Montana Concealed Carry Permit

Montana law permits building a firearm for personal use. There is no Montana statute prohibiting private manufacture, and no Montana statute requiring a serial number, state registration, or a background check for a self-made firearm. MCA 30-20-104, verified verbatim 2026-09-15, expressly contemplates 'A personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in Montana and that remains within the borders of Montana,' and declares such an item 'is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce.' The Act reaches only items 'manufactured in Montana from basic materials' that 'can be manufactured without the inclusion of any significant parts imported from another state,' and declares that 'basic materials, such as unmachined steel and unshaped wood,' are not firearms. MCA 30-20-105 carves out (1) a firearm that cannot be carried and used by one person, (2) a firearm with a bore diameter greater than 1 1/2 inches using smokeless rather than black powder, (3) ammunition with a projectile that explodes by chemical energy after leaving the firearm, and (4) a firearm that discharges two or more projectiles with one activation of the trigger. MCA 30-20-106 imposes the Act's only marking requirement - and it is a marking, not a serial number: 'A firearm manufactured or sold in Montana under this part must have the words "Made in Montana" clearly stamped on a central metallic part, such as the receiver or frame.' A full review of MCA Title 45, ch. 8, part 3 found no provision criminalizing an unserialized or self-manufactured firearm. Montana's separate weapon crimes remain applicable regardless of who made the gun: MCA 45-8-313 (possession of firearm by convicted person), 45-8-334 (destructive device), 45-8-336/337 (silencers), and 45-8-340 (sawed-off firearm). CRITICAL FEDERAL CAVEAT - NOW VERIFIED FROM THE COURT'S OWN OPINION: the Montana Firearms Freedom Act has been held preempted and invalid. In Montana Shooting Sports Association v. Holder, No. 10-36094 (9th Cir., filed August 23, 2013), the Ninth Circuit affirmed dismissal of the MFFA challenge for failure to state a claim. The published opinion (Clifton, J.; Bea, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part) holds that although plaintiff Gary Marbut had standing on account of economic injury, the complaint 'failed to state a claim in light of Gonzales v. Raich, 545 U.S. 1 (2005), and United States v. Stewart, 451 F.3d 1071 (9th Cir. 2006), and that Congress could rationally conclude that unlicensed firearms made in Montana would make their way into the interstate market. The panel held that the MFFA was necessarily preempted and invalid.' The conclusion reads: 'Though we conclude that plaintiff Gary Marbut has standing, we affirm the dismissal of the action for failure to state a claim. AFFIRMED.' Federal law governs privately made firearms independently of the MFFA - the National Firearms Act, the federal prohibition on manufacturing for sale without a license, the federal undetectable-firearms statute (18 U.S.C. 922(p)), and ATF marking and 'firearm frame or receiver' rules. DO NOT treat MCA 30-20-104 as a shield against federal prosecution; a federal court of appeals has squarely held that it is not.

MCA 30-20-101 through 30-20-106 (Montana Firearms Freedom Act); MCA Title 45, ch. 8, part 3 (Weapons) contains no serialization or registration requirement

