Carrying a concealed handgun in California is a crime under Penal Code Section 25400 unless a statutory exemption applies. Section 25655 makes a...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Carrying a concealed handgun in California is a crime under Penal Code Section 25400 unless a statutory exemption applies. Section 25655 makes a California carry license the principal exemption: Section 25400 "does not apply to, or affect," concealed carry by a person "authorized to carry that weapon in a concealed manner pursuant to Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 26150)."
Section 25850 runs in parallel and a license answers it too. It reaches a loaded firearm carried in public whether hidden or in plain view, and Section 26010 exempts handgun carry authorized under the chapter beginning at Section 26150. For the license itself, see PERMIT_BASICS and APPLICATION_PROCESS.
Section 25400(a) reaches any pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person, a term defined at Section 16530. A person is guilty who does any of the following:
Section 25400(b) provides: "A firearm carried openly in a belt holster is not concealed within the meaning of this section." That does not make open carry lawful. Section 26350 makes it a misdemeanor to carry an exposed and unloaded handgun, whether outside a vehicle or inside or on one, in a public place or public street in an incorporated city or city and county, on a public street in a prohibited area of an unincorporated area, or in a public place in a prohibited area. Section 26400 makes it a misdemeanor to carry an unloaded firearm that is not a handgun on the person and outside a vehicle in an incorporated city or city and county, or in a public place or public street in a prohibited area of an unincorporated area. See OPEN_CARRY.
| Aggravating fact under Section 25400(c) | Grade |
|---|---|
| (c)(1) Prior conviction of any felony, or of a crime made punishable by a provision listed in Section 16580 | Felony |
| (c)(2) Firearm is stolen and the person knew or had reasonable cause to believe it was stolen | Felony |
| (c)(3) Active participant in a criminal street gang as defined in Section 186.22(a) | Felony |
| (c)(4) Not in lawful possession, or prohibited under Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 29800) or Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 29900) of Division 9, or Welfare and Institutions Code Section 8100 or 8103 | Felony |
| (c)(5) Prior conviction of a crime against a person or property, or of a narcotics or dangerous drug violation | Section 1170(h), county jail up to one year, or a fine up to $1,000, or both |
| (c)(6) Handgun is loaded, or it and unexpended ammunition are in the person's immediate possession or readily accessible, and the person is not the Section 11106(c)(1) registered owner | Section 1170(h), county jail up to one year, or a fine up to $1,000, or both |
| (c)(7) All other cases | County jail up to one year, or a fine up to $1,000, or both |
Section 25400(d)(1) requires county jail of at least three months and not exceeding six months for a person previously convicted of a misdemeanor enumerated in Section 23515, and Section 25400(d)(2) makes three months a condition of probation or a suspended sentence for a person with a prior felony or a prior conviction under a provision listed in Section 16580. Section 25400(e) permits departure only in unusual cases where the interests of justice would be better served, on stated reasons. Section 29800, the felony prohibition amended by AB 1078 at Stats. 2025, Ch. 570, Sec. 19, is the aggravator behind Section 25400(c)(4) and Section 25850(c)(4). See RESTRICTIONS.
AB 109 last amended Section 25400 at Stats. 2011, Ch. 15, Sec. 543, and the section became operative January 1, 2012.
Section 25850(a) reaches a loaded firearm carried on the person or in a vehicle in any public place or on any public street in an incorporated city or city and county, or in a prohibited area of an unincorporated area. Section 16840, as the Attorney General's 2021 California firearms laws summary states it, deems a firearm loaded when a live cartridge or shell is in or attached in any manner to it, including in an attached magazine or clip. Section 25850(b) lets peace officers examine any firearm carried on the person or in a vehicle in those places to determine whether it is loaded, and refusing that inspection is probable cause for arrest under the section.
