A student in my Level 1 class asked me in August whether the Supreme Court’s new ruling on gun-free stores meant he could finally carry into any business he wanted in Boynton Beach. The honest answer is that the ruling doesn’t touch Florida law at all, because Florida already worked the way the Court just told Hawaii it has to work. That mismatch between what people read in a national headline and what actually applies here is exactly why I’m writing this one. Understanding Wolford v. Lopez matters for how I teach the private property portion of every CCW class I run, even though the case itself is about a state three thousand miles away.
What the Supreme Court Actually Decided in Wolford v Lopez
On June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Wolford v. Lopez that Hawaii’s law criminalizing concealed carry on private property open to the public, absent the owner’s express permission, violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. Justice Alito wrote for the majority, joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett; Justice Kagan dissented separately from Justice Jackson’s dissent, which Justice Sotomayor joined. The opinion is direct about the mechanism: Hawaii’s Act 52 flipped the traditional common-law rule that anyone, including a person carrying a firearm, may enter property open to the public unless expressly told not to. Hawaii instead required a business to affirmatively invite concealed carriers in, through signage or explicit permission, before a permit holder could legally walk through the door with a handgun. The Court said that default rule “hobbles what the Second Amendment protects,” reversed the Ninth Circuit, and sent the case back down for further proceedings, according to the Court’s opinion.
Why This Doesn’t Actually Change Anything in Florida
Here’s the part that gets lost in the national coverage. Florida never had an opt-in default rule like Hawaii’s. A licensed or permitless carrier here can already walk into a Publix, a bank lobby, or a hardware store without the owner saying a word about firearms first — the default has always run in the carrier’s favor. What changes it is the owner speaking up: posting a sign, telling staff to ask you to leave, or directly informing you that firearms aren’t welcome. Once that happens and you don’t comply, you’re not violating some separate “no guns” ordinance, because Florida doesn’t have one that private businesses can create out of thin air. You’re trespassing, and Florida Statute 810.09 makes trespass on land a first-degree misdemeanor by default but bumps it to a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, the moment you’re armed while doing it. The parallel statute for structures, 810.08, works the same way for buildings and vehicles. So the practical rule in Palm Beach County was already the Wolford outcome before the ink dried on the opinion.
The One Sentence That Actually Matters for Your Carry Decisions
If a business tells you to leave because you’re carrying, whether that instruction comes from a manager, a cashier authorized to speak for the owner, or a posted sign you ignored, your legal options collapse to exactly one: leave. You don’t get to argue constitutional carry rights at that point, you don’t get to cite Wolford, and you don’t get to point out that open carry is currently unenforced statewide following the McDaniels ruling. None of that overrides a private owner’s right to exclude you from their own property. Refusing converts a lawful visit into armed trespass, and armed trespass is a felony that will end a concealed weapon license and complicate a lot more than your afternoon. I tell every class the same thing: winning the argument in the parking lot is not worth what it costs you in court.
Where the Real Uncertainty Still Lives
The genuinely unresolved question in Florida right now isn’t about private property at all — it’s whether open carry itself is currently lawful statewide. The First DCA’s ruling in McDaniels struck down the open carry prohibition in section 790.053(1), and the Attorney General instructed prosecutors not to enforce it, which has the practical effect of legalizing open carry unless a higher court intervenes. But the statute itself hasn’t been repealed by the legislature, and I’ve seen at least one published guide claim open carry remains illegal statewide. That conflict is exactly why I’m not telling any student to open carry into a business based on what I just wrote here. If you want a definitive answer for your specific situation, talk to a Florida firearms attorney, not your instructor and not a blog post — this is education, not legal advice.
How I’m Changing My Class Because of This
I’ve taught the private property segment of my CCW classes around a simple flowchart for years: assume you can carry unless told otherwise, comply immediately if told otherwise, know the difference between a sign that carries legal weight (courthouses, schools, polling places under federal and state law) and a sign that’s just a request you can be asked to honor (a private restaurant or store). Wolford doesn’t change that flowchart for Florida students one bit, and that’s worth saying out loud, because I’d rather a student walk away slightly bored than walk away thinking a Hawaii case rewrote Florida law when it didn’t. What it does give me is a clean national example to use when a student from out of state — I get plenty of snowbirds and transplants in Wellington and Stuart — asks why their home state’s rules felt so different. Now I can point to a Supreme Court opinion and say: that’s the fight your state just had, and Florida settled it years ago.
What To Actually Do With This
Don’t change your carry habits based on this ruling if you’re a Florida resident, because your habits should already reflect the rule Wolford just imposed nationally. Do pay attention if you split time between Florida and a state like California, Maryland, New York, or New Jersey, since those states run laws similar to Hawaii’s old one and will need to sort out their own compliance with this ruling over the coming months. And regardless of where you carry, get into a room with an instructor before you assume you know the private-property rules cold, because the gap between a Reddit thread and an actual statute is where people end up with a felony record. If you’re local to Palm Beach County and want the full breakdown taught properly, with the trespass statutes and the current open carry uncertainty covered in the same session, call me at (561) 213-2974 or email Mike@suburbanprotector.com and we’ll get you on the schedule.