Washington attaches training to buying a gun, not to carrying one. Today you can get a concealed pistol license (CPL) without taking a class, but a...
Reviewed by Will Luker, Founder of CCW Hub. USCCA Training Counselor, USCCA Certified Instructor, NRA Certified Instructor, Law Enforcement.
Washington attaches training to buying a gun, not to carrying one. Today you can get a concealed pistol license (CPL) without taking a class, but a dealer cannot hand you a firearm unless you show a safety course completed within the last five years or proof of an exemption. On May 1, 2027 that changes again: the license itself picks up a live-fire training prerequisite. Three rules: an absence of any training condition on the license, a purchase requirement in force since January 1, 2024, and a license requirement that starts on May 1, 2027.
The CPL statute is RCW 9.41.070. The version in force right now is the one the code reviser heads "(Effective until May 1, 2027.)", and its subsection (1) sets out the grounds on which an application can be refused. It directs that the chief of police of a municipality or the sheriff of a county "shall within thirty days after the filing of an application of any person, issue a license," and then says the applicant's "constitutional right to bear arms shall not be denied, unless" one of seven things is true. Those seven are:
There is no course, no range qualification, and no certificate anywhere in that list. The current section uses the word "training" exactly once, in subsection (9)(a)(i), where three dollars of the ten dollar late renewal penalty funds first the printing and distribution of the firearms pamphlet and then the support of volunteer instructors in the Department of Fish and Wildlife basic firearms safety training program. That is a spending clause. The program it names appears nowhere in the subsection (1) grounds for refusing an application.
The Attorney General's office says as much. The reciprocity list it publishes under RCW 9.41.073(2), last updated 07/10/2026 by its own stamp, states a reason beside each jurisdiction Washington does not recognize. The Delaware row begins: "Washington does not mandate the training required by Delaware for reciprocity." The Minnesota, Nebraska, and South Carolina rows give that same reason, and the New Mexico row gives it in different words, as the training New Mexico requires before it will recognize a Washington license. Five of the forty rows the list marks as not recognized rest in part on training.
What an applicant does get is reading material. RCW 9.41.070(9)(a)(i) provides that the firearms pamphlet "shall be given to each applicant for a license," and RCW 9.41.310 directs the Department of Fish and Wildlife to publish a pamphlet on firearms safety and the legal limits of the use of firearms and to supply it to the Department of Licensing for distribution. The current edition, "Firearms Safety, Suicide Awareness, The Law, and You," carries a publication date of September 1, 2025, so read it as a snapshot of that date rather than a live statement of the law.
Out-of-state licensees get no training test either. Under RCW 9.41.073(1), a person licensed in a state that recognizes Washington licenses may carry concealed here if that state does not license people under twenty-one and requires mandatory fingerprint-based background checks of criminal and mental health history. Training is not one of the conditions, and the recognition runs only while the license holder is not a Washington resident.
The purchase side is where Washington puts its training mandate today. RCW 9.41.1132, in the half headed "(Effective until May 1, 2027.)", opens by requiring a person applying for the purchase or transfer of a firearm to provide "proof of completion of a recognized firearms safety training program within the last five years". It applies to any firearm, not just handguns, and it has nothing to do with carrying. Its current text comes from 2023 c 161 s 2, and the act's own effective-date note, printed with RCW 9.41.090, reads: "This act takes effect January 1, 2024."
The requirement bites at delivery. RCW 9.41.090(1)(a) bars a dealer from delivering a firearm to the purchaser until "[t]he purchaser provides proof of completion of a recognized firearm safety training program within the last five years that complies with the requirements in RCW 9.41.1132, or proof that the purchaser is exempt from the training requirement." Private sales do not escape it: under RCW 9.41.113(2) and (3) a transaction where neither party is a licensed dealer must be completed through one, and the dealer must then comply with everything that would apply to a sale from its own inventory. RCW 9.41.113(4) takes whole categories of transfer outside that section, so they need not be completed through a dealer and the RCW 9.41.090(1)(a) delivery condition does not reach them. Those categories include a bona fide gift or loan between the immediate family members that subsection lists, the sale or transfer of an antique firearm, the specified temporary transfers, transfers involving a law enforcement or corrections agency, or an officer or service member acting within the course and scope of employment or official duties, and a federally licensed gunsmith receiving a firearm solely for service or repair. Knowingly violating RCW 9.41.113 is a gross misdemeanor, a subsequent knowing violation is a class C felony, and each gun sold or transferred without the required background check is a separate offense (RCW 9.41.115). Separately from training, RCW 9.41.092 bars delivery until all required background checks are back and ten business days have elapsed since the dealer requested the check.
RCW 9.41.1132(1) requires that the program, at a minimum, include instruction on:
Subsection (3) permits the course to include stories from individuals with lived experience in the topics listed in subsection (1)(a) through (g), or an understanding of the legal and social impacts of discharging a firearm. There is no live-fire component in the current text and no stated hour count.
