Does Florida law prohibit a person with an open arrest warrant from purchasing a firearm?

Plain-English summary

The FBI's Office of General Counsel asked the Florida AG whether any Florida statute or case law prohibits firearms transfer to a person who has an open arrest warrant. The question came up because, as the FBI explained, the federal Brady Act bars firearm transfers to "fugitives from justice," and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) had long treated outstanding-warrant subjects as fugitives. The U.S. Department of Justice had recently reinterpreted the federal "fugitive from justice" definition (18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(15)) to require that the person have actually fled the state to avoid prosecution or testifying. Open-warrant alone wasn't enough anymore. The FBI was asking whether state law might fill the gap.

The AG said Florida had no express prohibition based solely on an outstanding arrest warrant. But two statutory triggers can lead to nonapproval and may overlap with the existence of a warrant:

• Section 790.065(2)(c)1. directs the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to issue a "conditional nonapproval number" when a potential buyer has been indicted, had an information filed against them, or been arrested for a felony under state or federal law. (And as the AG noted, "an arrest warrant is generally issued following an indictment or information.")

• Section 790.065(2)(c)8. says the conditional nonapproval stays in effect until the indictment, information, or arrest is disposed of and FDLE is notified by the buyer that final disposition has occurred.

So in the typical fact pattern (warrant issued after indictment or information), Florida's conditional-nonapproval mechanism would block the transfer until the criminal case is resolved, even though the trigger is the indictment/information/arrest, not the warrant per se. The NICS database can use that information when evaluating Florida buyers.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2018. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here.

Common questions

Q: Does an outstanding arrest warrant by itself disqualify someone from buying a gun in Florida?
A: At the time of this opinion, no Florida statute or case law expressly disqualified a person solely because an arrest warrant was outstanding. Florida required some predicate criminal-process event (indictment, information, or arrest for a covered felony) for FDLE's conditional-nonapproval mechanism to kick in.

Q: What is a "conditional nonapproval" in Florida firearm-purchase processing?
A: It's a status FDLE assigns under § 790.065(2)(c)1. when a background check shows the buyer has been indicted, had an information filed, or been arrested for a felony under state or federal law (including specific arrest-only categories listed in the statute). The transfer is paused until the criminal matter is resolved.

Q: How long does a conditional nonapproval last?
A: Per § 790.065(2)(c)8., the conditional nonapproval stays "in effect" "[d]uring the time that disposition of the indictment, information, or arrest is pending and until the department is notified by the potential buyer that there has been a final disposition of the indictment, information, or arrest." So it ends only when FDLE learns the case has been finally resolved.

Q: Why did the FBI care about the answer here?
A: NICS aggregates federal and state prohibitions to decide whether to deny a firearm transfer. After DOJ narrowed the definition of "fugitive from justice" under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(15), open-warrant subjects who hadn't fled were no longer federal fugitives. The FBI wanted to know if state-law mechanisms would still flag them. In Florida, the answer is the conditional-nonapproval system, not a direct warrant-based prohibition.

Q: What about misdemeanor warrants?
A: Section 790.065(2)(c)1. references felony predicates. A misdemeanor warrant alone wouldn't trigger conditional nonapproval. Other Florida disqualifications (mental-health adjudications, domestic-violence injunctions, etc.) operate independently.

Background and statutory framework

Federal firearm-transfer disqualifications appear in 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), which bars transfers to people in nine categories: convicted felons, fugitives from justice, unlawful drug users, persons committed to mental institutions, undocumented aliens, dishonorably discharged service members, persons who have renounced citizenship, persons subject to certain restraining orders, and persons convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence. The "fugitive from justice" category is defined at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(15): "any person who has fled from any State to avoid prosecution for a crime or to avoid giving testimony in any criminal proceeding."

For decades, NICS treated open-warrant subjects as fugitives, on the theory that someone with a warrant was presumptively avoiding prosecution. DOJ's reinterpretation flagged in this opinion narrowed the federal definition: the person actually has to have fled the state.

Florida's response is at the state level. Section 790.065 codifies the state's own background-check process, which Florida runs alongside (and partially in coordination with) NICS. The conditional-nonapproval mechanism in subsection (2)(c)1. and (2)(c)8. addresses pending criminal matters: it doesn't categorically disqualify, but it pauses the transfer until disposition. That pause functions effectively as a denial during the pendency.

The opinion was an informal letter rather than a formal AGO, in keeping with the inter-agency consultation context. Its analytical work is limited to a literal reading of § 790.065 and a clear answer that no broader Florida statute exists.

Citations and references

State statutes:
- § 790.065, Fla. Stat. (Sale and delivery of firearms)

Federal statutes:
- 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(2) (firearm-transfer prohibition for fugitives from justice)
- 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(15) (definition of "fugitive from justice")

Source

• Landing page: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/ag-opinions/firearms-background-check
• Original PDF: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/print/pdf/node/8031

Original opinion text

Mr. Richard McNally

Acting Deputy General Counsel

Investigative & Administrative Law Branch

Office of the General Counsel

Federal Bureau of Investigation

United States Department of Justice

Washington, D.C. 20535

Dear Mr. McNally:

You have asked whether there is a statute or case law in Florida that prohibits anyone with an open arrest warrant from receiving a firearm or firearm-related permit.

As you state in your letter, the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 prohibits a transfer of firearms to a person who is a "fugitive from justice."[1] The National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS), used by Federal Firearms Licensees to determine a potential buyer's eligibility to receive a firearms transfer, has long considered a person who is the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant to be a fugitive from justice. The Department of Justice, however, recently concluded that the statutory definition of "fugitive from justice" instead requires a showing that a person who is subject to criminal prosecution or the obligation to testify has fled the state to avoid prosecution or testifying.[2] The Department of Justice has accordingly updated its policy for denial on this basis.

The FBI is now seeking to determine whether there are state statutes or case law that prohibit a person with an open arrest warrant from receiving a firearms transfer, for the purpose of including such information in the NICS database.

Under Florida statutes and case law, while there is no express prohibition against firearms transfer to a person because he or she is the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant, there are two categories leading to nonapproval that may implicate the existence of an active arrest warrant. Section 790.065(2)(c)1., Florida Statutes (2017), requires the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to issue a "conditional nonapproval number" when a potential buyer or transferee:

· has been indicted or had an information filed against him or her for an offense that is a felony under either state or federal law, or

· has been arrested for one of the felony offenses specified in the statute.

In point of fact, an arrest warrant is generally issued following an indictment or information.

Subparagraph 790.065(2)(c)8. provides: "During the time that disposition of the indictment, information, or arrest is pending and until the department is notified by the potential buyer that there has been a final disposition of the indictment, information, or arrest, the conditional nonapproval number shall remain in effect." The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is thus required to monitor the status of the indictment, information, or arrest and ultimately determine whether the transfer should be approved or disapproved.

I trust that this information is sufficient to answer your inquiry.

Sincerely,

Ellen B. Gwynn

Senior Assistant Attorney General

EBG/tsh

[1] 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(2).

[2] 18 U.S.C. §921(a)(15).