Nevada does not require a permit to carry a handgun openly. Carry the same handgun under a jacket without a permit Nevada recognizes, and it is a category C felony. Nevada gun law is full of lines like that one: between open and concealed carry, between a gun owner and a person the law says may not have a gun, between a gun at home and the same gun after a few drinks somewhere else. A gun charge in Stateline or Douglas County turns on which side of one of those lines the State can prove you were on.
The stakes are higher than most people expect. Possession by a prohibited person is a category B felony, and a conviction from years ago, in any state, can be the reason someone is prohibited. Carrying a handgun for self-defense is constitutionally protected, inside and outside the home, so the State has to justify each restriction it enforces, and under the Fourth Amendment it has to justify the stop or search that found the gun.
I’m Theodore FitzGerald, a criminal defense lawyer in Stateline. I work from one rule: the government has to follow the law at every step. In a gun case, that means the stop, the search, and the status the State says made possession a crime each have to stand on their own, and I check every one.
Can I carry a gun in Nevada without a permit?
Openly, generally yes. The Nevada Supreme Court has observed that “no law in the State of Nevada would have prevented [the defendant] from openly carrying a firearm.” Open carry still has limits: the intoxication statute, the brandishing statute, and restricted locations all apply, and private property owners set their own rules.
Concealed, no. Nevada law prohibits carrying a “pistol, revolver or other firearm” concealed upon the person, except as the permit statutes allow. A “concealed weapon” is one “carried upon a person in such a manner as not to be discernible by ordinary observation.” A violation is a category C felony: 1 to 5 years and a fine of up to $10,000. The exemptions cover on-duty and qualifying retired law enforcement and on-duty military.
Nevada permits. A Nevada resident applies to the sheriff of the county where he or she lives; a nonresident “may apply to the sheriff of any county in this State.” The sheriff must issue a permit to an applicant who is qualified to possess a handgun under state and federal law, is 21 or older (or 18 to 20 with qualifying military service), is not a prohibited person under Nevada law, and has completed an approved firearm-safety course.
What can cost you a permit. The sheriff must deny or revoke a permit for, among other things, an outstanding arrest warrant, a felony conviction, a conviction for a crime involving domestic violence or stalking, a current protection order against domestic violence, current probation or parole, or a misdemeanor crime of violence within the past 3 years. The statute also presumes habitual impairing use of alcohol or drugs, which is a ground for denial, from a DUI conviction within the past 5 years. For a permit holder, the collateral consequence of a DUI or battery case can include the permit.
Out-of-state permits. Nevada recognizes another state’s permit only if that state appears on the list the Department of Public Safety prepares each year by July 1. A state makes the list only if it requires training before issuing a permit and maintains a permit database Nevada officers can access at all times. The list changes from year to year. California is not on the list effective July 1, 2026. A person who moves to Nevada can carry on a recognized out-of-state permit for only 60 days before needing a Nevada permit from the sheriff of the county of residence.
Restricted locations. Even with a valid permit, Nevada law bars concealed carry in a public building on public-airport property; in a public building on the property of a public school, child-care facility, or the Nevada System of Higher Education without written permission; and in a public building with a metal detector or a no-firearms sign at each public entrance, subject to exceptions. Violating those restrictions is a misdemeanor.
Who is a prohibited person in Nevada?
Nevada’s prohibited-person statute makes it a crime for certain people to “own or have in his or her possession or under his or her custody or control any firearm.” The State must prove three things: the person’s prohibited status, possession (actual or constructive), and that the item was a firearm.
Category B felony: 1 to 6 years, fine up to $5,000. A person is prohibited if he or she:
- has been convicted of battery constituting domestic violence under Nevada law, “or a law of any other jurisdiction that prohibits the same or substantially similar conduct,” against a spouse or former spouse, a dating partner, a co-parent, a parent, or the person’s child or ward;
- has been convicted of a felony in Nevada, any other state, or federally, unless pardoned without a firearm restriction;
- has been convicted of stalking where the court entered the specific finding the stalking statute requires;
- is currently subject to an extended protection order against domestic violence that includes a firearm prohibition, or an equivalent order from another state;
- is a fugitive from justice;
- is an unlawful user of, or addicted to, any controlled substance; or
- is otherwise prohibited by federal law.