RCW 9.41.1132(2) limits sponsorship to four categories: "a federal, state, county, or municipal law enforcement agency, a college or university, a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training, or a firearms training school with instructors certified by a nationally recognized organization that customarily offers firearms training." The same subsection sets the paperwork: "The proof of training shall be in the form of a certification that states under the penalty of perjury that the training included the minimum requirements."
Note what the current text does not say. It names no state approval or certification of the program itself. The statute that directs the Washington State Patrol to certify training programs, RCW 43.43.575, is headed "(Effective May 1, 2027.)" and has no earlier version. Under today's text a program qualifies by its content and its sponsor, and the certification signed under penalty of perjury is the proof a dealer relies on.
RCW 9.41.1132(4) exempts two groups of people, certain officers and certain service members, and the terms matter:
The military exemption is not a status exemption. It carries its own five-year training condition, so a service member who cannot point to qualifying service training within that window is in the same position as any other buyer. Tribal police officers, licensed armed private investigators, and licensed armed security guards are not on the current list. They are added by the version of the statute that takes effect May 1, 2027, discussed below.
Everything in this part is enacted law that is not yet in force. It comes from 2025 c 370 (E2SHB 1163), and that act's effective-date note, printed with RCW 9.41.090, reads: "Except for section 6 of this act, this act takes effect May 1, 2027." Nothing described in this part is a requirement today.
The superseding version of RCW 9.41.070 adds an eighth disqualifier at subsection (1)(h): an applicant is disqualified who "[h]as failed to produce a certificate of completion from a certified concealed carry firearms safety training program within the last five years, as provided under subsection (5) of this section and RCW 43.43.575, or proof that the applicant is exempt from the training requirement."
Subsection (5)(a) of that version defines the course. The training "must be from a concealed carry firearms safety training program certified under RCW 43.43.575 that includes live-fire shooting exercises on a firing range that include a demonstration by the applicant of the safe handling of, and shooting proficiency with, firearms, including a minimum of 50 rounds of ammunition firing training at a firing range under the supervision of an instructor." Subsection (5)(b) exempts applicants who can demonstrate they are exempt under RCW 9.41.1132(5), which is the expanded exemption list in the 2027 version of that statute.
RCW 43.43.575, also effective May 1, 2027, is the machinery. It directs the Washington State Patrol to "establish a program to provide certifications for firearms safety training programs that meet the requirements of RCW 9.41.070 and 9.41.1132," to require certified programs to apply for recertification every five years, and to develop the form and manner of the documentation applicants use to prove completion or to prove an exemption.
The State Patrol's firearms background division page carries this framework under a heading that reads "New Training Requirement" followed by the line "Not required until May 2027". The same page says work has begun on the systems and processes and that the agency is "on target for an early 2027 implementation" of the training certification and the permit to purchase application user interfaces.
One open question worth raising with your issuing agency rather than guessing at: how renewals will be handled. Subsection (1)(h) sits in the list of grounds that disqualify an application, and subsection (2)(c) of the same 2027 version applies the eligibility screening "whether the applicant is applying for a new concealed pistol license or to renew a concealed pistol license."
RCW 9.41.121, headed "(Effective May 1, 2027.)" with no earlier version, creates a permit to purchase and requires the application to include "[a] certificate of completion of a certified firearms safety training program within the last five years, or proof that the applicant is exempt from the training requirement, as provided in RCW 9.41.1132."
The 2027 version of RCW 9.41.1132 adds a ninth topic at subsection (1)(i): "Live-fire shooting exercises on a firing range that include a demonstration by the applicant of the safe handling of, and shooting proficiency with, firearms." Two details separate it from the CPL rule. It states no round count, while the CPL provision at RCW 9.41.070(5)(a) sets a floor of 50 rounds. And on renewal of a permit to purchase, subsection (2) allows the live-fire component to have been completed within the last 10 years rather than five. That version also widens the sponsor list to include tribal law enforcement agencies and requires the certificate to be in the form the State Patrol develops under RCW 43.43.575.
RCW 36.28A.090 sets up Washington's process for the federal Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act certification, 18 U.S.C. 926B and 926C. A retired officer satisfies the federal certification requirement by holding a firearms qualification certificate that uses the model certificate developed by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, in which a law enforcement agency, or an individual or entity certified to provide firearms training, acknowledges that the bearer "has been found qualified or otherwise found to meet the standards established by the criminal justice training commission for firearms qualification for the basic law enforcement training academy in the state." The certificate is valid for one year from the date of that determination and must state the date. The retired officer pays the cost, and nothing in the statute requires a local agency to complete the certificate.
This page covers one part of our Washington concealed carry guide.
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