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

What we could not confirm

• MINIMUM AGE FOR PERMITLESS CARRY IS NOT STATED IN THE STATUTE. MCA 45-8-316(3) exempts 'a person eligible to possess a firearm under state or federal law' and sets no age. I recorded 18 because federal 18 U.S.C. 922(x) generally bars handgun possession by persons under 18, but that federal statute has express exceptions (for example, temporary possession by a 16- or 17-year-old with written parental consent for employment, ranching, farming, target practice, or hunting), and Montana's own MCA 45-8-344 only restricts firearm use by children under 14. Whether a person under 18 could lawfully carry a concealed handgun in Montana in one of those narrow circumstances is a genuinely unsettled question that I could not resolve from any Montana primary source. Anyone under 18 should consult a Montana attorney and their county sheriff before relying on this.
• THE STANDARD PERMIT'S TERM IS ASYMMETRIC - 5 YEARS INITIAL, 4 YEARS PER RENEWAL - AND I NOW KNOW WHERE THAT CAME FROM, BUT NOT WHETHER IT WAS INTENDED. MCA 45-8-321(1) says the permit 'is valid for 5 years from the date of issuance,' while MCA 45-8-322(3) says it 'must be renewed for additional 4-YEAR periods.' I traced the mismatch to the 2023 session: an Internet Archive capture of the official MCA page taken 2022-09-01 shows the pre-2023 text of 45-8-321(1) read 'valid for 4 years,' and the only substantive difference between that text and today's is the 4-to-5 change, introduced by 'amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 474, L. 2023.' The renewal period in 45-8-322(3) was left at 4 years. So the asymmetry is real and current, but I found no official gloss reconciling the two subsections and no legislative statement that the split term was deliberate. validityYears is set to 5 because that is the initial term a first-time applicant receives. Renewals appear to run 4 years. Because the Internet Archive went offline partway through this session I could not also retrieve a pre-2023 capture of 45-8-322 to prove its renewal period was untouched in 2023, so treat the 'left at 4 years' inference as one step short of fully verified - the CURRENT 4-year renewal text is verified directly from the live official page.
• FINGERPRINTS ARE SHERIFF-DISCRETIONARY FOR THE STANDARD PERMIT, NOT UNIFORMLY REQUIRED. I set fingerprintsRequired to false because MCA 45-8-322(4) says the sheriff 'MAY require' fingerprints. That is a statement about state law, not about your county. Actual practice varies county by county and I could not survey all 56 Montana county sheriffs. Fingerprints ARE mandatory for the optional enhanced permit under MCA 45-8-312(2)(a)-(b).
• NO STATE-CERTIFIED INSTRUCTOR REGISTRY EXISTS, so instructorRegistryUrl is null. Montana does not license or certify concealed-weapon instructors. MCA 45-8-321(3) instead accepts courses from Fish, Wildlife and Parks, out-of-state equivalents, national firearms associations, law enforcement agencies, and institutions of higher education. Enhanced-permit courses must be 'approved by a law enforcement agency' under 45-8-312(5), and that approval is made agency by agency. I re-searched the Montana DOJ site's own index on 2026-09-15 and found no consolidated state list of approved courses, approved instructors, or approving agencies.
• THE MONTANA DOJ PUBLISHES NOTHING AT ALL ABOUT THE ENHANCED PERMIT. Searching the dojmt.gov content index on 2026-09-15 returned exactly one concealed-weapons page, and it describes only permitless carry and the standard MCA 45-8-321 permit. Every enhanced-permit figure in this record ($75, 5 years, age 21, mandatory prints, 98 rounds of live fire, the 180-day renewal window) therefore rests on the statutory text of MCA 45-8-312 alone, with no agency guidance, no application form, and no fee schedule from the state to corroborate it. An applicant should expect county-by-county variation in how the enhanced permit is administered and should ask the sheriff directly which local law enforcement agency approves qualifying handgun courses.
• THE ENHANCED PERMIT'S RENEWAL FEE IS NOT STATED IN STATUTE. MCA 45-8-312(11) sets the issuance fee at $75 and 45-8-312(6) sets out the renewal requirements (background check plus repeated live fire) without naming a dollar amount, and 45-8-322(3)'s $25 renewal fee is written for the standard permit. I could find no primary source stating what an enhanced renewal costs, so no enhanced renewal figure is recorded. Ask your county sheriff.
• THE DOJ PAGE STATES THE GOVERNMENT-BUILDING RULE MORE NARROWLY THAN THE STATUTE DOES, AND THE CONFLICT MATTERS TO VISITORS. The DOJ page says: 'Montana law allows any person to conceal carry a weapon in state government office or state building, but only if that person is the holder of a current, valid MONTANA concealed weapon permit.' The statutes are broader: MCA 45-8-328(1) exempts 'a person issued a permit pursuant to 45-8-321 or 45-8-312 or a person recognized pursuant to 45-8-329,' and MCA 45-8-356 extends its statewide protection to a permit 'issued pursuant to 45-8-321 or 45-8-312 or recognized pursuant to 45-8-329.' On the statutory text, a holder of a recognized out-of-state permit is covered; on the DOJ page's wording, only a Montana permit holder is. The statute controls, but I could not find any official reconciliation, and a visitor relying on a recognized out-of-state permit in a restricted portion of a Montana government office building is exposed to an officer who is following the agency's own published summary. Anyone in that position should verify with the specific building's authority or the county sheriff first.
• COUNTY AND LOCAL VARIATION IS REAL AND NOT CAPTURED HERE. MCA 45-8-351(2)(a) expressly preserves local authority to 'prevent and suppress the carrying of unpermitted concealed weapons or the carrying of unconcealed weapons to a publicly owned and occupied building under its jurisdiction,' and the DOJ page instructs readers to 'check local regulations' and notes that 'County sheriffs can provide information on where concealed weapons are prohibited in their counties.' I did not survey local ordinances. A permitless carrier in particular should verify local rules before entering any government building.
• TRIBAL LANDS ARE NOT ADDRESSED by any source I reviewed. Montana contains seven federally recognized reservations, and tribal law may impose separate firearms restrictions that neither MCA Title 45 nor the DOJ page speaks to. MCA 45-8-322(3) and the DOJ sample application do recognize tribal identification cards as acceptable ID for the permit itself, but that says nothing about where tribal law permits carry.
• NO 2026 MONTANA LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY WAS FOUND, BUT I VERIFIED THIS INDIRECTLY. The edition served at mca.legmt.gov is 'Montana Code Annotated 2025,' the current official edition, and the Montana Legislature meets in regular session only in odd-numbered years, so no regular 2026 session has amended these statutes. A web search for a 2026 special session touching firearms returned nothing. I did not, however, find a primary legislative source affirmatively confirming that no 2026 special session occurred, so that rests on the absence of evidence rather than on a positive source.
• THE SUPREME COURT'S DISPOSITION OF MSSA v. HOLDER IS NOT VERIFIED FROM A PRIMARY SOURCE. I verified the Ninth Circuit's published opinion directly from the court's own PDF (No. 10-36094, filed Aug. 23, 2013, affirming dismissal and holding the MFFA 'necessarily preempted and invalid'). Secondary reporting says the Supreme Court then denied review, and I have no reason to doubt it, but I did not retrieve a Supreme Court order or docket entry confirming the denial, so the record asserts only the Ninth Circuit holding.