Open carry is generally illegal in California. With narrow exceptions, you may not carry a firearm exposed in a public place, whether the firearm is loaded...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Open carry is generally illegal in California. With narrow exceptions, you may not carry a firearm exposed in a public place, whether the firearm is loaded or unloaded and whether it is a handgun or a long gun.
California makes openly carrying a firearm a crime under three parallel statutes:
| What you are carrying | Statute | Baseline penalty |
|---|---|---|
| Loaded firearm in public | Penal Code 25850 | Misdemeanor (up to 1 year county jail, up to $1,000 fine) |
| Unloaded handgun, exposed in public | Penal Code 26350 | Misdemeanor |
| Unloaded firearm other than a handgun, exposed in public | Penal Code 26400 | Misdemeanor |
Under Penal Code 25850, the loaded-carry charge escalates to a felony in several circumstances, for example a prior felony conviction, a stolen firearm the carrier knew or had reason to know was stolen, active criminal-street-gang participation, or status as a person prohibited from possessing firearms. The full graduated scheme appears in the Penalties section below.
There is active federal litigation challenging California's open-carry ban (Baird v. Bonta in the Ninth Circuit). As of the most recent California Department of Justice guidance, the open-carry prohibitions remain in effect and continue to be enforced. Court rulings in this area change quickly, so confirm the current status with the California Attorney General's office or current Department of Justice Division of Law Enforcement bulletins before relying on any change.
Your safe assumption: outside of private land you own or lawfully control, openly carrying a firearm in California requires a license issued under Penal Code 26150 or Penal Code 26155, or one of the narrow statutory exceptions discussed below. Anything else risks prosecution.
The general answer is almost no one across most of California. There are three categories of people who may openly carry, and each turns on either an exception or a license.
Penal Code 26361 provides that Section 26350 (open carry of an unloaded handgun) does not apply to a peace officer or honorably retired peace officer who may carry a concealed firearm under Article 2 (commencing with Penal Code 25450) or a loaded firearm under Article 3 (commencing with Penal Code 25900). The parallel exemption for long guns appears at Penal Code 26405, subdivision (e).
Penal Code 26150 (county sheriff) and Penal Code 26155 (city or city-and-county police chief) authorize a license to carry a concealable firearm. As restructured by Assembly Bill 1078 (Stats. 2025, Ch. 570), effective January 1, 2026, each statute now lays out who may apply and in what format:
If you hold a loaded-and-exposed license under Section 26150(c)(2) or Section 26155(c)(2):
A limited set of activities is exempt from the open-carry prohibitions even without a license. Commonly invoked examples drawn from Penal Code 26405 (unloaded non-handgun) include:
The peace-officer and related exemptions to Section 26350 appear at Penal Code 26361 and following. The exemption list for Section 26400 at Penal Code 26405 is extensive, with more than 30 enumerated subdivisions; that section in its current form became operative January 1, 2026. If you think your activity might be exempt, read the full text of the applicable section. Do not rely on this summary.
The practical answer is nearly everywhere a member of the public can normally go. The three statutes reach:
Penal Code 17030 defines "prohibited area" as "any place where it is unlawful to discharge a weapon." Because discharging a firearm is unlawful in most populated areas, most developed land in California falls within this definition. If you are not on private property you own or lawfully control, treat open carry without a license as illegal.
Even a Section 26150 or 26155 license-holder may not carry on or into the locations listed in Penal Code 26230(a). The list is long and was added by Senate Bill 2 (2023). Most of its categories are currently enforceable, but six categories are currently enjoined and not being enforced while the litigation continues. The breakdown below follows California Department of Justice Division of Law Enforcement Information Bulletin 2025-DLE-06.
Currently enforceable categories include, among others:
Currently enjoined categories (not being enforced pending further appeal):
Because the enjoined categories are not being enforced right now, the posted-sign requirement for a place of worship or a private business is not presently operative for a licensee. That can change if the injunction is lifted, so confirm the current status before relying on it.
Penal Code 26230 also contains limited carve-outs that let a licensee transport or store a firearm locked in a roster-listed lock box within a vehicle in many of these parking areas (subdivisions (b) and (c)), and a travel exception for passing along a public right-of-way that touches the listed premises (subdivision (f)).
Litigation status: Penal Code 26230 has been heavily litigated (May v. Bonta and Carralero v. Bonta, decided together with Wolford v. Lopez in the Ninth Circuit). A December 20, 2023 preliminary injunction issued by the United States District Court for the Central District of California had blocked enforcement of many of the sensitive-place provisions. Effective January 23, 2025, the Ninth Circuit reversed that preliminary injunction in large part, making 20 of the 26 sensitive-place categories enforceable. The court did not stay the injunction; it reversed it as to those categories. Six categories remain enjoined: subdivisions (a)(7), (a)(8), (a)(10), (a)(22), (a)(23), and (a)(26), as identified in Information Bulletin 2025-DLE-06. Confirm the latest status with the California Attorney General's office or current Department of Justice guidance before relying on the list, and see the Prohibited Places section of this guide.
You cannot open-carry in a vehicle in California, license or not. Penal Code 25850(a) applies when a loaded firearm is carried "on the person or in a vehicle" in a public place or on a public street. Penal Code 26350(a)(2) is explicit that a person is guilty of openly carrying an unloaded handgun when carrying an exposed and unloaded handgun "inside or on a vehicle, whether or not on his or her person." There is no general "in your own car" carve-out in California open-carry law.
