Nevada's concealed carry framework starts from a prohibition, not a permission. NRS 202.350 provides that, except as otherwise provided in that section...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Nevada's concealed carry framework starts from a prohibition, not a permission. NRS 202.350 provides that, except as otherwise provided in that section and in NRS 202.3653 to 202.369, inclusive, a person within this State shall not carry concealed upon his or her person any explosive substance other than ammunition or any components thereof, any machete, or any "Pistol, revolver or other firearm, other dangerous or deadly weapon or pneumatic gun."
The permit statutes at NRS 202.3653 to 202.369 are the exception that covers the ordinary case for handguns. Without one of those exceptions, carrying a concealed pistol, revolver or other firearm is charged under NRS 202.350(2)(b), which makes a violation of subparagraph (3) of paragraph (d) of subsection 1 a category C felony, punished as provided in NRS 193.130. The same category C grading applies to concealed carry of an explosive substance and to the machine gun and silencer prohibitions in paragraph (b) of subsection 1. The machete is graded differently: under NRS 202.350(2)(a), carrying a concealed machete is a gross misdemeanor for the first offense and a category D felony for any subsequent offense. Every one of those gradings opens with a qualifier. NRS 202.350(2) begins "Except as otherwise provided in NRS 202.275 and 212.185," so those two sections govern where they apply.
"Concealed weapon" is defined in NRS 202.350(8)(a) as a weapon described in that section "that is carried upon a person in such a manner as not to be discernible by ordinary observation." NRS 202.3653(1) uses a parallel definition for the permit statutes, defining "concealed firearm" as a loaded or unloaded handgun carried that way. So loaded and unloaded handguns are treated the same for permit purposes, and the test turns on discernibility by ordinary observation.
This section covers concealed carry only. The firearm prohibition in NRS 202.350 sits inside the concealed carry subparagraph. Open carry runs on different rules and is addressed in the open carry section of this guide.
NRS 202.350(3) contains its own permit provision, and it does not reach firearms. Subsection 3 authorizes a sheriff to issue a permit for the concealed weapon described in the permit, then states flatly that it "does not authorize the sheriff to issue a permit to a person to carry a pistol, revolver or other firearm." The NRS 202.350(3) permit is for non-firearm concealed weapons. The handgun permit comes from a different statute.
Applications go to a sheriff, not to a state agency. Under NRS 202.3657(1), a resident applies to the sheriff of the county in which he or she resides, and a nonresident may apply to the sheriff of any county in this State, on a form prescribed by regulation of the Department of Public Safety.
NRS 202.3657(3) directs that, except as otherwise provided in that section, the sheriff shall issue a permit to any person who is qualified to possess a handgun under state and federal law, who submits a conforming application, and who meets three requirements.
The first is age. The applicant must be 21 years of age or older, or at least 18 but less than 21 if the person is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States, a reserve component thereof or the National Guard, or was discharged or released from that service under honorable conditions.
The second is that the applicant is not prohibited from possessing a firearm pursuant to NRS 202.360, which independently bars possession by, among others, a person convicted of a felony, a person convicted of battery constituting domestic violence under NRS 200.485 against a listed family or household member, a fugitive from justice, and an unlawful user of or person addicted to any controlled substance. A violation of NRS 202.360(1) is a category B felony punishable by a minimum term of not less than 1 year and a maximum term of not more than 6 years, plus a possible fine of not more than $5,000.
The third is demonstrated competence with handguns. NRS 202.3657(3)(c) requires documentation showing the applicant completed a course in firearm safety approved by a sheriff in this State, or one offered by a law enforcement agency, community college, university, or national organization that certifies instructors in firearm safety. The statute specifies content: the course "must include instruction in the use of handguns and in the laws of this State relating to the use of a firearm."
NRS 202.3657(4) separately lists grounds on which the sheriff shall deny an application or revoke a permit, among them an outstanding arrest warrant, a felony conviction, a misdemeanor conviction for a crime involving the use or threatened use of force or violence within the immediately preceding 3 years, and a conviction for a crime involving domestic violence or stalking. The permit basics section of this guide walks the full list.
NRS 202.3657(2) reads that a person applying for a permit "may submit one application and obtain one permit to carry all handguns owned by the person," that the person "must not be required to list and identify on the application each handgun owned by the person," and that "A permit is valid for any handgun which is owned or thereafter obtained by the person to whom the permit is issued."
That last clause matters. The permit follows the permittee, not the inventory, and a handgun acquired after the permit issues is covered without any amendment. Older material describing a Nevada permit as tied to specific listed handguns, or as requiring a separate qualification for semiautomatic pistols, does not match NRS 202.3657(2) as it now stands. That statute's history line records amendments in 2011, and the current text is what governs.
