Constitutional Carry in South Dakota: What the Law Allows

Constitutional (Permitless) Carry in South Dakota

You do not need a permit to carry a pistol in South Dakota, concealed or openly. How the state got there matters more than the label, because it changes how you reason about every edge case. The legislature did not write a permission slip into the code. It deleted the offense.

The mechanism is a repeal, not a carve-out

Senate Bill 47 of the 2019 session, enacted as SL 2019, ch 113 and signed January 31, 2019, opens with four bare repealers. Section 1 repealed SDCL 22-14-9. Section 2 repealed SDCL 22-14-9.1. Section 3 repealed SDCL 22-14-10. Section 4 repealed SDCL 22-14-11. SDCL 22-14-9 was the concealed-weapon carry offense: sections 12 and 13 of the same act strike references to it reading "the permit holder is not in violation of 22-14-9" and "is not a concealed weapon under 22-14-9." The other three went with it as companion provisions, and section 11 shows what SDCL 22-14-11 had been, striking language that preserved carrying "pursuant to 22-14-11" by home or business owners on their property. Pulling up any of the four numbers in the code today returns only a repeal notice: "22-14-9, 22-14-9.1. Repealed by SL 2019, ch 113" and "22-14-10, 22-14-11. Repealed by SL 2019, ch 113." The enrolled act declares no emergency, and under S.D. Const. art. III, sec. 22 no act takes effect until ninety days after the session adjourns unless, in case of an emergency expressed in the preamble or body of the act, two-thirds of all members elected to each house direct otherwise, so the repeal took hold during 2019 rather than on the day it was signed.

That structure is the whole point. There is no permitless-carry statute to read, no exemption whose conditions you have to satisfy, and no residency test buried in an exception clause. SDCL 23-7-7 says it directly: "The issuance of a permit to carry a concealed pistol under this chapter does not impose a general prohibition on the carrying of a pistol without a permit." Note the direction of that sentence. It does not grant carry authority. It says the permit chapter is not the source of a prohibition.

Neither chapter 22-14 nor chapter 23-7 now conditions carrying a pistol on holding a permit, and neither one turns on South Dakota residency or on what your home state does. What binds you are the separate status-based and place-based offenses that SL 2019, ch 113 left standing.

Who may carry without a permit

Age. Eighteen is the practical floor. A person under eighteen who knowingly possesses a pistol commits a Class 1 misdemeanor under SDCL 23-7-44. SDCL 23-7-45 lifts that only with the prior written consent of a parent or guardian plus one of three circumstances: the minor is on premises owned or leased by the minor or the minor's parent, guardian, or immediate family member; the minor is in the presence of a licensed or accredited gun safety instructor; or the pistol is being used for farming, ranching, hunting, trapping, target shooting, or gun safety instruction. Separately, SDCL 23-7-71 says a person under eighteen "may not carry a concealed pistol except in the presence of a parent or legal guardian." That section states no penalty, and SDCL 22-6-2 supplies a Class 2 misdemeanor default when a statute prohibits an act without imposing one, since its list of excepted titles does not reach Title 23. The two rules stack: a seventeen-year-old target shooting on written parental consent is outside SDCL 23-7-44, but SDCL 23-7-71 still wants a parent or legal guardian present before that pistol goes concealed.

State prohibited persons. The 2019 repeal did nothing to the possession bars, and they survived untouched:

• SDCL 22-14-15. No person convicted in this state or elsewhere of a crime of violence, or of a felony under SDCL 22-42-2, 22-42-3, 22-42-4, 22-42-7, 22-42-8, 22-42-9, 22-42-10, or 22-42-19, may possess or control a firearm. Class 6 felony. The bar does not apply to a person last discharged from prison, jail, probation, or parole more than fifteen years before the principal offense.
• SDCL 22-14-15.1. No person convicted of a felony under chapter 22-42, or of a same-elements felony in another state, may possess or control a firearm. Class 6 felony. The bar lifts five years after last discharge, provided the person is not also caught by SDCL 22-14-15.
• SDCL 22-14-15.2. A misdemeanor conviction involving an act of domestic violence bars possession for one year from the date of conviction. Class 1 misdemeanor. Civil rights are restored at the end of that year, and the statute gives a petition procedure for an order reflecting the restoration.
• SDCL 22-14-16. Knowingly giving, loaning, or selling a firearm to someone you know is barred by SDCL 22-14-15 or 22-14-15.1 is itself a Class 6 felony.

