spyderco military orange s30v and have no problems what so ever.
any insight on this stuff what would be great!
 
In our statute pertaining to concelaed carry, the term "weapon" is defined. Part of that description says any knife other than a "common pocket knife". What is considered a "common pocket knife" changes from officer to officer. A deputy I know feels that means a nail Nick slip joint, most LEO's I know/work with feel it means a one handed opener with a clip. I've never met one that felt it meant an auto or balisong (except myself). Also, any sized fixed blade would NOT be a "common pocket knife" and therefore illegal to conceal (without a permit). Now we have no statute banning open carry of non firearm weapons. However, some cops don't realize this AND some counties/cities have weird ordinances.

The simple answer - I was not LE, while I lives in Orlando. I carried a BM710 w/o issue the whole time. Also, get your permit, it covers knives. With a permit, you conceal whatever knife you want.
 
zignal_zero said:
In our statute pertaining to concelaed carry, the term "weapon" is defined. Part of that description says any knife other than a "common pocket knife". What is considered a "common pocket knife" changes from officer to officer. A deputy I know feels that means a nail Nick slip joint, most LEO's I know/work with feel it means a one handed opener with a clip. I've never met one that felt it meant an auto or balisong (except myself). Also, any sized fixed blade would NOT be a "common pocket knife" and therefore illegal to conceal (without a permit). Now we have no statute banning open carry of non firearm weapons. However, some cops don't realize this AND some counties/cities have weird ordinances.

The simple answer - I was not LE, while I lives in Orlando. I carried a BM710 w/o issue the whole time. Also, get your permit, it covers knives. With a permit, you conceal whatever knife you want.
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bull shoot. I use to sell at the gun and knife shows. a switchblade is a legal knife to carry. If I find the law on it I will send you a copy of it.
 
all non " common pocket knives" cannot be concealed

you can have a switchblade, but as soon as your shirt goes over the clip, it is a concealed weapon


i know because my friend was arrested for this
 
richard thurman said:
bull shoot. I use to sell at the gun and knife shows. a switchblade is a legal knife to carry. If I find the law on it I will send you a copy of it.
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What you're probably thinking of is - in 2003 the governor stepped in and changed the verbage of the "ballistic knife" statute because people were getting charged, for having switchblades, under that law. The new verbage made it clear that a switchblade was NOT a ballistic knife and therefore NOT a prohibited item. This does not mean it is legal to conceal one. Unless the officer who finds it considers it (1) openly carried or (2) a "common pocket knife" you can plan on being charge with a concealed weapon.

You don't believe me, that's fine, but as my agency's violent crimes investigator I was expected to know chapter 790 in and out..... which I pretty much do :-)
 
so a right front pocket clipped para 2 or ZT 0350 would be ok? as long as its visible right
 
i wasnt meaning autos.. i referring to TS original question about carry laws and whats legal in florida... without a CWL not the person who replied about autos..
 
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furfmonkey said:
i wasnt meaning autos.. i referring to TS original question about carry laws and whats legal in florida... without a CWL not the person who replied about autos..
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Gotcha. Myself and every other LEO I've ever talked to (with the exception of one) consider ALL (non auto) tactical folders to be "common pocket knives" and therefore completely legal to conceal.
 
kk thanks.. im retired NYPD but havent read up on knife laws down here..
 
I carry all my pocket knives, auto and other wise clip and lanyard exposed without any problem. I have family and good friends in law enforcement and all have told me that this is just fine as long as the clip can be seen it doesn't matter what kind of knife it is.
 
flraptor07 said:
I carry all my pocket knives, auto and other wise clip and lanyard exposed without any problem. I have family and good friends in law enforcement and all have told me that this is just fine as long as the clip can be seen it doesn't matter what kind of knife it is.
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I don't know if precedent has been set, yet. I'd be very interested on finding out because, at this point, different LEO's have differing opinions on what constitutes concealed. The statutory definition reads something to the effect of - concealed from the ORDINARY sight of another person. the statute does not capitalize "ordinary", I do because I believe that will be a very important word if/when someone argues against a concealed weapons vioaltion in court. Truth is - our statute really provides the on scene LEO with a large amount of discretion and, until precedent (case law) is established, it will be up to his/her discretion whether or not a knife is "concelaed". Personally, I consider a folder concealed when the only portion visible is the clip. I also consider a fixed blade concealed, if a person's shirt is covering the entire handle and only the bottom portion of the sheath is visible.

It gets a little worse. AFAIK FL does not have any state protection, of knife bearers, from city/county ordinances and I have read some VERY FRIGHTENING ordinances. They seemed to be around the beach cities in Pinnellis county - Madira beach, Bel Air beach, etc. Some of them had wording with references to blade lengths, one actually said "no knives". So, there are cities in FL (Orlando is not one of them) that have more restrictive knife laws than the state does.

The good part about the LEO having a large amount of discretion is, if you are not otherwise 'asking' to be arrested, chances are that discretion will lean towards your favor.

A lot of LEO's will take into consideration whether or not you were attempting to comply, with the laws, and perhaps are just a little unclear on them. For example, I have only arrested ONE person for carrying a concealed weapon, ever. The others, I encountered, I simply explained how they could adjust their carry methods to avoid any problems :-)
 
Great Info! And you're absolutely right as long as you're not being a total asshat and asking for trouble chances are you'll be just fine.
zignal_zero said:
I don't know if precedent has been set, yet. I'd be very interested on finding out because, at this point, different LEO's have differing opinions on what constitutes concealed. The statutory definition reads something to the effect of - concealed from the ORDINARY sight of another person. the statute does not capitalize "ordinary", I do because I believe that will be a very important word if/when someone argues against a concealed weapons vioaltion in court. Truth is - our statute really provides the on scene LEO with a large amount of discretion and, until precedent (case law) is established, it will be up to his/her discretion whether or not a knife is "concelaed". Personally, I consider a folder concealed when the only portion visible is the clip. I also consider a fixed blade concealed, if a person's shirt is covering the entire handle and only the bottom portion of the sheath is visible.

