California Concealed Carry Permit Laws
Restrictive — Permit Required
A permit is required and notably restrictive; applicants must show good moral character and pass extensive review.
What “Restrictive — Permit Required” means
A permit is required and these are the most restrictive jurisdictions in the country — extensive review, training and broad sensitive-place bans. NYSRPA v. Bruen (2022) struck down discretionary "may-issue" licensing, so they must now issue to qualified applicants, but obtaining and using a permit remains substantially harder than elsewhere.
7 of 51 states are in the same category
Alongside California: Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, District of Columbia.
Source: public state-law references (Wikipedia, USCCA, Giffords Law Center) · as of July 2026 · last verified August 5, 2026
See every state in our concealed carry tracker, or everything we track for California.
Free to republish with attribution and a link back. How that works.