For SDCL 22-14-15 and 22-14-15.1, SDCL 22-14-15.3 defines "firearm" to include antique firearms under SDCL 22-1-2(4) and any muzzle-loading rifle, shotgun, or pistol, black-powder weapons that cannot use fixed ammunition included. A muzzleloader is not a loophole here.

The federal layer, and why buying is not carrying. 18 U.S.C. 922(g) makes it unlawful for nine categories of person to possess a firearm in or affecting commerce, among them anyone convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year, fugitives, unlawful users of a controlled substance, people adjudicated as a mental defective or committed to a mental institution, certain aliens, people subject to a qualifying restraining order, and people convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. Keep purchase separate from carry in your head. 18 U.S.C. 922(b)(1) bars a federal licensee from selling or delivering any firearm or ammunition to an individual the licensee knows or has reasonable cause to believe is under eighteen, and, for anything other than a shotgun or rifle or their ammunition, under twenty-one. 18 U.S.C. 922(x)(2) separately makes juvenile handgun possession unlawful, subject to its own written-consent exceptions. So an eighteen-year-old South Dakotan can carry a pistol here without a permit and still be turned away from the handgun case at a licensed dealer.

Two offenses that still turn on how you carry

SDCL 22-14-8 was not repealed. Anyone who conceals a controlled or dangerous weapon on or about the person "with intent to commit a felony" is guilty of a Class 5 felony. The intent element is what carries it, not the concealment. "Dangerous weapon" under SDCL 22-1-2(10) covers any firearm, and "concealed" under SDCL 22-1-2(6) means totally hidden from view, so any part capable of being seen puts you outside the definition.

SDCL 22-14-7(3) also survived, and it applies whether or not you hold a permit: having a loaded firearm in personal possession while intoxicated is a Class 1 misdemeanor.

Where permitless carry is barred, and where it is only unprotected

County courthouses and the state capitol. SDCL 22-14-23 makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to knowingly possess, or cause to be present, any firearm or other dangerous weapon in a county courthouse or the state capitol, or to attempt it. SDCL 22-14-22 stretches both terms to appended and supplementary buildings. SDCL 22-14-27 forecloses the obvious defense: a defendant may not claim that he held a concealed pistol permit issued under chapter 23-7. That is not in tension with SDCL 22-14-24(5), which lets an enhanced permit holder possess a concealed pistol in the capitol, because SDCL 22-14-23 opens with an express exception for SDCL 22-14-24. The enumerated exceptions take the conduct out of the offense; a permit raised outside them is no answer. The capitol exception requires an enhanced permit under SDCL 23-7-53 and at least twenty-four hours of advance notice, orally or in writing, to the superintendent of the Division of Highway Patrol, and it does not reach the Supreme Court chamber or an access-controlled private office under security supervision. A county commission may waive SDCL 22-14-23 for its own courthouse by majority of the members-elect under SDCL 22-14-28, and SDCL 22-14-25 preserves a court's power, except as to the SDCL 22-14-24 authorizations, to punish contempt and to regulate weapons within any building housing the court and on grounds pertinent to it.

Public K-12 schools. SDCL 13-32-7 makes it a Class 1 misdemeanor to intentionally carry, possess, store, or leave a dangerous weapon, firearm, or air gun on public elementary or secondary school premises, vehicles, or buildings. House Bill 1222 of the 2025 session, an act to expand the authorized carrying, possession, and storage of a concealed pistol, amended that section, and the version it enacted carries a vehicle exception at subdivision (4). Be precise about who gets it. Subdivision (4) covers "an individual who holds any permit to carry a concealed pistol, issued in accordance with chapter 23-7," while that individual is inside a motor vehicle, or outside one securing a pistol in or retrieving a pistol from the vehicle. Any chapter 23-7 permit qualifies, so the regular, enhanced, and gold card permits all work, along with the restricted enhanced permit that SDCL 23-7-54.2 provides for qualifying applicants eighteen to twenty as the age-limited form of the enhanced permit. A permitless carrier gets nothing from it. Subdivision (3) is narrower and needs an enhanced permit, an age of twenty-one or older, and written permission from the principal. Nonpublic schools and houses of worship sit outside the section under subdivisions (8) through (10).

