New Hampshire imposes NO mandatory state-law storage requirement on firearms in the home, in a vehicle, or at a place of business for adults. There is...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
New Hampshire imposes NO mandatory state-law storage requirement on firearms in the home, in a vehicle, or at a place of business for adults. There is no NH "safe storage" criminal statute analogous to those of MA, NY, or CA.
NH does not have a Child Access Prevention statute that imposes criminal liability on a parent or guardian for negligent storage that lets a minor access a firearm. Some states impose felony-level liability on a parent or guardian who fails to secure firearms. NH does not.
NH does have RSA 639:3 (Endangering Welfare of Child or Incompetent). Under RSA 639:3, I, a person is guilty of endangering the welfare of a child if he knowingly endangers the welfare of a child under 18 years of age by purposely violating a duty of care, protection, or support he owes to the child, or by inducing the child to engage in conduct that endangers the child's health or safety. Most violations of RSA 639:3 are misdemeanors. The statute elevates the offense to a class B felony only in the narrow circumstance described in RSA 639:3, III (soliciting a child under 16 for certain sexual conduct or imagery), which has nothing to do with firearm storage.
RSA 639:3 does not impose any specific firearm-storage duty. It is a general endangerment statute. A flagrantly unsafe firearm-storage situation, for example leaving a loaded handgun within reach of a young child, could in theory support a charge under RSA 639:3 if the state could prove the person knowingly endangered the child by purposely violating a duty of care. There is no statutory storage standard to comply with, so the analysis is fact-specific and falls back on the general "duty of care, protection or support" language.
Federal 18 U.S.C. 922(z) (the Child Safety Lock Act) requires a federally licensed dealer, importer, or manufacturer to include a secure gun storage or safety device with any handgun transferred to a non-licensee. This is an FFL-side requirement at the point of sale, not a buyer-side storage requirement. The buyer is not required to use the device once they leave the store.
NH carriers commonly use:
None of these is required by NH law. They are recommended for personal safety, theft prevention, and child-access prevention.
NH does not impose a specific duty to store firearms inaccessibly to children. The general endangerment statute (RSA 639:3) could in theory apply to grossly negligent storage that knowingly endangers a child, but it sets no firearm-specific storage standard. Common practice is to:
NH imposes no state requirement on how firearms must be stored in a vehicle. A loaded pistol or revolver may be carried or transported in a vehicle, openly or concealed, by any resident, nonresident, or alien who is not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm, per RSA 159:6, III. A long gun may be loaded or unloaded, in any location, subject to the hunting-context restriction in RSA 207:7. Under RSA 207:7, II, no person may have or carry a loaded rifle, loaded shotgun, muzzleloader, or air rifle, or a cocked crossbow, in or on a motor vehicle, OHRV, snowmobile, or aircraft when it is moving, with a narrow exception for protecting livestock or crops. This is a fish-and-game hunting rule, not a general storage rule.
Practical recommendations:
An employer may set workplace firearms policies and may prohibit firearms inside the workplace itself. New Hampshire's vehicle-storage protection is RSA 159:27 (Stored Firearms in Vehicles), effective January 1, 2025. It applies to any public or private employer that receives public funds from federal, state, or local government, in any form and in any amount. A covered employer may not prohibit an employee who may legally possess a firearm from storing a firearm or ammunition in the employee's own vehicle while the vehicle is parked on the employer's property, so long as the vehicle is locked and the firearm or ammunition is not visible. A covered employer also may not take adverse action against an employee for storing a firearm under the statute, may not require the employee to disclose whether a firearm is stored, and may not search the employee's vehicle for a firearm except by a law enforcement officer acting under a warrant or a recognized exception to the warrant requirement. The statute gives the employer civil-liability protection for harm arising from a stored firearm unless the employer intentionally solicited the injurious act, and it does not authorize carrying a firearm anywhere that carry is otherwise prohibited by law. An employer that receives no public funds is not covered by RSA 159:27 and may set its own vehicle policy.
A NH employee who carries to work over an employer's no-firearms policy faces employment consequences but not, by itself, state-law criminal exposure. Criminal trespass under RSA 635:2 can attach if the employee knowingly enters or remains after being personally told to leave or not to enter by the owner or other authorized person (RSA 635:2, III(b)(2)), or on posted or enclosed "secured premises" (RSA 635:2, III(b)(1) and V).
These federal rules attach when the carrier is in the federal context. They do not impose general NH storage duties.
If anyone in the home is:
then the firearm owner should store firearms so the prohibited person does not have access. Constructive possession by the prohibited person creates federal criminal exposure for that person, and the owner risks aiding-and-abetting exposure for knowingly providing access.
Practical approach: a locked safe with the combination known only to the lawful owner, located so the prohibited person cannot reach it.
NH common law imposes ordinary negligence duties on firearm owners. Storage that allows a foreseeable third-party harm (a child accessing a firearm and being injured, or a theft leading to a crime) can support a civil claim. The PLCAA (15 U.S.C. 7901 et seq.) shields firearm manufacturers, distributors, dealers, and importers from civil suits for harm solely caused by the criminal or unlawful misuse of a firearm by a third party. It does not shield an individual owner from a negligence claim.
Storage that meets industry best practices (a locked safe, separate ammunition for long-term storage, an unsecured firearm only when on the person or in immediate ready access) is the practical risk-minimization standard.
NH has no state-mandated storage requirement. Federal law touches storage only in specific contexts (FFL transfer, interstate travel, federal property, airline baggage). Common-sense storage practices, such as a locked safe, child-access prevention, and secure containers in vehicles, are recommended and reduce theft, accident, and civil-liability risk. The absence of a NH state storage mandate does not relieve a carrier of common-law duties of care, and a grossly unsafe situation involving a child could draw a charge under the general endangerment statute, RSA 639:3.
This page covers one part of our New Hampshire concealed carry guide.
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