Mississippi Vehicle Carry

The Headline

Mississippi has one of the most permissive vehicle-carry rules in the country. Miss. Code Ann. Section 97-37-1(2) flatly says: "It shall not be a violation of this section for any person over the age of eighteen (18) years to carry a firearm or deadly weapon concealed within the confines of his own home or his place of business, or any real property associated with his home or business or within any motor vehicle."

"Any motor vehicle" - not just one the carrier owns, not loaded only, not stowed - means any car, truck, motorcycle, RV, or commercial vehicle the carrier is in. The rule reaches both occupants (driver and passenger) so long as each occupant is 18 or older.

Constitutional carry under Section 45-9-101(24) and the basic Section 45-9-101 LTC layer on top of this rule. A driver who carries in a holster, purse, briefcase, or fully enclosed case under Section 45-9-101(24) is doubly protected: once by the vehicle carve-out in Section 97-37-1(2), once by the constitutional-carry carve-out in Section 45-9-101(24).

Operative text - Section 97-37-1(2)

Section 97-37-1(2) reads:

"It shall not be a violation of this section for any person over the age of eighteen (18) years to carry a firearm or deadly weapon concealed within the confines of his own home or his place of business, or any real property associated with his home or business or within any motor vehicle."

Several features of this language:

• "Over the age of eighteen (18) years" sets a hard minimum age. Persons under 18 cannot use this carve-out. Federal law (18 U.S.C. Section 922(x)) independently bars handgun possession by persons under 18 with narrow exceptions.
• "Any firearm or deadly weapon" reaches more than just pistols and revolvers - long guns, knives, and the other items listed in Section 97-37-1(1) are covered.
• "Concealed" tracks the Section 97-37-1(4) definition. A firearm in the glove compartment, console, trunk, under the seat, or in a bag is "concealed" but is squarely within the carve-out.
• "Any motor vehicle" is not limited to a vehicle owned by the carrier. A passenger in a friend's car is covered. A driver in a rental car is covered.

Carry while seated in the vehicle

The Section 97-37-1(2) carve-out applies to a person seated in the vehicle. A handgun on the carrier's person in a holster (concealed under a jacket) or in the console next to the driver is lawful. So is a long gun on the back seat or in a rear cargo area.

There is no Mississippi statutory requirement to:

• Unload the firearm.
• Place the firearm in a locked container.
• Notify a passenger that a firearm is in the vehicle.
• Notify a peace officer that a firearm is in the vehicle (see DUTY_TO_INFORM).

Carry when exiting the vehicle

The vehicle carve-out covers the carrier inside the vehicle. When the carrier exits and begins to carry the firearm on the person, the analysis shifts to:

• Section 97-37-1(4) (is the firearm in a wholly or partially visible holster, sheath, scabbard, or case? if so, not "concealed" at all, and Section 97-37-1 does not reach the carry);
• Section 45-9-101(24) constitutional carry (is the firearm carried on the person in a holster, sheath, purse, handbag, satchel, similar bag, briefcase, or fully enclosed case, by a person 18+ who is not a prohibited person and is not in a Section 45-9-101(13) place?);
• Section 45-9-101 LTC (does the carrier hold an LTC and want the broader exemption?); or
• Section 97-37-7 Enhanced overlay (does the carrier plan to enter a Section 45-9-101(13) place the overlay unblocks?).

Parking on the property of a prohibited place

Many of the Section 45-9-101(13) prohibitions apply to the place itself, not to the parking area. A typical example: an LTC holder may not carry into a courthouse, but the holder may keep the firearm secured in the vehicle in the courthouse parking lot. The same logic applies to a college campus parking lot, a posted private-property parking lot, and (subject to federal rules) some federal facility parking lots.

Two cautions:

• Some federal facilities prohibit firearms anywhere on the federal property, including the parking lot. Federal buildings under 18 U.S.C. Section 930 are one example.
• Schools require care. Section 97-37-17 covers "educational property" broadly. A firearm in a vehicle parked at a K-12 school is in a gray area; the safer practice is not to carry to or onto K-12 school property in the first place. The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 922(q), bars an unlicensed person from carrying a loaded handgun in a vehicle within 1,000 feet of a K-12 school; a Section 45-9-101 LTC holder is covered by the federal state-licensee exception, but a constitutional carrier without an LTC is NOT.

Employer parking lots

Mississippi has no specific statute analogous to other states' "parking lot bills" that bar an employer from forbidding firearms locked in an employee's vehicle in the employer's parking lot. An employer who posts the lot with a clearly readable notice under Section 45-9-101(13) may bar carry. The employer remains a private-property owner subject to property-law rights generally; an employee who violates the posted notice may face termination but typically not a criminal trespass charge for a firearm locked out of sight in a personal vehicle.

Loaded versus unloaded

Section 97-37-1(2) does not require the firearm to be unloaded. A loaded handgun in the glove compartment is lawful under the carve-out. Section 97-37-1(3) - the "legitimate weapon-related sports activity" carve-out - similarly does not require unloading.

Long guns in vehicles

Long guns (rifles and shotguns with barrels at or above the federal minimum lengths in 18 U.S.C. Section 922 and 26 U.S.C. Section 5845) carried within a motor vehicle fall within the Section 97-37-1(2) "any firearm or deadly weapon" language. There is no Mississippi statutory requirement to case, separate, or unload the long gun. Hunters who transport rifles and shotguns to and from the field are doing exactly what Section 97-37-1(3) ("legitimate weapon-related sports activity") and Section 97-37-1(2) (motor-vehicle carve-out) jointly contemplate.

Vehicle carry in self-defense situations

Section 97-3-15(3) extends the Castle Doctrine presumption to a person who uses defensive force in an "occupied vehicle" against a person unlawfully or forcibly entering, or who had unlawfully or forcibly entered, the vehicle. See CASTLE_DOCTRINE.

Section 97-3-15(1)(e) recognizes that justifiable homicide includes a killing committed by a person "in resisting any attempt unlawfully to kill such person or to commit any felony upon him, or upon or in any dwelling, in any occupied vehicle, in any place of business, in any place of employment or in the immediate premises thereof." Vehicle self-defense is, in other words, on the same statutory footing as home self-defense.

Section 97-3-15(4) imposes no duty to retreat anywhere the carrier has a right to be, including in a vehicle.

Out-of-state travelers driving through Mississippi

A traveler whose state-issued permit Mississippi recognizes (Mississippi recognizes every state's resident concealed-carry permit per Section 45-9-101(19)-(20)) may carry concealed in Mississippi under that out-of-state permit. The Section 97-37-1(2) vehicle carve-out also covers any adult, regardless of state of residence or permit status, who is in a motor vehicle in Mississippi. So a traveler from a non-permit state may carry inside the vehicle in Mississippi even without any permit.

When the traveler exits the vehicle in Mississippi, the Section 45-9-101(24) constitutional-carry rule applies in the same way as it does to Mississippi residents.

Federal traveler protections

The federal Firearm Owners Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 926A, protects interstate transport of an unloaded firearm in a locked case, with ammunition stored separately, when the traveler is transiting through a state. This federal protection is independent of Mississippi law. A traveler whose origin and destination both allow possession of the firearm may transit Mississippi (or any other state) under Section 926A even if the in-transit state has stricter rules. Within Mississippi the Section 97-37-1(2) carve-out makes the federal protection largely redundant - Mississippi permits more than Section 926A requires - but the federal floor is there.