Nevada Handgun Laws: Carry, Permits and Restrictions

Nevada’s handgun laws let most adults own and openly carry a handgun without a permit, require a sheriff-issued permit to carry concealed, and put a background check behind nearly every sale, including private ones. The state also protects self-defense with a stand-your-ground rule, keeps guns off school and government property, and blocks cities and counties from writing their own firearm ordinances.

Who Can Legally Own a Handgun

Before anything else, you have to be someone the law allows to possess a firearm at all. NRS 202.360 bars possession by anyone convicted of a felony in any state or under federal law (unless a pardon later restored that right without restriction), anyone convicted of domestic violence battery, anyone subject to a domestic violence protection order that specifically restricts firearms, anyone in the country unlawfully, and any unlawful user of or addict to a controlled substance. Violating that ban is a Category B felony, one to six years in state prison plus a possible $5,000 fine.¹

Age matters too. Federal law generally stops licensed dealers from selling handguns to anyone under 21 and bars minors under 18 from possessing them.² Nevada does carve out a narrow allowance: children 14 and older can possess a handgun with written parental permission for hunting, target shooting, and organized competitions.³ For a dealer purchase, plan on being 21.

Open Carry Without a Permit

Anyone legally allowed to possess a firearm can openly carry a handgun in Nevada. No permit. The handgun simply has to stay plainly visible. Under NRS 202.350, a weapon carried in a way that is not discernible by ordinary observation counts as concealed.⁴ That covers a pistol tucked under a jacket, dropped into a bag, or hidden by a loose shirt.

Carrying concealed without a permit is a Category C felony on a first offense, one to five years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.⁴⁵ Open carry is permissive, but the line between open and concealed is not forgiving.

Concealed Carry Permits

Concealed firearm permits in Nevada come from the sheriff of the county where you live. To qualify you must be a Nevada resident and a resident of that county, be at least 21, not be a prohibited person under NRS 202.360, and complete an approved firearms safety course covering the use of each firearm on your application and Nevada’s rules on the proper use of firearms.

The application itself takes a full set of fingerprints from the sheriff’s office, a front-view color photograph, and a certificate showing you completed the training course.⁶ Fees are nonrefundable. Approved courses can be run by law enforcement agencies, community colleges, universities, or national organizations that certify firearms instructors.

Once you have the permit, keep it and a valid ID on you whenever you carry concealed. If an officer asks and you can’t produce them, expect a $100 civil penalty for each failure.⁷

Out-of-State Permits

Nevada honors concealed carry permits from an approved list of states. If yours is on that list, you can carry concealed in Nevada under the same rules Nevada permit holders follow, and you must have the permit with you. Move to Nevada and you have 60 days to get a Nevada permit from your county sheriff; after that, the out-of-state permit no longer counts.⁸

Buying a Handgun in Nevada

Nearly every handgun transfer in Nevada runs through a background check. NRS 202.2547 requires that when two unlicensed people want to complete a sale or transfer, they first bring the transaction to a licensed dealer, who runs the buyer through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.⁹

A limited set of transfers is exempt: sales to law enforcement, antique firearms, transfers between immediate family (spouses, parents, children, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, and nephews), and temporary transfers at shooting ranges or while hunting.¹⁰

Skipping the check is a gross misdemeanor the first time (up to 364 days in jail and a $2,000 fine) and a Category C felony after that (one to five years and up to $10,000).⁷

Where You Cannot Take a Handgun

A permit does not open every door. NRS 202.265 makes it a crime for anyone to carry a handgun on the property of a public or private school, the Nevada System of Higher Education, or a child care facility. The child care restriction reaches home-based facilities during normal business hours.¹¹

For concealed permit holders, the state’s administrative code adds more off-limits places:

Law enforcement facilities
Prisons, jails, and detention facilities
Courthouses and courtrooms
Buildings owned or occupied by the federal, state, or local government
Any place where state or federal law otherwise prohibits concealed firearms

These sit on top of the school and child care ban.⁶

Private property owners can bar firearms on their own premises, and large Las Vegas casinos and hotels often do. If the owner or their representative asks you to leave, leave. Refusing turns the visit into a trespassing case.

Federal property is its own layer. Postal Service property is off-limits for firearms, openly or concealed, under Title 39 of the Code of Federal Regulations, with up to a year in federal prison for violating and up to five years if the weapon was intended for use in a crime.¹²

Self-Defense and Stand Your Ground

Nevada does not require you to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense, as long as you did not start the fight, you have a right to be where you are, and you are not committing a crime at the time.¹³

The same statute recognizes castle doctrine. Killing in defense of an occupied home or occupied vehicle is justifiable when the intruder clearly intends to commit a violent felony or is forcing entry to assault someone inside.¹³ The recurring word in the statute is “necessary”: the force has to match the threat. A verbal argument or property dispute is not the threshold.