Section 25850(c)(1) to (c)(5) track the grid above: felony treatment on (c)(1) to (c)(4), and on (c)(5) a Section 1170(h) or county jail term up to one year, a fine up to $1,000, or both. Section 25850(c)(6) does not track. It turns on the single fact that the person is not listed with the Department of Justice under Section 11106 as the recorded owner of the handgun, with no loaded-or-accessible element of its own, and draws that same penalty range. Section 25850(c)(7) makes every other case a misdemeanor punishable by county jail up to one year, a fine up to $1,000, or both, and Section 25850(d)(1) adds a three-month jail floor for a prior conviction of an offense enumerated in Section 23515 or under a provision listed in Section 16580. Under Section 25850(e), a violation punished by county jail not exceeding one year is not a conviction of a crime punishable by more than a year for federal firearms eligibility under 18 U.S.C. Section 922(g)(1). SB 2 amended Section 25850 at Stats. 2023, Ch. 249, Sec. 9, effective January 1, 2024.
A license under Section 26150 (sheriff), Section 26155 (municipal police chief), or Section 26170 (a person deputized or appointed as a peace officer under Section 830.6(a) or (b) by that sheriff or chief) clears Section 25400 through Section 25655 and Section 25850 through Section 26010.
For a license under subdivision (a), Section 26150(c) and Section 26155(c) direct the licensing authority to issue or renew in either of the following formats: a license to carry concealed, or, where the county population is less than 200,000 persons according to the most recent federal decennial census, a license to carry loaded and exposed in only that county. Under Section 26155(c)(2) the county measured is the one in which the city is located. AB 1078 amended both sections at Stats. 2025, Ch. 570, effective January 1, 2026.
Section 26200(a) lists what a licensee may not do while carrying under the license. Paragraph (a)(1) bars consuming an alcoholic beverage or a controlled substance described in Health and Safety Code Sections 11053 to 11058. It says nothing about medication. Paragraph (a)(2) bars being in "a place having a primary purpose of dispensing alcoholic beverages for onsite consumption". That is a broader class of premises than a bar. Paragraph (a)(3) is the under-the-influence limb and the only one that reaches medication: being under the influence of any alcoholic beverage, medication, or controlled substance described in those same sections. Paragraph (a)(4) bars carrying a firearm not listed on the license or one the licensee is not the recorded owner of, except that a licensee holding a Section 26170 license may carry a firearm registered to the agency that deputized or appointed the licensee as a peace officer, carried consistent with that agency's policies. The remaining paragraphs bar falsely representing being a peace officer, unjustified display of a deadly weapon, failing to carry the license, impeding a peace officer, refusing to display the license or produce the firearm on demand, and violating any criminal law. See UNDER_INFLUENCE and DUTY_TO_INFORM.
Section 26200(b) lets the licensing authority add reasonable restrictions as to time, place, manner, and circumstances, and Section 26200(c) requires them to appear on the license itself. Section 26200(d) bars a licensee from having more than two firearms under the licensee's control at one time. SB 2 amended Section 26200 at Stats. 2023, Ch. 249, Sec. 19, effective January 1, 2024.
Section 25605(a) takes Section 25400 and the open-carry chapter beginning at Section 26350 off a citizen or legal resident over 18 who resides or is temporarily within the state, is not within the excepted classes prescribed by Chapter 2 (commencing with Section 29800) or Chapter 3 (commencing with Section 29900) of Division 9 or by Welfare and Institutions Code Section 8100 or 8103, and carries a handgun openly or concealed within that person's place of residence, place of business, or on private property owned or lawfully possessed by that person. Section 25605(b) requires no permit or license for that conduct. The exemption is written for a handgun, and Section 25605(c) leaves the application of Sections 25850 to 26055 unaffected, so loaded carry at those same places runs through Section 26035 instead.
Section 25610 is the unlicensed transport route, narrowed by SB 2 at Stats. 2023, Ch. 249, Sec. 8, effective January 1, 2024. It protects a citizen over 18 who resides or is temporarily within the state and is not prohibited from possessing a firearm, when transporting a concealable firearm "for any purpose specified in Sections 25510 to 25595, inclusive," and when the firearm is unloaded and either locked in the vehicle's trunk or a locked container in the vehicle, or carried directly to or from a motor vehicle within a locked container.
Those purposes include travel to and from a residence, place of business, or private property owned or lawfully possessed (Section 25525), a licensed target range (Section 25540), a recognized safety or hunter safety class or sporting event (Section 25520), a gun show or lawful transfer (Section 25535), a lawful repair, sale, loan, or transfer (Section 25530), a lawful camping activity (Section 25550), compliance with the transfer, delivery, and relinquishment provisions listed in Section 25555, operative January 1, 2026, a place a licensing authority designates at its request while a license application is pending (Section 25545), and travel directly between places where an exemption from Section 25400(a), Section 25850(a), or Section 26350(a) applies (Section 25590).
