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...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
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." The 2019 Legislature backed that up by repealing the offense itself. SL 2019, ch 113 repealed SDCL 22-14-9, 22-14-9.1, 22-14-10, and 22-14-11, and SDCL 22-14-9.2 is repealed too. A guide or handout still citing 22-14-9 or 22-14-10 as the concealed carry offense is describing law that no longer exists.
One concealment offense survived. Concealing a controlled or dangerous weapon on or about the person with intent to commit a felony is a Class 5 felony (SDCL 22-14-8), which SDCL 22-6-1(8) caps at five years in a state correctional facility plus a fine of up to ten thousand dollars. The intent element is what carries it.
The Secretary of State's Firearm Handbook, last revised 07/01/2026, puts it the same way, and the permit FAQ adds that permitless open carry is allowed on the same terms.
Two limits sit on top of it.
Separately from those bars, a court may require a defendant to surrender any dangerous weapon or any concealed pistol permit issued under 23-7 in the defendant's possession to local law enforcement (SDCL 25-10-24).
Under SDCL 22-6-1 and 22-6-2, a Class 1 misdemeanor carries up to one year in county jail or a $2,000 fine, or both. A Class 2 misdemeanor carries up to thirty days or $500, or both. A Class 6 felony carries up to two years in a state correctional facility or a $4,000 fine, or both.
South Dakota kept its permit system after 2019 and runs three, all applied for through the sheriff of the county where the applicant resides: regular (SDCL 23-7-7), enhanced (SDCL 23-7-53), and gold card (SDCL 23-7-60). Under SDCL 23-7-57, the chapter's rights and responsibilities carry across all three unless a section says otherwise. The Secretary of State's permit FAQ states that you may hold more than one type at the same time.
| Regular | Enhanced | Gold card | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Training | None | Qualifying handgun course, SDCL 23-7-58, or an officer's course qualification, SDCL 23-7-53(4)(b) | None |
| Temporary permit due | 5 days (23-7-7.1) | 30 days (23-7-54) | 30 days (23-7-61) |
| Term | 5 years (23-7-8.2) | 5 years (23-7-55) | 5 years (23-7-63) |
| Renewal window opens | 90 days out (23-7-8.11) | 12 months out, closes 30 days after expiry (23-7-56) | 180 days out, closes 30 days after expiry (23-7-62) |
The SDCL 23-7-7.1 baseline is the same for all three. Among its requirements: eighteen or older, no felony or crime of violence plea or conviction, thirty days of county residence, no disqualifying chapter 23-7, 22-14, or 22-42 violation in the last five years, citizen or legal resident, not otherwise prohibited by state or federal law, and a passing NICS check. Enhanced and gold card applications add fingerprints for a criminal background check (SDCL 23-7-53, 23-7-60).
Only the enhanced permit carries a training requirement, and SDCL 23-7-53(4) accepts either of two proofs. A qualifying handgun course under SDCL 23-7-58 is taught by a National Rifle Association certified instructor who also holds a current South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation use-of-force certificate, and includes live fire of at least ninety-eight rounds by the student. A current or former law enforcement officer may instead show that within the preceding twelve months the officer qualified or requalified on a certified shooting course administered by a firearms instructor approved by the Law Enforcement Officers Standards Commission (SDCL 23-7-53(4)(b)).
The unrestricted enhanced permit is for twenty-one and older; applicants aged eighteen to twenty get a temporary restricted enhanced permit instead (SDCL 23-7-54.2), and a holder of an unexpired restricted permit who reaches twenty-one may request the unrestricted version from the Secretary of State at no additional cost (SDCL 23-7-54.4). An enhanced permit is valid only when carried with government issued photo identification of the holder (SDCL 23-7-55). SDCL 23-7-7.4 was repealed by SL 2022, ch 69. A county permit page still pointing to it for restricted enhanced permit requirements is pointing at a dead section; the live requirements are SDCL 23-7-7.1 plus SDCL 23-7-53, with the age rule in SDCL 23-7-54.2.
