Concealed Carry Permit CCW Alien Gear Holster
courtesy Alien Gear Holsters

So…you’ve taken the required concealed carry class. You’ve sent in your paperwork. You’ve probably bought yourself a concealed carry pistol and maybe (hopefully) a good concealed carry holster to go with it. What do you do with yourself in the meantime?

The waiting period for a concealed carry permit can seem interminable. While some states offer emergency pistol carry permits, they require exigent circumstances. As a result, there’s really no way for John Q CCW Public to expedite the process. The wheels of government will have to grind. Some jurisdictions will have your permit to you in two to three weeks. Others may take a couple of months. It all depends on where you live.

What, though, to do until then? Bear in mind that this isn’t legal advice. This is a discussion involving typical state laws regarding the lawful carry of firearms.

First, check and follow your state and local laws for a starter. The last thing you want to do is apply for a permit and get busted for carrying without one while waiting for it to arrive. It will probably be revoked if you’d already been approved and will thus be DOA. You may end up in jail and you’ll deserve it.

However, if you feel the need to keep a gun on you as much as possible in the meantime, there are a few ways to carry legally in a limited fashion prior to receiving your permit.

Concealed Carry Permit Holster Open Carry

You might consider open carry. Again, consult your state laws, but a good number of states allow open carry without a concealed carry permit. Note the exceptions in your state…which areas you can carry in and which you can’t.

Granted, you’ll need to weigh whether or not you want to open carry as some people don’t care to. Pay close attention to signage as well, as firearms aren’t welcomed by everyone. While signage may not carry the force of law in all jurisdictions, carrying against the express wishes of the property owner or residing tenant does make you guilty of trespassing. You probably won’t be able to open carry at work either, so take that into consideration, too.

If you can’t or don’t want to open carry, you aren’t without options.

Another avenue to explore may be found in your particular state’s laws. Most states have a provision wherein a person may conceal and carry a firearm on their person without a permit if at their home, on their property, or a “fixed place of business,” meaning a regular physical location (store, office building, what-have-you) where they work. In other words, you don’t need a permit at your house at work (depending on your employer’s rules).

Even the Democratic People’s Republic of California has the “home or fixed place of business” law. They just limit your choices of a handgun to do it and make it difficult or impossible to get a permit to carry anywhere else.

What makes matters complicated in that instance is in the car. Most states – though there are exceptions – don’t allow transport of loaded firearms. Long guns (usually) can’t be transported loaded, and handguns can’t be transported loaded (again…usually) unless you have a concealed carry permit. It’s also fairly common for state laws to require a loaded concealed carry pistol be concealed on your person. Ergo, there’s a good chance you’ll have to unload the gun before heading to your car to go home or to work.

Granted, some folks insist that “The Second Amendment is my permit!” and there’s something to be said for that. However, a judge won’t be buying that argument outside of constitutional carry states, so just don’t. One more time: check your state’s laws, know them and be sure to comply with them. You really don’t want to lose your gun rights permanently.

The wait for a permit can be a headache, but you may not be completely devoid of options until yours arrives.

 

Sam Hoober is a contributing editor at Alien Gear Holsters, as well as for Bigfoot Gun Belts. He also writes weekly columns for Daily Caller and USA Carry.

 

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54 COMMENTS

    • The article stated that:

      “You may end up in jail and you’ll deserve it.”

      This was in reference to a person doing ccw without a permit.

      What a total bullshit statement! A person does not deserve to go to jail for exercising a basic human right!I

      I don’t recommend carrying without a permit, and I do have a permit, for practical pragmatic purposes (I don’t want to go to jail). Still, I’d never say something so depraved as that a person should be thrown into a cage for exercising their God given, and Constitutionally guaranteed right of self defense.

  2. Texas is fairly prompt with your permission slip once your complete application and civil-rights tax is paid.
    I only had to wait a few weeks – three, I think, for mine to arrive. That was a damn LONG three weeks…
    🤠

    • Texas is pretty cool about it. It is run by the DPS, our state police, which would not be my choice. I’d rather do it Florida style where it’s just government bureaucrats down at the dept. of agriculture running it, instead of any law enforcement types. Still, DPS does a straightforward job of it.

      As a longtime CHL, now LTC, instructor, I have a lit of experience working with these people. That includes in-person experience up at their facility during my own recertifications. I know these people and have found them to be honest, professional, and dedicated to processing the applications as swiftly as their limited resources allow.

      From my observations, where there is most likely to be a hang up us when someone lies or leaves out requested information on the application. They’re going to find that out and you could get in some trouble. Lying or leaving out information is grounds for denial of the application, even if what you lied about or left out is itself not a disqualifier.