NRS 202.366(1) requires the sheriff to investigate the applicant, forwarding a complete set of fingerprints to the Central Repository for Nevada Records of Criminal History for submission to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and to include a report from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The sheriff shall issue the permit unless the applicant is not qualified to possess a handgun under state or federal law or is not otherwise qualified under NRS 202.3653 to 202.369.
Under NRS 202.366(3), the sheriff shall grant or deny within 120 days after a complete application is submitted, with written reasons required for a denial. Under NRS 202.366(4), a permit expires 5 years after the date of issuance unless suspended or revoked by the issuing sheriff. A denial is subject to judicial review under NRS 202.3663, and sheriffs may issue temporary permits under NRS 202.3687. On renewal, NRS 202.3677(3) bars issuance unless the permittee has demonstrated continued competence with handguns by completing a course prescribed by the renewing sheriff.
One more provision bears directly on whether a permittee may lawfully carry. Under NRS 202.3657(6), if the sheriff receives notification from a court or law enforcement agency of this or any other state, the United States, or a territory or possession of the United States that a permittee or an applicant has been charged with a crime involving the use or threatened use of force or violence, the conviction for which would require revocation or preclude issuance, the sheriff shall suspend the person's permit or the processing of the person's application until the final disposition of the charges. If the permittee is acquitted, or if the charges are dropped, the sheriff shall restore the permit without imposing a fee.
NRS 202.3667(1) requires each permittee to carry the permit, or a duplicate issued under NRS 202.367, together with proper identification whenever the permittee is in actual possession of a concealed firearm. The statute continues: "Both the permit and proper identification must be presented if requested by a peace officer." A violation carries a civil penalty of $25 for each violation under NRS 202.3667(2).
Read the trigger precisely. NRS 202.3667 frames the obligation as production on a peace officer's request. Whether and how you should volunteer that you are armed during a stop is treated in the duty to inform section of this guide.
NRS 202.3673(1) states the general grant: except as otherwise provided in subsections 2 and 3, a permittee may carry a concealed firearm while on the premises of any public building. NRS 202.3673(6)(b) defines "public building" as a building or office space occupied by any component of the Nevada System of Higher Education and used for a System purpose, or by the Federal Government, the State of Nevada, or any county, city, school district or other political subdivision and used for any public purpose. If only part of a building is so occupied, the term means only that portion.
Then come the carve-outs. Under NRS 202.3673(2), a permittee shall not carry a concealed firearm on the premises of a public building located on the property of a public airport. That prohibition has no listed exception in the section.
Under NRS 202.3673(3)(a), a permittee shall not carry a concealed firearm on the premises of a public building located on the property of a public school, a child care facility, or the Nevada System of Higher Education, unless the permittee has obtained written permission under subparagraph (3) of paragraph (a) of subsection 3 of NRS 202.265.
Under NRS 202.3673(3)(b), a permittee shall not carry a concealed firearm on the premises of a public building that has a metal detector at each public entrance, or a sign posted at each public entrance indicating that no firearms are allowed in the building. NRS 202.3673(4) carves four categories back out of that posting rule. The first is a permittee who is a judge, carrying in the courthouse or courtroom in which the judge presides, and a permittee whom that judge authorizes. Read the delegated authority as the statute writes it. It reaches a permittee "to carry a concealed firearm while in the courtroom of the judge and while traveling to and from the courtroom of the judge," so an authorized permittee is covered in that judge's courtroom and on the way in and out of it, and nowhere else. A judge's say-so does not open the rest of a posted public building, and carrying there is a misdemeanor under NRS 202.3673(5). The remaining three categories are a permittee who is a prosecuting attorney of an agency or political subdivision of the United States or of this State; a permittee employed in the public building; and a permittee with written permission from the person in control of the building. Those exceptions are written against paragraph (b) only. They do not reach the airport rule in subsection 2 or the school rule in paragraph (a).
A violation of subsection 2 or 3 is a misdemeanor under NRS 202.3673(5).
NRS 202.265 is the broader school statute, and it is not permittee-specific. A person shall not carry or possess a pistol, revolver or other firearm, along with other listed weapons, while on the property of the Nevada System of Higher Education, a private or public school or child care facility, or while in a vehicle of a school or child care facility. A violation is a gross misdemeanor under NRS 202.265(2). "Vehicle" carries the meaning ascribed to "school bus" in NRS 484A.230. The exceptions in NRS 202.265(3) are a peace officer, a school security guard, and a person having written permission from the president of a branch or facility of the Nevada System of Higher Education, the principal of the school, or the child care facility's designee.