Reasons to hold one anyway: out-of-state travel, governed by the destination state's law and any SDCL 23-7-7.3 reciprocity agreement; capitol carry, which takes an enhanced permit (SDCL 22-14-24(5)); public university and technical college campuses (SDCL 13-53-56 and 13-39A-43); and the school-premises vehicle exception, which a holder of any chapter 23-7 permit satisfies (SDCL 13-32-7(4)). SDCL 23-7-8.13 gives a thirty-day post-expiration grace period, and SDCL 23-7-8.14 takes it away from anyone who committed a disqualifying crime or was denied renewal.
South Dakota issues no nonresident permits. The Firearm Handbook states that "the state of South Dakota recognizes any valid concealed pistol permit issued to a nonresident of South Dakota, according to the terms of its issuance in the state of its issue."
Giving false information or false evidence of identity when applying for a permit or buying a pistol is a Class 6 felony (SDCL 23-7-12). SDCL 23-7-72 is a reimbursement schedule the Secretary of State pays to counties, not a price list charged to applicants.
Knowingly possessing or causing to be present any firearm or other dangerous weapon in a county courthouse or the state capitol, or attempting to, is a Class 1 misdemeanor (SDCL 22-14-23). SDCL 22-14-23 applies except as SDCL 22-14-24 provides, and holding a permit is not itself a defense (SDCL 22-14-27). Most SDCL 22-14-24 exceptions run to officers, judges, officials, and courthouse-assigned public employees, including subdivision (4), which covers a qualified law enforcement officer or a qualified retired law enforcement officer carrying a concealed pistol in the state capitol under 18 U.S.C. 926B-C. Others reach beyond that group. Subdivision (5) covers capitol carry by an enhanced permit holder, anywhere in the capitol other than the Supreme Court chamber or an access-controlled private office under security supervision, after at least twenty-four hours' advance notice to the superintendent of the Division of Highway Patrol, orally or in writing, naming the date or range of dates. Subdivision (7) covers the lawful carrying of a firearm or other dangerous weapon in a county courthouse incident to a hunter safety or a gun safety course, or for any other lawful purposes. A county commission may waive the courthouse prohibition by a majority of its members-elect (SDCL 22-14-28).
On public elementary and secondary school premises, vehicles, and buildings, intentional carry or storage of a dangerous weapon, firearm, or air gun is a Class 1 misdemeanor (SDCL 13-32-7). SDCL 13-32-7 was last amended by SL 2025, ch 83, and its exception list reaches, among others, law enforcement officers; school sentinels trained under chapter 13-64; an individual twenty-one or older holding an enhanced permit with written permission from the principal or other person controlling the building or grounds; and a holder of any chapter 23-7 permit while inside a motor vehicle, or outside it securing a pistol in or retrieving one from the vehicle. Federal law imposes its own prohibited locations, and a South Dakota permit does not displace them.
SDCL 23-7-70 prohibited carrying a concealed pistol in a licensed on-sale malt or alcoholic beverage establishment deriving over half its income from those sales. SL 2025, ch 36, section 5 repealed it outright, and the act was signed March 24, 2025. There is no live South Dakota prohibition on carry in a bar today. A county page or handout that still lists a bar or on-sale establishment as off limits is describing a repealed section.
What the law still reaches is your condition, not the premises. Having a loaded firearm in personal possession while intoxicated is a Class 1 misdemeanor under SDCL 22-14-7(3). The alcohol offenses that sit nearby reach drinking, not carrying. Consuming distilled spirits in a public place is a Class 2 misdemeanor (SDCL 35-1-5.3), and an open container in a vehicle on a public highway is a Class 2 misdemeanor (SDCL 35-1-9.1). Neither reaches a firearm.
Counties, townships, and municipalities may not pass ordinances restricting or prohibiting, or imposing a licensure requirement or licensure fee on, the possession, storage, transportation, purchase, sale, transfer, ownership, manufacture, or repair of firearms, ammunition, or their components (SDCL 7-18A-36, 8-5-13, 9-19-20), and the county and township sections also bar any tax on the same conduct. Such an ordinance is null and void, the attorney general must send a cease and desist order, and if the unit does not comply the attorney general must sue for an injunction. Generally applicable zoning, building, and fire codes survive unless used to circumvent the ban. No state agency may adopt a rule restricting concealed pistol rights under chapter 23-7 (SDCL 1-26-6.10).