Public campuses. Neither campus statute bans carry on its own. Each limits what the governing board and the institutions under its control may do. SDCL 13-53-56 and SDCL 13-39A-43, both from SL 2025, ch 86, bar the Board of Regents and the Board of Technical Education from restricting concealed pistol carry, but only by an individual holding an enhanced permit, a restricted enhanced permit, or a reciprocal permit under chapter 23-7. SDCL 13-53-57 and SDCL 13-39A-44 preserve institutional limits in designated hazardous-material areas, cleanrooms, security-cleared spaces, and screened special events, and require storage in a locked case or safe when the pistol is off the person. A permitless carrier gets no pistol protection from either section.

Screened municipal events. SL 2025, ch 36, sec 4 is a grant of authority to a municipality rather than a statewide ban. It lets a municipality prohibit a dangerous weapon as defined in SDCL 22-1-2 inside a building or facility where an event is occurring, but only where metal detectors screen for weapons and armed security personnel are posted at each public entrance.

Federal school zones. 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 you know, or have reasonable cause to believe, is a school zone. 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(26) defines that zone as school grounds plus 1,000 feet. The exception at 922(q)(2)(B)(ii) runs to an individual "licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located," where state law requires law enforcement to verify the applicant's qualification before the license issues. SDCL 23-7-7 requires exactly that verification before a South Dakota permit issues, which is why a permit and permitless status are not interchangeable here. Whether a given permit satisfies the federal exception is a federal-law question, so confirm it before relying on it. The other route out is 922(q)(2)(B)(iii): unloaded, and in a locked container or a locked firearms rack on a motor vehicle.

Alcohol after the 2025 repeal

There is no bar-carry ban in South Dakota law today. SL 2019, ch 113, sec 14 had created one as SDCL 23-7-70, reading "A person may not carry a concealed pistol in any licensed on-sale malt beverage or alcoholic beverage establishment that derives over one-half of its total income from the sale of malt or alcoholic beverages." SL 2025, ch 36, sec 5, signed March 24, 2025, repealed it outright. A version of the restriction had lived in SDCL 23-7-8.1 before 2019, phrased as a limit on permit holders. Section 11 of the 2019 act struck it from there while section 14 added the freestanding ban that became SDCL 23-7-70, so the 2025 repeal closed out the last of it.

Two chapter 35-1 offenses restrict alcohol rather than firearms. SDCL 35-1-5.3 makes consuming distilled spirits in a public place a Class 2 misdemeanor outside the premises of an on-sale dealer licensed to sell distilled spirits, and SDCL 35-1-9.1 makes an open container in a vehicle on a public highway a Class 2 misdemeanor, subject to the SDCL 35-1-9.3 exceptions. Neither reaches a firearm. The rule that does is SDCL 22-14-7(3), and it applies to you in a tavern exactly as it does anywhere else.

The state constitutional backdrop

S.D. Const. art. VI, sec. 24 provides: "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be denied."

Why the permits still matter

South Dakota kept all three tiers, and each one buys something permitless carry cannot: a claim to the federal school-zone exception under 922(q)(2)(B)(ii) that no permitless carrier has, the SDCL 13-32-7(4) school vehicle exception, out-of-state recognition, capitol carry and public campus carry on the enhanced permits, and campus carry at eighteen through the restricted enhanced permit under SDCL 23-7-54.2. For eligibility, fees, and the application steps, see the Permit Basics, Application Process, and Reciprocity sections of this guide.

Silencers after the 2026 change

SL 2026, ch 96 amended SDCL 22-1-2(8) so that "Controlled weapon" now "includes a machine gun and short shotgun, but does not include a firearm silencer," and amended SDCL 22-14-6, which makes knowing possession of a controlled weapon a Class 6 felony. That narrows the state offense: a silencer is no longer a controlled weapon under South Dakota law, so attaching one to a pistol no longer puts the carrier inside SDCL 22-14-6. Federal law is untouched. A silencer is still a firearm under 26 U.S.C. 5845(a)(7), and 26 U.S.C. 5861(d) still makes it unlawful to receive or possess one not registered to you in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record.

Grading reference

Felony maximums come from SDCL 22-6-1 and misdemeanor maximums from SDCL 22-6-2. A bill that died in the legislature is not law, whatever was said about it at the time. Check the current text of any section above on the South Dakota Legislature's codified law portal before you rely on it.