Two constraints apply to permittees and non-permittees alike. NRS 202.257(1) makes it unlawful to have a firearm in actual physical possession while having a concentration of alcohol of 0.08 or more in blood or breath, or while under the influence of a controlled substance to a degree rendering the person incapable of safely exercising actual physical control of a firearm. That prohibition does not apply within the person's personal residence when the firearm is possessed solely for self-defense. A violation is a misdemeanor under NRS 202.257(3). And NRS 202.360 bars possession by prohibited persons regardless of any permit.
N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass'n v. Bruen (2022). Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), struck down discretionary "proper cause" and "good cause" issuance frameworks and required states to apply objective criteria when deciding who may carry a concealed handgun. Nevada was already a shall-issue state when Bruen was decided: NRS 202.3657(3) has long directed that, except as otherwise provided in that section, the sheriff "shall issue a permit" to an applicant who meets the enumerated criteria, and NRS 202.3657(4) lists the grounds that require denial rather than leaving the question to discretion. Bruen therefore did not convert Nevada's framework the way it did in the may-issue states. It matters here mainly through the historical-tradition test it set for evaluating later Second Amendment challenges, including challenges to the location restrictions in NRS 202.3673 and NRS 202.265.
The Gun-Free School Zones Act at 18 U.S.C. 922(q)(2)(A) makes it unlawful to knowingly possess a firearm that has moved in or otherwise affects interstate or foreign commerce at a place the individual knows, or has reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone. The exception at 18 U.S.C. 922(q)(2)(B)(ii) applies if the individual "is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located or a political subdivision of the State," and that state's law requires law enforcement authorities to verify the individual's qualification before the license issues. Nevada's investigation requirement in NRS 202.366(1) is the kind of verification that provision describes. The penalty sits in 18 U.S.C. 924(a)(4): a person who violates section 922(q) "shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for not more than 5 years, or both," and that term of imprisonment "shall not run concurrently with any other term of imprisonment imposed under any other provision of law." The same paragraph adds that, apart from the 5 year authorization it grants, a violation of section 922(q) is deemed a misdemeanor for the purpose of any other law. Note the geographic limit: the exception speaks to a license issued by the state where the school zone sits, so a permit issued elsewhere does not fit that clause. The federal rule does not displace NRS 202.265 or NRS 202.3673.
The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act enters through NRS 202.350(7), which states that the section shall not be construed to prohibit a qualified law enforcement officer or a qualified retired law enforcement officer from carrying a concealed weapon in this State if authorized under 18 U.S.C. 926B or 926C. NRS 202.3678 provides a route for a retired officer who is a Nevada resident to apply for certification as a qualified retired law enforcement officer. That federal authority has limits: 18 U.S.C. 926B(b) does not supersede state laws permitting private persons or entities to restrict concealed firearms on their property, or restricting firearms on state or local government property, installation, building, base or park.
NRS 202.350(4) separately exempts a defined set of officers from that section entirely, including sheriffs, peace officers, police officers of this State whether active or honorably retired, and members of the Armed Forces on duty. NRS 202.350(5) withholds those exemptions from a former peace officer retired for disability unless the former employer has approved his or her fitness to carry a concealed weapon.
NRS 202.3688(1) allows a person holding a concealed firearm permit issued by a state on the list prepared under NRS 202.3689 to carry a concealed firearm in Nevada in accordance with the requirements of NRS 202.3653 to 202.369. The carve-out in NRS 202.3688(2) catches people who move: a holder of a recognized out-of-state permit may not carry concealed in Nevada if the person becomes a Nevada resident and has not been issued a permit from the sheriff of the county of residence within 60 days after becoming a resident. Nothing in NRS 202.3688 grades that as its own offense, and none is needed. Once the recognized out-of-state permit stops authorizing carry here, a new resident who keeps carrying concealed is back under the baseline prohibition in NRS 202.350(1)(d)(3), a category C felony under NRS 202.350(2)(b), punished as provided in NRS 193.130. The reciprocity section of this guide covers how the list is built.
Local governments have little room to add to any of this. NRS 244.364 and NRS 268.418 place regulation of the carrying, possession, transfer, ownership and transportation of firearms within the exclusive domain of the Legislature and make any contrary ordinance null and void. Preemption does not override the posted-building and school rules above, which are state statutes, and it does not limit a private property owner's own rules.
Statutes are amended, sheriffs approve their own training courses, and the recognition list is rebuilt annually, on or before July 1. Verify the current text of any section cited here at the Nevada Legislature's NRS pages, and confirm application logistics with the sheriff of the county where you will apply. This is general information, not legal advice about your situation.
This page covers one part of our Nevada concealed carry guide.
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