Yea, I remember looking this up when I first moved here.
Ya I don't remember seeing any signs at the Tampa airport last week when I was there. That's why I was a little suprised to see them posted at the St. Petersburg/Clearwater airport.
I don't know who told you it was legal to carry in an airport in Florida; here's the DOACS page on prohibited areas.
The actual statute is FL Statute 790.06 (12), the relevant section being;
(12) No license issued pursuant to this section shall authorize any person to carry a concealed weapon or firearm into any place of nuisance as defined in s. 823.05; any police, sheriff, or highway patrol station; any detention facility, prison, or jail; any courthouse; any courtroom, except that nothing in this section would preclude a judge from carrying a concealed weapon or determining who will carry a concealed weapon in his or her courtroom; any polling place; any meeting of the governing body of a county, public school district, municipality, or special district; any meeting of the Legislature or a committee thereof; any school, college, or professional athletic event not related to firearms; any school administration building; any portion of an establishment licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, which portion of the establishment is primarily devoted to such purpose; any elementary or secondary school facility; any career center; any college or university facility unless the licensee is a registered student, employee, or faculty member of such college or university and the weapon is a stun gun or nonlethal electric weapon or device designed solely for defensive purposes and the weapon does not fire a dart or projectile; inside the passenger terminal and sterile area of any airport, provided that no person shall be prohibited from carrying any legal firearm into the terminal, which firearm is encased for shipment for purposes of checking such firearm as baggage to be lawfully transported on any aircraft; or any place where the carrying of firearms is prohibited by federal law. Any person who willfully violates any provision of this subsection commits a misdemeanor of the second degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082 or s. 775.083.
Once you're inside the doors to the terminal, sterile area or not you're in a prohibited area. It use to be legal in Florida, it was repealed a few years ago.
A few shall issue States prohibit airport carry; AR, FL, ND, NV (concealed only prohibited), OH, OK and VA.
Does anyone have a copy of Link Removed and get his opinion on it? The Statute and DOACS site is pretty straight forward to me. Sterile area and terminal is the entire airport building.
So I guess I was wrong. Looks like you can't bring them anywhere inside the airport as the terminal would be right when you step inside for departures or right inside the arrival area, correct?Inside the passenger portion of any airline terminal, and the "steril area" of any airport (ie: the X-ray machine checkpoint, and beyond). Usually the area reserved for passengers making flight departures, or arrivals.
However, there is an exceptionS for anyone who is a passenger, is in the terminal (but not the sterile area), and is carrying a firearm for shipment as baggage on an airline so long as that firearm is already unloaded, and encased in a locked container.
Ok, from Jon H. Gutmacher, Esq.'s book Florida Firearms Law, Use & Ownership:
From section Places Prohibited With Concealed Permit:
So I guess I was wrong. Looks like you can't bring them anywhere inside the airport as the terminal would be right when you step inside for departures or right inside the arrival area, correct?
I sent Jon Gutmacher an email to see if he could clear this issue up for us.
passenger section is normally any part of the terminal whereas the "sterile area" is the portion from the xray machines on. Federal and state regs cover the sterile area, state regs only cover the terminal.
I got an email back from Jon this morning:
So looks like you pretty much cannot go inside the airport at all with a gun unless you are a passenger and checking it in.
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