A person without a carry license may still transport a firearm by following California's storage-and-transport rules:
These requirements and the recognized transport purposes (travel to or from a range, gunsmith, hunting location, gun show, place of sale, or a residential move) are detailed in the Transport section of this guide. Long guns and certain regulated firearms (assault weapons, large-capacity magazines) carry additional restrictions. Read the Transport section before moving any firearm.
Penal Code 25850(b) authorizes a peace officer to examine any firearm carried by a person on the person or in a vehicle in any public place or on any public street, for the limited purpose of determining whether it is loaded. The statute provides that refusing to allow the inspection constitutes probable cause for arrest for a violation of Section 25850. This inspection authority is specific to Section 25850 (loaded carry).
The penalty scheme under Penal Code 25850(c) is the most severe of the three statutes because it covers loaded firearms. The grade depends on aggravators:
| Circumstance | Grade | Statute |
|---|---|---|
| Baseline, no aggravators | Misdemeanor (up to 1 year county jail, up to $1,000 fine, or both) | 25850(c)(7) |
| Prior conviction of any felony, or of a crime listed in Penal Code 16580 as a felony | Felony | 25850(c)(1) |
| Firearm is stolen and the person knew or had reasonable cause to believe it was stolen | Felony | 25850(c)(2) |
| Active participant in a criminal street gang (Penal Code 186.22) | Felony | 25850(c)(3) |
| Person is prohibited from possessing a firearm (Penal Code 29800 or 29900, or Welfare and Institutions Code 8100 or 8103) | Felony | 25850(c)(4) |
| Prior conviction for a crime against a person or property, or a narcotics or dangerous-drug violation | Wobbler (county jail or state prison under Penal Code 1170(h)) | 25850(c)(5) |
| Handgun not recorded to the carrier with the Department of Justice under Penal Code 11106 | Wobbler | 25850(c)(6) |
Mandatory minimum. Penal Code 25850(d) requires a minimum three-month county jail term for any Section 25850 conviction where the defendant has a prior conviction for an offense enumerated in Penal Code 23515, or for any crime made punishable under a provision listed in Penal Code 16580. The court may depart from the minimum only in unusual cases where the interests of justice would be served, and it must state the reasons on the record and enter them in the minutes.
Federal-eligibility carve-out. Penal Code 25850(e) provides that a Section 25850 violation punished by up to one year in county jail does not count as a conviction punishable by imprisonment exceeding one year for purposes of federal firearms eligibility under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1). This narrow protection does not apply to the felony tiers.
Penal Code 26350 and Penal Code 26400 (unloaded carry) are misdemeanors at baseline. Each statute also provides an enhanced jail-eligible grade where the firearm and unexpended compatible ammunition are in the person's immediate possession and the person is not in lawful possession of the firearm (Penal Code 26350(b)(2), 26400(b)(2)). Under both statutes, each firearm is a distinct and separate offense (Penal Code 26350(d), 26400(d)), so carrying three exposed unloaded handguns can support three counts.
All three statutes preserve prosecutorial flexibility: nothing in them precludes prosecution under any other law carrying a greater penalty (Penal Code 25850(f), 26350(c)(1), 26400(c)(1)). An open-carry stop can therefore lead to additional charges such as felon in possession or prohibited-person in possession.
Penal Code 25400 defines the offense of carrying a concealed firearm. The line between concealed carry under Section 25400 and open carry under Sections 25850, 26350, and 26400 turns on whether the firearm is exposed.
In most states this distinction marks two separate lawful options. In California, both options are crimes for unlicensed carriers in most public places. The exposed-versus-concealed line therefore matters mainly because it determines which statute a prosecutor charges, not whether the conduct is lawful.
A loaded-and-exposed license under Section 26150(c)(2) or 26155(c)(2) (low-population counties only) requires exposed carry. A standard CCW license under those sections requires concealment. The geographic scope of a CCW differs from the open-carry license; see the Application Process section.
| Statute | Subject |
|---|---|
| Penal Code 25400 | Carrying a concealed firearm (defines the concealed-carry offense) |
| Penal Code 25850 | Carrying a loaded firearm in public; penalties; officer inspection authority |
| Penal Code 26150 | County sheriff issuance of a carry license (resident in (a), nonresident in (b), format in (c)) |
| Penal Code 26155 | City or city-and-county police chief issuance of a carry license (resident in (a), nonresident in (b), format in (c)) |
| Penal Code 26165 | Carry-license training requirement |
| Penal Code 26202 | Disqualification standard for carry licenses |
| Penal Code 26230 | Sensitive places where a licensee may not carry |
| Penal Code 26350 | Openly carrying an unloaded handgun in public |
| Penal Code 26361 | Peace-officer exemption to Section 26350 |
| Penal Code 26400 | Openly carrying an unloaded firearm that is not a handgun in public |
| Penal Code 26405 | Exemptions to Section 26400 (more than 30 subdivisions; operative January 1, 2026) |
| Penal Code 17030 | Defines "prohibited area" as any place where discharging a weapon is unlawful |
| Penal Code 626.9 | Gun-Free School Zone |
| Penal Code 171.5 | Sterile airport area definitions |
| Penal Code 11106 | Department of Justice firearm registry |
| Penal Code 16580, 23515 | Prior-conviction references in the Section 25850 mandatory minimum |
| Penal Code 29800, 29900 | Persons prohibited from possessing firearms |
| 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1) | Federal firearm prohibition referenced in the Section 25850 carve-out |
This page covers one part of our California concealed carry guide.
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