Florida
Permanent URL for this collectionhttps://dspace.firearmsresearchcenter.org/id/frc0001/3493
Florida
This jurisdictional hub aggregates FRC holdings related to Florida. It supports research on the state’s firearms history, technology, law, policy, and culture from the Spanish and British colonial periods through territorial years, statehood, and the present.
- Legal sources: statutes and session laws, administrative code, attorney general opinions, appellate decisions, and select municipal ordinances.
- Historical materials: newspapers, photographs, maps, catalogs, military and maritime records, and oral histories tied to Florida people and places.
- Research outputs: technical reports, academic studies, training manuals, and curated datasets relevant to the state.
Cite the Firearms Research Center and the item’s handle/DOI when using materials. Rights and licensing vary by item.
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Item type:Item, Compilation of the Ordinances of the City of St. Augustine 53 (1884)(1878-04-28)Imposed a $25 license tax on dealers of pistols, bowie-knives, and dirks.Item type:Item, 1887 Fla. Laws 164-65(1887)An Act to Establish the Municipality of Jacksonville Provide for its Government and Prescribe it's jurisdiction and powers, chap. 3775, § 4: Granted the city of Jacksonville the authority to regulate and license the sale of firearms and suppress the carrying of concealed weapons.Item type:Item, Fla. Const. of 1885, art. I, § 20(1885)Declared the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, but the legislature shall have the right to regulate the manner in which arms are borne.Item type:Item, Fla. Act of Aug. 6, 1888, ch. 1637, subch. 7, § 10, as codified in Fla. Rev. Stat., tit. 2, pt. 5 (1892)(1888)Prohibited the concealed carrying of slungshot, metallic knuckles, billies, firearms, or other dangerous weapons if arrested for committing a criminal offense or disturbance of the peace. Punishable by imprisonment up to 1 year and a fine up to $50.Item type:Item, 1 Digest of the Laws of the State of Florida, From the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Two, to the Eleventh Day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred Eighty-One Inclusive 873 (James F. McClellan ed., 1881)(1881)Fla. ch. 174, § 24, item 14: Replaced the two hundred dollar annual tax for vendors and ten dollar tax for open carry with a fifty dollar occupational license for vendors of pistols, Bowie-knives, or dirk-knives.Item type:Item, 1 Digest of the Laws of the State of Florida, From the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Two, to the Eleventh Day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred Eighty-One Inclusive 403 (James F. McClellan ed., 1881)(1881)Criminalized possessing dangerous weapons during arrests, manufacturing or selling slung shots/metallic knuckles, and secretly carrying weapons, punished by fines and/or jail time.Item type:Item, 1881 Fla. Laws 87(1881)An Act to Prevent the Selling, Hiring, Bartering, Lending or Giving to Minors Under Sixteen Years of Age, or to any Person of Unsound Mind, Certain Fire-arms or other Dangerous Weapons, chap. 3285, § 1-2: Prohibited selling, hiring, bartering, lending, or giving any pistol, dirk, or other arm or weapon to any minor under sixteen years of age. Violators guilty of a misdemeanor, fined not less than twenty nor more than fifty dollars, or imprisoned in the county jail not more than three months.Item type:Item, 1885 Fla. Laws 61-62(1885)Fla. Act of Feb. 12, ch. 3620: Prohibited the concealed carrying of any arms, dirk, pistol, or other arm or weapon is guilty of a misdemeanor. Fines not exceeding one hundred dollars or six months imprisonment.Item type:Item, A Digest of the Laws of the State of Florida: From the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Twenty-Two, to the Eleventh Day of March, One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-One, Inclusive, at 403 (James F. McClellan ed.,1881)(1868)Offences Against Public Peace, § 13 (Fla. Act of Aug. 6, 1868, ch. 1637): Prohibited the carrying "about or on their person" any dirk, pistol or other arm or weapon, except a "common pocket knife." Punishable by fine up to $100 or imprisonment up to 6 months.Item type:Item, Fla. Act of Aug. 8, 1868, as codified in Fla. Rev. Stat., tit. 2, pt. 5, at 2425 (1892)(1868)Prohibited the manufacture or sale of slungshots or metallic knuckles. Punishable by imprisonment for up to 6 months or a fine up to $100.Item type:Item, 1893 Fla. Laws 51-52(1868)Prohibited carrying concealed weapons, except common pocket knives, and imposed penalties for possessing dangerous weapons while committing offenses. It also criminalized manufacturing or selling slung shots and metallic knuckles, while repealing a prior weapons provision.Item type:Item, 1865 Fla. Laws 23, 25-27(1866)This Act imposed significant restrictions on the possession and use of firearms and the formation of military organizations within the State. It prohibited individuals from forming, participating in, or assisting unauthorized military organizations, classifying such conduct as a misdemeanor and authorizing substantial penalties, including fines, imprisonment, pillory, and whipping. The Act imposed even greater potential penalties on individuals who accepted offices within such organizations, reflecting particular concern with organized or armed groups operating outside state authority. Separately, the Act prohibited hunting or ranging with a gun on another person's enclosed land without the permission of the owner, tenant, or person exercising control over the property. Violators were subject to the penalties prescribed by the preceding section. Together, these provisions demonstrate the Act's regulation of firearms not only as instruments of individual conduct on private property, but also as potential tools of organized military activity. The provisions therefore combined property-based restrictions on the use of guns with broad prohibitions on unauthorized armed organization, backed by severe and discretionary criminal penalties.Item type:Item, The Revised Statutes of the State of Florida 782-83 (W.A. Blount et al. eds., 1892)(1868)1868 Fla. Rev. Stat., tit. 2, art. 5, §§ 2421-2425: Prohibited carrying concealed weapons, except common pocket knives, punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment or a $100 fine. Those arrested while committing an offense or disturbing the peace who possess firearms or other dangerous weapons face up to one year’s imprisonment and a $50 fine. Officers were required to seize such weapons, which are forfeited upon conviction and returned upon acquittal. Moreover, manufacturing or selling slung-shots or metallic knuckles was punishable by up to six months’ imprisonment or a $100 fine.