Concealed Carry Glossary
Every term this site uses, defined the way the pages use it. When a state's statute defines a term differently, the state page says so.
- Reciprocity
- One state's decision to treat another state's carry permit as valid inside its borders. It is one-directional: State B honoring State A's permits says nothing about whether A honors B's.
- Recognition
- Often used interchangeably with reciprocity, but strictly it means a state honors outside permits without requiring the other state to honor its own in return.
- Permitless carry (constitutional carry)
- A statute allowing eligible people to carry a concealed handgun without any permit. States differ on the minimum age, on whether visitors are covered, and on whether the eligibility rules mirror the permit rules.
- Resident permit
- A carry permit issued by the state where the holder lives. Some destination states honor out-of-state permits only when the permit matches the holder's state of residence.
- Non-resident permit
- A permit a state issues to someone who lives elsewhere. Useful for filling reciprocity gaps, but a group of destination states refuses non-resident permits entirely.
- Shall-issue
- A permitting regime where the issuing authority must grant the permit to any applicant who meets the statutory requirements. Since the Supreme Court's Bruen decision (2022), every state operates under some form of this standard, though timelines and conditions vary.
- May-issue
- The older discretionary regime where officials could deny permits for lack of 'good cause'. Bruen ended may-issue as written, but some former may-issue states retain broad disqualifiers and slow processes.
- Duty to inform
- A legal requirement to tell a police officer you are carrying, without being asked, during a stop or official contact. In states without it, you generally must still answer truthfully and show your permit on request.
- Magazine capacity limit
- A state cap on how many rounds a magazine may hold. The cap binds visitors too, and does not care that the magazine was legal where you started the drive.
- Preemption
- A state law barring cities and counties from writing their own gun rules. In states with weak or partial preemption, local ordinances can add restrictions this site's state-level data cannot capture.
- Peaceable journey (18 USC § 926A)
- The federal rule protecting transport of an unloaded, locked-away firearm through a state where you have no carry rights, if possession is legal at both the origin and the destination and the pass-through is genuine.
- Off-limits (prohibited) places
- Locations where carry stays illegal even with a valid or recognized permit — commonly schools, courthouses, jails, polling places, and bars, with the exact list varying by state.