The Mississippi Department of Public Safety issues the license to carry a stun gun, concealed pistol, or revolver under Miss. Code Ann. Section...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
The Mississippi Department of Public Safety issues the license to carry a stun gun, concealed pistol, or revolver under Miss. Code Ann. Section 45-9-101(1)(a). No sheriff issues it and no local official signs off. You file with the DPS Firearm Permit Division, and Section 45-9-101(6)(c) gives the department 45 days from receipt of your package to issue the license, deny it in writing, or notify you that it cannot decide yet and estimate how much longer it needs. The enhanced carry endorsement under Section 97-37-7(2) is not a second license. It is an add-on to this permit.
Section 45-9-101(4) requires the application to be completed under oath on a form the department promulgates, and says the form shall include only:
Section 45-9-101(5) then limits what you submit to five items: that completed application, a photograph, a nonrefundable license fee, a full set of fingerprints administered by DPS, and a waiver giving the department access to your criminal records and to records of any commitment to the treatment facilities or institutions named in subsection (2).
The photograph provision has a wrinkle. The statute calls for a full-face photograph taken within the preceding 30 days, and a profile photograph if you are under 21. DPS says photographs no longer need to be attached because an examiner photographs you in person. Confirm the profile rule with the Division.
IFP-APP-01 has five parts: personal information, qualifying questions, special designations, the enhanced carry option, and a two-year residency history. A notarized Affidavit and Release of Information (IFP-AFF-01) goes with it, and certain yes answers pull in supporting forms: IFP-FORM-01 for other names or non-citizen status, IFP-FORM-02 for criminal charges and convictions, IFP-FORM-03 for domestic violence crimes. DPS rejects an application missing the notarized affidavit or required documentation.
Section 45-9-101(6)(a) directs the department to forward your fingerprints for state and federal processing. Under subsection (6)(b) it also copies your application to the sheriff of your county and, where applicable, your municipal police chief. Either may submit a voluntary report of readily discoverable prior information within 30 days. That input is discretionary, and the decision belongs to the department.
Subsection (6)(d) covers bad prints. If a legible set cannot be obtained after a minimum of two attempts, as determined by DPS and the FBI, the department decides eligibility on a Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol name check plus an FBI name check requested through the Patrol.
Section 45-9-101(6)(c)(ii) says a denial may rest only on a failure to qualify under subsections (2) and (3), and DPS must state the ground in writing. Subsection (3) lets DPS deny for one or more misdemeanor crimes of violence unless three years have run since probation or other court conditions were completed or expunction occurred, and lets it revoke for a crime of violence within the preceding three years. It also requires DPS, on notice from a law enforcement agency or court and subsequent written verification, to suspend a license or the processing of an application when the holder or applicant is arrested or formally charged with a disqualifying crime, until final disposition. Subsection (11) requires revocation if you become ineligible under subsection (2).
The appeal path in Section 45-9-101(7) runs on short clocks:
You may not carry under Section 45-9-101 while an appeal is pending.
Section 97-37-7(2) opens the endorsement to a person already licensed under Section 45-9-101 by one of three routes: voluntary completion of an instructional course in the safe handling and use of firearms from an instructor certified by a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training or by another organization approved by DPS; service as a member or veteran of an active or reserve branch of the Armed Forces with law enforcement or combat training in pistols or other handguns; or status as an honorably retired law enforcement officer or service member with that same training. For the military and retired officer routes the statute conditions the authority on an affidavit attesting that the applicant has read, understands, and agrees to comply with the enhanced carry law.
The statute directs DPS to write rules for the endorsement, and those rules are at 31 Miss. Code R. 1-15.1. The course has to come from an instructor DPS recognizes who has signed a memorandum of understanding covering at least one hour of legal training on concealed carry and justifiable homicide. The instructor issues a DPS sample certificate that you turn in, DPS may call the instructor to verify it, and the Gun Permits Division affixes a sticker to the permit showing the endorsement.
DPS asks for these documents, filed as Section D of IFP-APP-01:
DPS answers in its FAQ that out-of-state training does not qualify, and that only training from an instructor it has certified, meaning one on the list that rule requires DPS to maintain, or the military and law enforcement training in Section 97-37-7(2)(b), earns the endorsement. To add it to a permit you already hold, DPS says you bring the documentation and your current permit, no application is required, and a duplicate permit fee applies.