Category D felony: 1 to 4 years. A person is also prohibited if adjudicated mentally ill or committed to a mental health facility by a court, if he or she pleaded or was found guilty but mentally ill, if acquitted by reason of insanity, or if illegally or unlawfully in the United States.
A conviction from another state counts the same way a Nevada conviction does. A conviction that was later reduced, set aside, or dismissed raises a separate question that depends on exactly what the other court did. And the “otherwise prohibited by federal law” clause brings in the federal list, discussed below.
How many counts? The Nevada Supreme Court has held that when a prohibited person possesses several guns at one time and place, the State may charge only one violation, “regardless of the number of firearms.” Guns acquired or stored at different times and places are an open question.
“Unlawful user” and cannabis. The Nevada Supreme Court has held that “an unlawful user” is “a person who regularly uses the substance, in a manner not medically prescribed, over a period of time proximate to, or contemporaneous with, possession of a firearm,” and that “a single use of the drug is insufficient.” A jury instruction that left out the regular-use requirement required reversal. This is where cannabis and firearms collide. Nevada lets adults possess cannabis within limits, but the prohibited-person statute borrows the federal definition of “controlled substance,” and federal law still lists marijuana. Whether a regular, state-lawful cannabis user is an “unlawful user” under the Nevada statute has not been decided. The federal version of the same prohibition is discussed below.
Drug offenses with a gun. Separately, using or carrying a firearm “during and in relation to,” or possessing one “in furtherance of,” a sale, possession-for-sale, or trafficking offense is a category B felony, 1 to 6 years. See Drug Charges in Tahoe and Douglas County.
Having a gun after drinking
It is unlawful to have a firearm in your “actual physical possession” with a blood or breath alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more, or while under the influence of a controlled substance (or alcohol and a controlled substance combined) “to a degree which renders [you] incapable of safely exercising actual physical control of a firearm.” A violation is a misdemeanor.
The statute’s only exception is possession “within the person’s personal residence” and “solely for self-defense.” A car, a hotel room, or a rental cabin is not named. The firearm can be forfeited “only if” it was “brandished, aimed or otherwise handled … in a manner which endangered others.” Whether a gun was in your “actual physical possession,” on you or locked in a safe across the room, is a fact question.
Because the 0.08 threshold is the same as the DUI limit, these cases often come with a DUI arrest, and the same chemical-testing issues apply. See DUI Defense in Stateline and Douglas County.
Brandishing, aiming, and discharging a firearm
Disputes in parking lots, at home or a rental, and on the road produce three recurring charges.
- Drawing or exhibiting a deadly weapon in a threatening manner. In the presence of two or more people, drawing or exhibiting a deadly weapon “in a rude, angry or threatening manner not in necessary self-defense.” Misdemeanor.
- Aiming a firearm at a person, or discharging a weapon where someone might be endangered. Willfully aiming a firearm, loaded or not, at a human being, or discharging a firearm “in a public place or in any place where any person might be endangered,” even if no one is hurt. Gross misdemeanor, up to 364 days and a fine up to $2,000.
- Discharging a firearm within or from a structure or vehicle, maliciously or wantonly. Outside an area designated by local ordinance as populated, a misdemeanor; within one, a category B felony, 1 to 10 years.
The words “not in necessary self-defense” in the brandishing statute are part of the offense. Where a person displayed a gun because he reasonably feared harm, self-defense is the core of the case, and the sequence of events, often captured on a phone or a doorbell camera, decides it. Assault and battery charges from the same events are on Battery and Assault Charges in Stateline.