Article 3 has its own gate at Section 25505: a firearm exempted under the article, while transported to or from a place, "shall be unloaded and kept in a locked container, and the course of travel shall include only those deviations between authorized locations as are reasonably necessary under the circumstances." See TRANSPORT and VEHICLE_CARRY for the locked container definition at Section 16850.
Article 4 of Chapter 2, at Sections 25600 to 25655, exempts from Section 25400 licensed firearm manufacturers, importers, wholesalers, repairers, and dealers moving unloaded merchandise (Section 25615), military and National Guard members on duty (Section 25620), authorized organizations carrying unloaded while parading (Section 25625), guards and messengers of common carriers, banks, and financial institutions shipping valuables (Section 25630), target shooting club members on established ranges (Section 25635) and licensed hunters and fishermen (Section 25640), each with unloaded transport to and from the activity, and unloaded transport by a licensed common carrier under federal law (Section 25645). Under Section 25650, on the approval of the sheriff of the retiree's county of residence, Section 25400 does not apply to an honorably retired federal law enforcement officer or agent, and the sheriff issues a permit valid for not more than five years, carried while carrying concealed and revocable for good cause.
Section 25850 runs its own chain at Sections 26000 to 26060: military forces on duty (Section 26000), target range users and shooting club members hunting on club premises (Section 26005), armored vehicle guards (Section 26015), retired federal officers on a matching sheriff-approved five-year permit (Section 26020), patrol special police and others with firearms training approved by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (Section 26025), guards and messengers holding a certificate under Section 26030(d), a lawful business or private property (Section 26035), hunting inside an incorporated city where the city council has not prohibited it (Section 26040), and making or attempting a lawful arrest (Section 26050).
Section 25600 supplies a justification, not an exemption: a violation of Section 25400 is justifiable when a person possessing a firearm reasonably believes that person is in grave danger because of circumstances forming the basis of a current restraining order against another person found to pose a threat to that person's life or safety. It may not apply where the circumstances involve a mutual restraining order under Division 10 of the Family Code absent a factual finding of a specific threat, and Section 25600(b) leaves the reasonable belief to the trier of fact. Section 26045(b) does the same for Section 25850, and Section 26045(a) adds a branch for immediate grave danger to a person or property, immediate being defined in Section 26045(c) as the brief interval before and after the local law enforcement agency, when reasonably possible, has been notified of the danger and before its assistance arrives.
Section 26230(a) bars a licensee from carrying on or into the locations it lists. Except at the nuclear sites in paragraph (21) and the places prohibited by federal law in paragraph (28), Section 26230(b) lets a licensee transport a firearm and ammunition within their vehicle with the firearm locked in a lock box. Section 26230(c) lets a licensee barred from a location's parking area transport a concealed firearm or ammunition into and out of that area in a lock box, store it there in a locked lock box out of plain view, and carry it in the immediate area around the vehicle only to store or retrieve it out of plain view inside the vehicle. Section 26230(f) allows travel along a public right-of-way that touches or crosses those premises, subject to the exception in Section 26230(a)(14), with no loitering, and Section 26230(g) preserves carry otherwise expressly authorized by law. AB 1078 amended the section at Stats. 2025, Ch. 570, Sec. 12, effective January 1, 2026.
California DOJ Information Bulletin 2025-DLE-06, dated March 27, 2025, implements Wolford v. Lopez, the Ninth Circuit decision in the May v. Bonta and Carralero v. Bonta appeals. It advised law enforcement that, effective January 23, 2025, the decision reversed in part the preliminary injunction, making the section enforceable again as to locations including bars and restaurants serving alcohol, parks and athletic facilities, libraries, and stadiums. The same bulletin states the injunction continues as to hospitals and medical facilities, public transit, permitted public gatherings, places of worship, financial institutions, and privately owned commercial establishments open to the public. That bulletin predates the AB 1078 amendments to Section 26230 effective January 1, 2026. Confirm current status through the Attorney General's information bulletins, and read PROHIBITED_PLACES for the locations.
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