It gets a little worse. AFAIK FL does not have any state protection, of knife bearers, from city/county ordinances and I have read some VERY FRIGHTENING ordinances. They seemed to be around the beach cities in Pinnellis county - Madira beach, Bel Air beach, etc. Some of them had wording with references to blade lengths, one actually said "no knives". So, there are cities in FL (Orlando is not one of them) that have more restrictive knife laws than the state does.

The good part about the LEO having a large amount of discretion is, if you are not otherwise 'asking' to be arrested, chances are that discretion will lean towards your favor.

A lot of LEO's will take into consideration whether or not you were attempting to comply, with the laws, and perhaps are just a little unclear on them. For example, I have only arrested ONE person for carrying a concealed weapon, ever. The others, I encountered, I simply explained how they could adjust their carry methods to avoid any problems :-)
Click to expand...
 
zignal_zero said:
I don't know if precedent has been set, yet. I'd be very interested on finding out because, at this point, different LEO's have differing opinions on what constitutes concealed. The statutory definition reads something to the effect of - concealed from the ORDINARY sight of another person. the statute does not capitalize "ordinary", I do because I believe that will be a very important word if/when someone argues against a concealed weapons vioaltion in court. Truth is - our statute really provides the on scene LEO with a large amount of discretion and, until precedent (case law) is established, it will be up to his/her discretion whether or not a knife is "concelaed". Personally, I consider a folder concealed when the only portion visible is the clip. I also consider a fixed blade concealed, if a person's shirt is covering the entire handle and only the bottom portion of the sheath is visible.

It gets a little worse. AFAIK FL does not have any state protection, of knife bearers, from city/county ordinances and I have read some VERY FRIGHTENING ordinances. They seemed to be around the beach cities in Pinnellis county - Madira beach, Bel Air beach, etc. Some of them had wording with references to blade lengths, one actually said "no knives". So, there are cities in FL (Orlando is not one of them) that have more restrictive knife laws than the state does.

The good part about the LEO having a large amount of discretion is, if you are not otherwise 'asking' to be arrested, chances are that discretion will lean towards your favor.



A lot of LEO's will take into consideration whether or not you were attempting to comply, with the laws, and perhaps are just a little unclear on them. For example, I have only arrested ONE person for carrying a concealed weapon, ever. The others, I encountered, I simply explained how they could adjust their carry methods to avoid any problems :-)
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If I conceal something then that means you can't visually tell that I am carrying a knife or not. If you can see the clip or bottom of the sheath, how can you consider that concealed, since you can see the person is carrying a knife? Everyone needs a CCW in Florida so they don't have to worry about anything like that.
 
That would be the best solution, then there would be no question and you could carry whatever you want however you want!
swamp said:
If I conceal something then that means you can't visually tell that I am carrying a knife or not. If you can see the clip or bottom of the sheath, how can you consider that concealed, since you can see the person is carrying a knife? Everyone needs a CCW in Florida so they don't have to worry about anything like that.
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flraptor07 said:
That would be the best solution, then there would be no question and you could carry whatever you want however you want!
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yeah I've had mine for six years now. It doesn't matter what I'm carrying or how I'm carry it. Knives anyway. Soon I think we will be able to open carry firearms too.
 
swamp said:
If I conceal something then that means you can't visually tell that I am carrying a knife or not. If you can see the clip or bottom of the sheath, how can you consider that concealed, since you can see the person is carrying a knife? Everyone needs a CCW in Florida so they don't have to worry about anything like that.
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I consider it concealed because the knife is concelaed. All that is exposed is a clip. I used to have a Kel Tec P32 that had a clip just like most pocket knives. When the pistol was in a pocket, all you could see was the clip. The exposed clip was the same size and style as the clips on knives. I would still consider that pistol concealed. I would not consider it openly carried, simply because a small portion of it is visible when that portion does not disclose what it is to the average person.

Like I said, all LEO's are different. I happen to consider it concealed, some don't, but until precedent is set, you'll have to just accept whatever the on scene LEO's interpretation is. Speaking of interpretation, actually read the states definition of "concealed" because that's the definition we use.
 
Yeah I've never had a concealed problem even when fully concealed with many Leos
I had one cop ask why I used the vaqero for but I just said work and that was that. By definition I don't consider carrying a knife using a pocket clip "in a manner as to conceal the weapon from the ordinary sight of another person" I feel it's carrying the knife the way it was designed to be carried.
 
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There's really no reason for anyone living in FL to not have their concealed weapon permit. They are easy to get and cost either half what a decent pistol does or what two decent folders do (depending on perspective). Even as a LEO, I've always made sure to keep mine current becase I did not want my carry rights to be employment specific. I've recently decided to resign from my LE job and the only change in my carry rights will be I have LESS limitations on what I can carry lol.

So.... everyone needs to just get their permit and then there's nothing to worry about.

Here's another scenario that different officers will interpret differently - a fixed blade carried outside the waistband, shirt is long enough to cover the handle, the sheathed blade is exposed. I am far from alone in considering this concealed. In fact, I'm probably in the majority.
 
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