Knife laws in Florida

I'm not about to decipher FL's knife laws, since they are so vague as to defy logic....however...

With a CWFL, you can pretty much conceal any 'weapon' you like (as defined by the statutes). Shove a Katana in your pants if it trips your switch.

Where it gets iffy is if you don't have a CWFL. Kinda hard to discern from the statutes which knives are 'weapons' and which are 'common pocket knives' (i.e., not a weapon).

Though Autos are legal in FL, I wouldn't carry one without a CWFL.

Even though I have a CWFL and normally carry some sort of auto, I'll switch that out for a small Kershaw or such if I'm going into some place where I can't carry a 'weapon'.

deadeyedick said:

I wouldn't be too sure of that...I think it all depends on the situation. If you have a fixed-blade knife in a sheath on your belt while wearing a polo shirt and khakis in an office environment, then you're going to draw attention. If you're at Home Depot wearing jeans and a t-shirt with that same knife, nobody will even notice. I have openly carried a fixed-blade on several occasions and nobody has ever made an issue out of it.

This assumes that you'd be carrying a traditional fixed-blade knife in the 6" range...you likely would draw some unwanted attention if you were carrying something along the lines of a machete or a Roman gladius. :laughing

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I've carried a Cold Steel Tanto on numerous occasions around here without incident. It's not exactly a 'work' looking knife, either! (important safety tip....when you get your CWFL renewal notice...SEND IT IN!).

Cthulhu said:

I won't go so far to say I stand corrected, but it seems others have had fairly uneventful open knife carry experiences.

Regarding carrying an auto, I wouldn't want to risk trying to convince a judge/jury that an auto folder was a "common pocketknife". If you've got the money for the lawyer to argue that, have fun with that. Personally, I don't see a fun side of being a test case.

-JT

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Depends on what's being tested.