The federal overlay
Federal law separately prohibits possession of a firearm or ammunition “in or affecting commerce” by a person who has been convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year; is a fugitive from justice; is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance; has been adjudicated a mental defective or committed to a mental institution; is unlawfully in the United States, or (with exceptions) was admitted on a nonimmigrant visa; was dishonorably discharged; has renounced U.S. citizenship; is subject to a qualifying domestic-violence restraining order; or has been convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.
Two consequences follow. A Nevada case can draw a parallel federal prosecution. And a Nevada conviction can create a federal firearm disability even where Nevada law would not; the federal misdemeanor-domestic-violence category is the familiar example, and it can reach a conviction for simple battery. See Domestic Violence Charges in Stateline and Douglas County.
The Second Amendment arguments now in play
In 2022 the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second and Fourteenth Amendments “protect an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home,” and set the test: when the Second Amendment’s text covers the conduct, it is presumptively protected, and “[t]he government must then justify its regulation by demonstrating that it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” In 2024 the Court refined the test (a modern law need not be a “historical twin,” but must be “relevantly similar” in why and how it burdens the right) and upheld the federal ban on possession by a person subject to a restraining order with a credible-threat finding.
In 2026 the Court held the federal “unlawful user” prohibition unconstitutional as applied to a man prosecuted solely on the basis of regular marijuana use, without proof that his use made him dangerous. It expressly did not decide cases involving addicts, people who are presently intoxicated, or prosecutions supported by individualized proof of danger, and it did not address the felon prohibition.
In 2025 the Nevada Supreme Court applied the test and upheld the concealed-carry permit requirement against a 19-year-old’s as-applied challenge, reasoning that because Nevada left open carry available to him, regulating the concealed manner of carry does not infringe the right. Before the 2022 decision, it had rejected a Second Amendment and Nevada constitutional challenge to the felon-in-possession prohibition.
Constitutional challenges are real litigation now, especially to the status-based categories of Nevada’s prohibited-person statute. They are also complex, fact-specific, and uncertain. Whether one belongs in a particular case is a judgment made with the client, weighing what litigating it costs against what it might accomplish.
The stop and the search
Firearms charges usually begin with a traffic stop, a security call, or a response to a disturbance. The legal questions are the same as in any search case: whether the stop was justified at its start, whether it was prolonged beyond the time its mission required, whether a frisk was supported by specific facts warranting a belief that the person was “armed and presently dangerous,” whether consent was voluntary, and whether a vehicle search rested on probable cause. In a possession case, a gun found through an unlawful stop or search is subject to suppression, and without it the State often has no case. More on search issues is on Drug Charges in Tahoe and Douglas County.
Defending a Douglas County gun charge
The stop and the search are examined first, because in a possession case the gun is the case.
The status element is checked against the record, not the report: whether an out-of-state conviction actually matches Nevada’s definitions, whether a pardon or a later reduction changes it, and, for a cannabis-based “unlawful user” theory, whether the State can show regular use close in time to the possession. In a concealed-carry case, what “concealed” meant on the facts, the status of any permit, and the constitutional posture after the 2025 Nevada decision are evaluated before a plea is discussed. So is the federal consequence of any resolution, including the misdemeanor-domestic-violence and unlawful-user categories. Return of a seized firearm is pursued where the law allows it.
Misdemeanor charges (possession while intoxicated, brandishing) are heard in Tahoe Justice Court, or in East Fork Justice Court for cases from the Carson Valley. Gross misdemeanors such as aiming or discharging, and felonies such as concealed carry without a permit or prohibited-person possession, begin there and, after a preliminary hearing or waiver, move to the Ninth Judicial District Court. My office arranges remote appearances where the court allows them and tells you in advance which dates need you in the courtroom.
Hire me now, and I’ll get to work: the stop and the search are examined, the records behind the status element are pulled, and your court dates go on my calendar. Call FitzGerald Law.