Carrying a Concealed Firearm in Florida: What Slydell Teaches Us About Police Stops
I want to tell you about a case that still bothers me. A man served years in prison for a conviction that should never have happened. The case is Slydell v. State, 240 So. 3d 134 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018). It’s one of the most important cases I know of when it comes to carrying a concealed firearm in Florida.
Lamarcus Slydell was inside a club one night when someone noticed him showing off three firearms. That person called a detective friend. The detective got a detailed description of Slydell — long dreads, glasses, black shirt, black shorts with red trim, black sandals — and passed it on to two uniformed officers on patrol nearby. The officers spotted Slydell on the sidewalk. He fit the description. They noticed heavy objects weighing down his gym shorts. At that point, they ordered him to the ground at gunpoint. They found two semi-automatic handguns and a revolver in those shorts.
For this, Slydell received three years in prison — carrying a concealed firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He served a significant portion of that sentence before anyone caught the problem.
Facing a Firearms Charge in Florida?
Carrying a concealed firearm in Florida is not automatically a crime — and a tip about a gun does not automatically give police the right to stop you. Call John Guidry at (407) 423-1117 to find out if your stop was legal.
What Went Wrong in the Slydell Case
Here’s the thing that the judge missed and the prosecutors missed: the officers had no idea whether Slydell had a concealed weapons permit. They had no idea whether he was a felon. They had no information indicating that anyone witnessed him commit a crime. All they had was a reliable tip saying a man had guns. Under Florida law, that’s not enough.
The core principle at work here is simple: carrying a concealed firearm in Florida is not illegal if the carrier has a permit. Therefore, a tip that someone is carrying a gun doesn’t tell you whether a crime is occurring. It just tells you someone has a gun. Those are two completely different things. The Fourth Amendment requires police to know the difference before they draw weapons and order someone to the ground.
There Is No Firearm Exception to the Fourth Amendment
This is the line that the 2nd DCA leaned on heavily in the Slydell opinion. It’s a line that has appeared in Florida courts many times since. Specifically, there is no firearm or weapons exception to the Fourth Amendment. You cannot build reasonable suspicion simply by knowing a person is armed. To stop someone legally, officers need a reasonable, articulable suspicion that the person is engaged in criminal activity — not just that they’re carrying something.
In Slydell’s case, the officers saw a bulge in his shorts and presumed it was a gun. They didn’t observe any conduct that would indicate a crime. They didn’t ask Slydell a single question before ordering him to the ground at gunpoint. Furthermore, nothing in the tip identified whether Slydell had a permit. Nothing indicated whether he had any prior record. As a result, the court found the stop unlawful from the first moment. Consequently, the court ruled that the officers should have never found those three guns in the first place.
Why Permitless Carry Makes This Even More Important
To stop someone for carrying a concealed firearm in Florida, officers need something beyond the firearm itself. They need facts pointing specifically toward criminal activity. For example, an officer who sees someone brandishing a weapon aggressively or making threats has something to work with. However, an officer who merely receives a tip that someone is carrying a gun — without any indication that the carrying is illegal — does not have enough.
This matters especially now. Florida’s permitless carry law took effect July 1, 2023. It expanded who can legally carry a concealed firearm without any permit at all. That means the population of people lawfully carrying guns in public grew substantially. Consequently, the mere presence of a firearm tells officers even less about criminal activity than it once did.
Slydell’s Shawshank Moment
The case eventually got reversed on appeal. Slydell had already served a significant portion of his three-year sentence by the time the appellate court found the error that the trial judge and the prosecutors both missed. He got his moment — but only after the damage was done.
That’s exactly why this case matters. The error wasn’t complicated. It didn’t require some obscure legal argument. The officers simply lacked the legal authority to do what they did, and nobody in that courtroom caught it until the appeal.
If You Want More Related Content
If you’d like to dig deeper into this topic, I’ve covered the traps in Florida’s permitless carry law that still get people arrested even when they think they’re legally carrying.
Watch: https://youtu.be/fhEfaz4R9IQ
I’ve also written a full breakdown of where you cannot carry under Florida’s permitless carry law, which pairs directly with the Slydell principle that carrying a gun is only illegal in certain circumstances.
Read: https://jgcrimlaw.com/articles/a-lesson-in-reasonable-suspicion/
John’s Takeaways
- Carrying a concealed firearm in Florida is not a crime if you have a permit. Since July 2023, it’s also legal under permitless carry for eligible residents. A tip that someone is armed doesn’t tell police whether a crime is occurring.
- There is no firearm exception to the Fourth Amendment. Officers cannot build reasonable suspicion from the presence of a gun alone.
- To stop you legally, police need articulable facts pointing to criminal activity. A tip about a firearm, without more, doesn’t clear that bar.
- In Slydell v. State, 240 So. 3d 134 (Fla. 2d DCA 2018), the court reversed a three-year prison sentence. The officers lacked legal authority to stop Slydell at all. Neither the judge nor the prosecutors caught it at trial.
- If your case started with an unlawful stop, everything discovered after it may be suppressible. That’s not a technicality — it’s exactly what the Fourth Amendment exists to prevent.
Charged After a Questionable Gun Stop? Let’s Talk.
I’ve been filing motions to suppress in firearms and weapons cases in Central Florida since 1993. What the Slydell case proves is that these errors get made, and they get made at every level of the system. I represent clients across Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Lake, Brevard, and Volusia County.
If your arrest started with a stop that doesn’t seem right to you, call my office. Let’s go through what happened and find out whether the law was actually on the state’s side.
John Guidry — (407) 423-1117
About John Guidry II
John Guidry II is a seasoned criminal defense attorney and founder of the Law Firm of John P. Guidry II, P.A., located in downtown Orlando next to the Orange County Courthouse, where he has practiced for over 30 years. With more than three decades of experience defending clients throughout Central Florida since 1993, Guidry has successfully defended thousands of cases in Orange, Seminole, Osceola, Brevard, Lake, and Volusia counties. He has built a reputation for his strategic approach to criminal defense, focusing on pretrial motions and case dismissals rather than jury trials.
John Guidry earned both his Juris Doctorate and Master of Business Administration from St. Louis University in 1993. He is a member of the Florida Bar and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. His practice encompasses the full spectrum of Florida state criminal charges, with a particular emphasis on achieving favorable outcomes through thorough pretrial preparation and motion practice.
Beyond the courtroom, Guidry is a prolific legal educator who has authored over 400 articles on criminal defense topics. He shares his legal expertise through his popular YouTube channel, Instagram, and TikTok accounts, where he has built a substantial following of people eager to learn about the law. His educational content breaks down complex legal concepts into accessible information for the general public.
When not practicing law, Guidry enjoys tennis and pickleball, and loves to travel. Drawing from his background as a former recording studio owner and music video producer in the Orlando area, he brings a creative perspective to his legal practice and continues to apply his passion for video production to his educational content.