Florida has no magazine capacity limits. State law does not cap how many rounds a rifle, shotgun, or handgun magazine can hold, and any adult who can legally possess a firearm can legally buy, own, and carry magazines of any size. Local governments cannot impose their own limits either, because the Legislature has preempted the entire field of firearm and ammunition regulation.
What Chapter 790 Actually Regulates
Chapter 790 of the Florida Statutes is the state’s main firearms code. It covers licensing, categories of people prohibited from possessing firearms, specific banned devices such as bump-fire stocks, and rules on armor-piercing ammunition.1Florida Legislature. Chapter 790 Weapons and Firearms It says nothing about magazine capacity. The word “magazine” does not appear anywhere in the chapter in the context of a size limit.2Florida Legislature. Chapter 790 Weapons and Firearms
Florida’s concealed carry framework is likewise silent on magazines. A licensee’s carry rights do not shrink based on how many rounds a magazine holds.3NRA-ILA. Florida Gun Laws
The One Place Capacity Appears: A Sentencing Enhancement
Magazine capacity does show up in one corner of Florida criminal law, but not as a possession rule. Florida Statute 775.087(3) imposes a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison on anyone convicted of certain serious felonies — including murder, sexual battery, robbery, burglary, kidnapping, carjacking, and drug trafficking — who possessed a semiautomatic firearm equipped with a “high-capacity detachable box magazine” during the offense. The statute defines that term as a detachable box magazine capable of being loaded with more than 20 centerfire cartridges. If the firearm is discharged during the crime, the minimum rises to 20 years. If the discharge causes death or great bodily harm, the minimum becomes 25 years to life.4Florida Legislature. Section 775.087 Possession or Use of Weapon
This provision does not make owning or carrying a magazine over 20 rounds illegal by itself. It kicks in only when a person is convicted of one of the listed qualifying felonies and had that magazine during the crime.
Why No Florida City or County Can Set Its Own Limit
Local governments in Florida cannot fill the gap. Florida Statute 790.33 declares that the Legislature occupies “the whole field of regulation of firearms and ammunition” — purchase, sale, transfer, manufacture, ownership, possession, storage, and transportation — “to the exclusion of all existing and future county, city, town, or municipal ordinances.” Any conflicting local ordinance is void, and a court must permanently enjoin its enforcement.5Florida Legislature. Section 790.33 Field of Regulation of Firearms and Ammunition Preempted
A 2011 amendment added personal penalties. Elected officials who knowingly and willfully pass a preempted ordinance can be fined up to $5,000 personally and removed from office by the governor. Municipalities can be hit with damages of up to $100,000 per lawsuit, plus legal fees.6Giffords Law Center. Preemption of Local Laws in Florida
Those penalties were challenged. In April 2018, Coral Springs, Coconut Creek, and Pembroke Pines sued in Broward County, explicitly aiming to clear a path for local large-capacity magazine bans.7Everytown for Gun Safety. Broward County Cities and Elected Officials File Lawsuit Challenging Law A Leon County circuit judge ruled the penalty provisions unconstitutional in July 2019, but the state appealed, which stayed the ruling and kept the penalties in force.8Weiss Serota Helfman Cole + Bierman. Lawsuit Led by Broward City May Transform Rules on Enacting Local Gun Laws In a related case, the Fourth District Court of Appeal held in 2021 that Broward County ordinances regulating weapons violated the preemption statute.9Fourth District Court of Appeal. Broward County v. Florida Carry, Inc. The bottom line for a resident today: no Florida city or county enforces any magazine capacity restriction.
Bills That Have Tried To Change This
Florida lawmakers have repeatedly filed magazine restriction bills. None have advanced out of committee.
In the 2025 session, Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith filed SB 1338 to prohibit the sale, transfer, and possession of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. It was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn on May 3, 2025, and died in the Criminal Justice Committee on June 16, 2025.10Florida Senate. SB 1338 (2025)
Smith refiled the concept for the 2026 session as SB 346 on November 4, 2025. The bill defined a “large-capacity magazine” as any ammunition feeding device capable of accepting more than 10 rounds. It would have banned sale, transfer, and possession, with exceptions for law enforcement and military personnel. Anyone who already owned a qualifying magazine before the proposed October 1, 2026 effective date would have needed a “certificate of possession” by October 1, 2027. Sales violations would have been a third-degree felony with a two-year mandatory minimum; possession violations would have been a third-degree felony with a one-year mandatory minimum.11Florida Senate. SB 346 Bill Text SB 346 was referred to Criminal Justice, Judiciary, and Rules but never received a hearing or vote in any of them. It died in the Criminal Justice Committee on March 13, 2026.12Florida Senate. SB 346 (2026)
Republicans hold supermajorities in both chambers, and similar measures have consistently stalled. Even after the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando and the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, the Legislature did not enact capacity restrictions.13Everytown Research. High-Capacity Magazines Prohibited The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act of 2018 raised the minimum age for rifle purchases and created “red flag” risk protection orders, but it left magazine capacity untouched.
What Could Still Change the Rule
Two forces outside Tallahassee could override Florida’s current approach.
The first is Congress. Senator Tim Kaine and 21 co-sponsors introduced the Keep Americans Safe Act in March 2025. The bill would reinstate a nationwide ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds, prohibiting sale and possession of any manufactured after enactment. A companion bill was introduced in the House.14Senator Tim Kaine. Kaine, Colleagues Introduce Bill to Ban High-Capacity Gun Magazines If enacted, federal law would apply in Florida regardless of state policy. Passage is not expected in a divided Congress.
The second is the Supreme Court. Several petitions challenging state magazine bans were pending as of mid-2026, and a decision on the merits could constrain what any state — Florida included — is allowed to do:
- Duncan v. Bonta (No. 25-198) challenges California’s 10-round limit. The Ninth Circuit upheld the ban, treating large-capacity magazines as accessories rather than “Arms” under the Second Amendment. The petition has been repeatedly relisted at conference, most recently for May 14, 2026.15SCOTUSblog. Duncan v. Bonta
- Gator’s Custom Guns Inc. v. Washington (No. 25-153) challenges Washington’s ban and asks whether magazines over 10 rounds are constitutionally protected arms. Distributed for the conference of June 18, 2026.16SCOTUSblog. Gator’s Custom Guns Inc. v. Washington
- National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont (No. 25-421) challenges Connecticut’s ban on AR-15-style rifles and magazines over 10 rounds. Distributed for the conference of June 25, 2026.17SCOTUSblog. National Association for Gun Rights v. Lamont
Lower courts have split. Some have held that large-capacity magazines are not “Arms” under the Second Amendment’s plain text. Others assumed they are protected but found that historical tradition supports regulation.18SCOTUSblog. The Second Amendment Landscape A Supreme Court ruling under the framework of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022) would either entrench Florida’s permissive approach or reopen the door for future legislative action.