    • Correct if one resides in a Constitutional carry state they just carry and enjoy the SECOND AMENDMENT AS THE FOUNDERS INTENDED IT.

    • Bingo.

      But don’t not expect the Democrats to let your State stay that way.

      They’ve got a new class of “citizen” and just need the right “pathway”. I’m sure the Dems are confident they’ll have their Uber-majority populace by 2020 or 2024.

      • Correct, Lefttards/Progtards/Commiecrats are a constant threat to Freedom and Liberty,eternal vigilance is required.

    • Constitutional carry is great. The issue is when you want to conceal carry in another state. Until we get National Reciprocity, it’s like playing legal hopscotch to traverse the myriad of state laws.

  4. Here in Tennessee I got a expedite because I’m currently in the military from the time I did my application on Tuesday and submitted my fingerprints on the following Friday I got my permit the following Monday and I got a 40% discount.

  6. In Pennsylvania, I sit and mess around on my phone for five minutes while they run me through the PA instant check and print out my permit. Then I walk out the door with it.

    • I renewed mine recently, and I spent the time BS ing with the receptionist in the sheriff’s office. I always tell her “See you in 5 years!”

    • Ditto – same thing I was going to write plus for some folks, especially our neighbors in New Yuck and New Jerksey, they could probably move to PA and become a state citizen here long before they could even get a whiff at the POSSIBILITY of thinking the might some day be able exercise their complete 2A rights in their state.

  7. People procrastinate for years until they finally apply for their gun carry permission slip, but the few weeks after they finally submit their paperwork drive the people crazy and seem like they take forever.

    Human nature is a funny thing.

    A couple of weeks ago, someone came into my store looking for a particular type of tent. I told her we didn’t have any in stock, but if she wanted me to order it, the tent would be delivered to her door within a week, and the delivery would be free of charge.

    She said she couldn’t wait because she was leaving on her camping trip tomorrow. She showed me a letter with all her camping requirements. It was dated over a month before.

    Human nature is a funny thing.

  8. It’s been 15 years or so since I first got my CCPS (concealed carry permission slip), but if I recall, I got accustomed to carrying around the old hacienda, mowing the yard, etc, while waiting for the mail. Since that time, anyone who can legally possess a firearm in Kansas can carry, concealed or not, pretty much anywhere they want except courthouses or police stations, so around these parts it’s a moot point.

  9. My county in Ohio prints it for you on the spot. I would say the whole process from walking in the door, doing the “interview”, mostly just small talk while they fill out forms, take your photo and print your card took maybe ten minutes. They were real chill the whole time.

  11. “What To Do While You’re Waiting For Your Concealed Carry Permit”
    Take a REAL defensive pistol class or go to a few IDPA or USPSA matches and get comfortable with you new gat.

  12. Some jurisdictions I suppose could take months. Perhaps in a way though, that is a
    good sign, reminding us the increasing number of first time handgun buyers, including
    those who complete an NRA affiliated training and gun safety course. Bear in mind
    too the number of women which for the last three decades has been a national trend.
    Meanwhile on Monday, June 4th in an unrelated matter I sent off a check to the Cody
    Firearms Museum in Cody, Wyoming. Also, a personal letter detailing the serial no.
    on my late great uncle’s 12 gauge Winchester Model 97 “hammer” pump action shotgun: standard grade, 28″ modified choke barrel, and of 1951 or 1952 vintage. An 87 year old widow in Germany has it. Her late husband died decades ago and inherited it from my late great uncle. And I sure want it badly! Thus the documentation from the
    Buffalo Bill Historical Center for shipment back into the United States. I suppose shotgun will go through U.S. Customs. I’m having Winchester Model 97 shipped to a
    licensed FFL gun shop in Klamath Falls ,Oregon. The Winchester Model 97 was designed by John M. Browning and produced for 60 years from 1897 to 1957. I certainly
    hope to get shotgun back into my family. I haven’t seen it since the 1970’s.

    James A. “Jim” Farmer
    Merrill, Oregon (Klamath County)

  13. 8 Months in Ventura County, CA for mine. From what I understand it is now up to a year now for new ones, renewals take 60 to 90 days.

  14. Pennsylvania – No written test, no hands-on test, no fingerprints, no psych report, just a simple one-page application plus twenty bucks. In most cases (which vary by county), you turn in the paper, they take your picture, they hand you your license.

  15. No permit required in MS. Go buy your gun, and a holster and ammo, 40 rnd mag, or whatever else you want. Walk out to your car, motorcycle, etc. with your stuff, load up and go to Walmart or wherever. Only requirement is the 4473 phone call and Fed laws for cans, full auto, etc. .