Do not confuse this with Section 97-37-7(1), a different credential: the permit for bank guards, company guards, watchmen, railroad special agents, and employees of a patrol or guard service or a company that transports money, securities, or other valuables. Its fees, its three-attempt fingerprint rule, and its four-year renewal cycle under Section 97-37-7(1)(d)(ii) belong to that security guard permit. The endorsement in subsection (2) has no separate statutory term and rides on the underlying Section 45-9-101 license.
Section 45-9-101(12)(a) requires DPS to send each licensee a written expiration notice and a renewal form no less than 90 days before the license expires, except where subsection (25) applies. You renew on or before the expiration date by filing the renewal form, a notarized affidavit that you remain qualified under subsections (2) and (3) if necessary, and a full set of fingerprints administered by DPS or the sheriff of your county. The statute allows the first renewal by mail or other means the department determines, requires the next in person, and then alternates so you appear in person every ten years for a new photograph.
DPS's guidance departs from that fingerprint language. Its FAQ says fingerprints are not required for renewals, and its preparation page says you may be asked to come in to be fingerprinted at no additional charge. Its materials also disagree about where a renewal goes: the Firearms home page says all individual firearm permit renewals must be mailed to the Firearm Permit Division at P.O. Box 1459, Canton, MS 39046, while the renewal instruction manual says renewals can be done in person or by mail and the preparation page describes a walk-in path. Confirm both points with the Division before you mail anything or drive to a station.
Use the short renewal form IFP-APP-02, with a notarized IFP-AFF-02, when nothing about your qualifications under subsections (2) and (3) has changed. Use the full IFP-APP-01 with the Renewal Application box checked, plus supporting documentation, for any change to those qualifications, a new special designation, or adding the enhanced endorsement. DPS says holders who already have a designation or the endorsement still supply the documentation again, though a copy of the front and back of an already endorsed permit will do. For a mailed renewal DPS uses your most recent photograph on file and says it may take up to 45 days. An in-person renewal is issued at the counter, subject to later suspension or revocation if the background check fails.
Section 45-9-101(12)(c) governs late renewal. Miss the expiration date and you pay a late fee. No license may be renewed six months or more after expiration. At that point it is permanently expired and you reapply under subsection (5), with a fresh background investigation. DPS says the same, adds that its renewal window opens 90 days before expiration, and warns that a mailed renewal must be received on or before the expiration date to avoid the late fee.
Section 45-9-101(9) gives you 30 days to notify DPS in writing after you change your permanent address or after your license is lost or destroyed. Missing that deadline is a noncriminal violation carrying a $25 penalty enforceable by summons. The same $25 noncriminal penalty applies under subsection (1)(b) if you carry without the license and valid identification, or fail to display both on an officer's demand.
For a replacement, Section 45-9-101(10) requires you to comply with that notice rule, pay the duplicate fee, and furnish DPS a notarized statement that the license was lost or destroyed. DPS uses a Lost or Destroyed Permit Affidavit and says duplicates are handled in person only, at the locations that take first-time applications.
Section 45-9-101(5)(c) exempts honorably retired law enforcement officers, disabled veterans, active duty members of the Armed Forces, and officers employed by a municipality, county, or state at the time of application from the license fee. Subsection (12)(a)(ii) carries those exemptions into renewal, and (12)(a)(iii) sets a lower renewal fee for Mississippi residents aged 65 or older. A disabled veteran proves the exemption under subsection (23) with a Veterans Health Services identification card from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs showing a service-connected disability. DPS also accepts a verification letter from the VA Regional Office or a service-connected disability letter from ebenefits. The honorably retired officer designation runs on the two agency letters described in subsection (22)(b), and subsection (14)(a) sets the parallel two-letter requirement for the distinct active duty officer license.
Subsection (25) lets you skip the separate card and have the license appear as a notation on your Mississippi driver's license or identification card. That trades the ordinary five-year term for the driver's license expiration date, and renewal then happens at the same time and place as the driver's license renewal.
Keep the two money layers straight. The statute sets the license fee in subsection (5)(c) and the renewal fees in subsection (12), and separately makes the applicant bear the cost of processing fingerprints. DPS charges a background check fee it describes as an FBI cost, and applies it to fee-exempt applicants too, so a license fee waiver does not zero out what you pay. Amounts are in the fees and costs section of this guide.
Section 45-9-101(15) makes it a misdemeanor to knowingly submit a false answer to any question on the application, or a knowingly false document, punishable under Section 99-19-31 by a fine of not more than $1,000 and up to six months in county jail, or either. The application and the affidavit both carry that warning, and DPS's renewal instructions add that failing to acknowledge a change in your status may be read as a materially false statement.
This page covers one part of our Mississippi concealed carry guide.
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