NRS 200.275 rounds this out by protecting lesser force on the same theory. Any threat or infliction of bodily injury that would have been justifiable as a homicide is also justifiable as an assault or battery.¹⁴ If pulling the trigger would have been legal, drawing to warn or wounding to stop the threat is legal too.

Alcohol, Drugs, and Marijuana

Possessing a firearm with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 or higher is a misdemeanor in Nevada, as is possessing one while under the influence of a controlled substance to the point you cannot safely control the weapon. Your own home, for self-defense, is the one exception.¹⁵

If an officer suspects a violation, you have to submit to an evidentiary test. Refusal doesn’t help; the officer can get a warrant authorizing reasonable force to draw blood. Brandish or aim the firearm during the offense and it is subject to forfeiture.¹⁵

Marijuana deserves its own warning. Nevada legalized recreational use, but federal law still lists marijuana as a Schedule I controlled substance, and 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3) bars any “unlawful user of or addicted to any controlled substance” from possessing firearms or ammunition.² Regular marijuana users in Nevada are technically prohibited from owning a handgun under federal law, and the ATF has enforced that position, including denying a Nevada woman a firearm purchase over her medical marijuana card.

Red Flag Orders and Restoring Rights

Since 2020, a Nevada court can temporarily bar someone from possessing firearms if there is evidence they pose an imminent risk of harming themselves or others. A law enforcement officer or a family or household member can petition for an extreme risk protection order under NRS 33.560.¹⁶

An emergency order lasts up to seven days, with one seven-day extension possible. After a hearing, an extended order can last up to a year. While any order is in effect, the person must surrender all firearms to law enforcement and hand over any concealed firearm permit; the firearms are stored by police or a licensed dealer and returned when the order ends.¹⁶

If you lost your firearm rights to a felony conviction, Nevada allows restoration through a pardon, as long as the pardon does not itself restrict firearm rights.¹ A state pardon restores state rights only. Federal firearm prohibitions under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) can still apply on their own track. Under 18 U.S.C. § 925(c) the Attorney General can grant relief from federal firearm disabilities, and as of early 2025 the Department of Justice was developing a web-based application and had published a proposed rule to establish that program.¹⁷ State and federal rights have to be restored separately.

Local Rules and Discharging a Firearm

Cities and counties in Nevada cannot write their own gun laws. NRS 244.364 and parallel statutes for cities and towns hand exclusive authority over the sale, possession, carrying, and registration of firearms to the state legislature, and any conflicting local ordinance is void. A person affected by enforcement of one can sue.¹⁸

Local governments do keep authority over one thing: where you can discharge a firearm. Cities and counties can designate “populated areas” where firing a weapon is prohibited. Discharge inside a designated area is a Category B felony, one to ten years in prison. That is how Las Vegas, Reno, and other municipalities restrict gunfire in neighborhoods without stepping into the areas the state has reserved for itself.

1
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.360 – Ownership or Possession of Firearm by Certain Persons Prohibited; Penalties
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
3
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.300 – Use or Possession of Firearm by Child; Penalties
4
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.350 – Carrying Concealed Weapon Without Permit; Penalties; Issuance of Permit to Carry Concealed Weapon; Exceptions
5
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 193.130 – Categories and Punishment of Felonies
6
Nevada Legislature. NAC 202 – Concealed Firearms
7
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202 – Crimes Against Public Health and Safety
8
Nevada Records of Criminal History. 2025 CCW Recognition List
9
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.2547 – Background Check Required for Certain Sales or Transfers of Firearms Between Unlicensed Persons; Procedure
10
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.2548 – Exceptions to Requirement of Background Check
11
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.265 – Possession of Dangerous Weapon on Property or in Vehicle of School or Child Care Facility; Penalty; Exceptions
12
United States Postal Service. Possession of Firearms and Other Dangerous Weapons on Postal Service Property Is Prohibited by Law
13
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 200.120 – Justifiable Homicide Defined; No Duty to Retreat Under Certain Circumstances
14
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 200.275 – Justifiable Infliction or Threat of Bodily Injury Not Punishable
15
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 202.257 – Possession of Firearm When Under Influence of Alcohol, Controlled Substance or Other Intoxicating Substance; Penalty; Forfeiture of Firearm
16
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 33 – Injunctions; Protection Orders
17
U.S. Department of Justice. Federal Firearm Rights Restoration
18
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 244.364 – State Control Over Regulation of Firearms, Firearm Accessories and Ammunition