  16. “…You may end up in jail and you’ll deserve it.”

    That right there is a unconstitutional communist statement. Jerk.

  17. Use the time to bone up on your game skills. Yahtzee, Cribbage, various card and board games…

    • Cribbage. Cribbage?!?!? I thought only people in northern Wisconsin and Michigan know of that game!

  19. Get an 1858 Remington and carry that? Not a firearm and therefore not a violation of concealed firearms laws.

    • My bowie knife isn’t a firearm, but I could get in serious trouble for carrying it concealed in many states. In my state, even a concealed pistol license wouldn’t legally protect me from a concealed weapon charge if I carried a knife instead of / in addition to a handgun.

  21. My first permit was a Virginia non-resident permit. It took and takes at least 3 months. I bought ammo and practiced at the range. This was early 2013 and finding ammo was a part time job.

  22. MA – non-resident Class A ALP no restrictions 10 MONTHS!!! $506 poll tax including cost of permit, photo, State of residence background check, air and ground travel to and from, 53′ interview with investigator, and already in possession of home state carry and CT non-resident carry and 1500 hours of training and non-sworn LE status.

    Would that MA apply the same requirements to voting rights; or, running for elected office. 😀 😀 😀

  23. “You may end up in jail and you’ll deserve it.”
    Umm no! Carry permits are unconstitutional and you do not deserve to go to jail for carrying without one. That said, don’t do it.

  24. Utah took about two months for me recently (applied the day they had the “March” to Washington). We have a weird law here, you need a permit to carry a loaded firearm but not one that requires two actions to fire, so if you carry with the chamber empty (Israeli carry) you can do it without a permit in some locations. (If you don’t want to open carry). The two actions would be to chamber a bullet then pull the trigger.

    Obviously check the law to make sure it didn’t change before you do that, but it lets you get used to your holster/gun while staying legal.

    • Does that make carrying the gun illegal after you rack and shoot a round? (Assuming the semi auto automatically chambers the next shot).

      • Yes… without a permit, and concealed,,,, but if you had a DGU I’m assuming the police would then take your gun for evidence?

  26. Buy and try 2 holsters a day till your permit arrives and by the time it does you might have a holster you like.

  27. In Tennessee, you don’t need a permit to carry loaded or unloaded in your car, concealed or open…just not on your person. You can even have it on school property as long as you don’t play with it, as in picking your kids up. Of course, home carry is unrestricted as is the work place (if the company is ok with it) so, if you’re waiting on your permission slip, carry at home the way you plan to carry when “permitted” & drive around knowing you’re at least protected in your car. I go through drive-throughs a lot.
    The only way I can see getting the government to understand (or at least, draw it to their attention where it can’t be ignored any longer) that we don’t need permission to exercise a right, is stage an organized, nation-wide day, week, month, or continuously….to voice the unconstionality of said “permission slips”. Seems to be working for the antis! It’s all for state revenue anyway (which is unconstitutional as well), not for safety.

  29. You can do a couple of things. Practice your draw stroke a few days a week, something you can do at home easily. You can also get in a lot of dry fire practice that will make you a much better shooter – try to do at least one dry fire round for every live round you shoot, preferably more. Lastly, you can conceal carry at home to get acclimated to what it feels like to carry. After sixty days or so of practice you should feel very confident in that first day you leave home carrying.

  30. There are places that are 2 to 3 weeks?

    My county in NC says 3-4 months and they’re blaming it on the feds.

    The two lines above don’t square.

    Hmm, maybe some states don’t do a fed check?

    • I think it really depends on the state. If yours blames the feds, they’re passing the buck. Otherwise, the states that have Constitutional Carry would be breaking federal law…instead of the states that require permits, doing exactly that. We need a Constitutional government, not these “leave it up to the bureaucrats way of governing”, states.

  31. Go to Alaska or come to AZ…Wait too long and they’ll tax you before you are allowed to leave. That is how George S. Got his start long before most readers here were born. Hammer or anvil, you must be. Don’t wait.

  32. You made a good point that brushing up on state laws is also very important when planning to get a permit to carry concealed weapons. I’m interested in know more about that because I’m interested in buying my own gun soon. Knowing where I could bring it with me would be important to figure out early on.

  33. I wasn’t very aware about state laws when it came to concealed carry, so I do think that this is something I should study up on. If I don’t, I could end up causing myself a lot of trouble and potentially get arrested, and that’s not something I want to experience. I’ll make sure I go look for a concealed carry class I can start going to and get a permit from so I can consult them about state laws as well.

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