SL 2025, ch 36 added a second layer. A county board may not by any method or means bar a county employee, officer, or volunteer from lawfully possessing a concealed firearm and compatible ammunition inside any county building, facility, or vehicle, or on real property owned or leased by the county (SDCL 7-18-35). SDCL 8-4-13 and SDCL 9-14-44 impose the same rule on township boards of supervisors and municipal governing bodies as to their own people and their own property. The carve-outs are inmates and, for anyone who is not a law enforcement officer, secure areas of detention, crisis, and treatment facilities plus transports under chapter 27A-10. A municipality may still restrict dangerous weapons at an event inside a building or facility if metal detectors screen for them and armed security personnel are posted at every public entrance (SDCL 9-14-45).
On campus, SDCL 13-53-56 and 13-39A-43 bar the Board of Regents, the Board of Technical Education, and their institutions from restricting lawful carrying, possession, storage, or transportation of a concealed pistol and compatible ammunition by a holder of an enhanced, restricted enhanced, or reciprocal permit, or of a stun gun, mace, pepper spray, or other chemical irritant by anyone. SDCL 13-53-57 and 13-39A-44 allow restrictions only in narrow enumerated settings, among them designated hazard areas, security-clearance areas, and screened special events. When not carrying the item, the individual must store it in a locked case or safe.
A covenant running with the land may no longer prohibit or restrict lawful possession, storage, transportation, or discharge of a firearm, firearm part, or ammunition; an offending provision is void, unenforceable, and severable (SDCL 43-12-7, added by SL 2025, ch 181).
Non-deadly defensive force is justified on a reasonable belief that it is necessary against another's imminent use of unlawful force, with no duty to retreat (SDCL 22-18-4). Deadly force is justified on a reasonable belief that it is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to yourself or another, or the imminent commission of a forcible felony; you may stand your ground if you are not engaged in criminal activity and are in a place you have a right to be (SDCL 22-18-4.1). Inside a dwelling or residence you have a right to be in, both forms apply with no retreat duty and no criminal-activity condition (SDCL 22-18-4.2).
SDCL 22-18-4.3 creates a presumption of reasonable fear against someone unlawfully entering or having entered a dwelling, residence, or occupied vehicle, subject to the exceptions in SDCL 22-18-4.4. Property defense is narrower: non-deadly force to stop trespass or criminal interference (SDCL 22-18-4.6), deadly force only against the imminent commission of a forcible felony (SDCL 22-18-4.7).
SDCL 22-18-4.8 grants immunity from criminal prosecution and from civil liability, and defines criminal prosecution to include arresting, detaining in custody, and charging. In a criminal prosecution, once the defendant raises a prima facie claim of self-defense immunity, the party seeking to overcome that immunity bears the burden by clear and convincing evidence. The immunity does not run where the person against whom force was used or threatened was an identified law enforcement officer acting in the performance of official duties, or where the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that. Justification is unavailable to a forcible-felony offender or an initial aggressor, subject to the withdrawal and no-escape exceptions in SDCL 22-18-4.9(2). Do not rely on SDCL 22-16-34; SL 2021, ch 93 repealed it. Self-defense now runs through SDCL 22-18-4 to 22-18-4.9.
Nothing in chapter 23-7 or chapter 22-14 imposes a duty to inform an officer that you are carrying. That is an absence rather than a rule, so confirm it with the Secretary of State or your county sheriff before you rely on it in an encounter.
No state agency or political subdivision may keep a registry of firearm owners or permit holders (SDCL 23-7-8.6, subject to the seven exceptions in SDCL 23-7-8.7) or release permit lists outside law enforcement and the Secretary of State (SDCL 23-7-8.10).
SL 2026, ch 96 amended SDCL 22-1-2 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 to match. Knowing possession of a controlled weapon stays a Class 6 felony, subject to the exceptions in SDCL 22-14-6. Federal law on these items applies on its own terms.
The underlying principle sits in Article VI, section 24 of the South Dakota Constitution: "The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the state shall not be denied." For permit forms, instructor lists, and the recognition chart, work from the Secretary of State's permit pages and the Firearm Handbook; confirm mechanics and costs with your county sheriff.
This page covers one part of our South Dakota concealed carry guide.
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