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Nebraska Concealed Carry Permit

Nebraska allows permitless carry for non-prohibited adults 21+. A CHP is still available and is what other states recognize.

Permitless carry is legal in Nebraska

A non-prohibited adult aged 21 or older may carry a concealed handgun without a permit (since 2023). YES — permitless (constitutional) carry took effect September 2, 2023 under LB 77. The affirmative grant is in Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1202.01(1): "Except as otherwise provided in this section and section 28-1204.04, a person, other than a minor or a prohibited person, may carry a concealed handgun anywhere in Nebraska, with or without a permit under the Concealed Handgun Permit Act." Section 28-1202 supplies the matching prohibition: "A minor or a prohibited person shall not carry a weapon or weapons concealed on or about his or her person" (Class I misdemeanor first offense, Class IV felony second or subsequent). Section 28-1201(11) defines "minor" as a person under 21, EXCEPT that a person 18 or older who is active-duty or reserve armed forces, National Guard of this state, or Reserve Officers' Training Corps, or a peace officer or other duly authorized law enforcement officer, is not a minor for this purpose. Section 28-1201(12) defines "prohibited person" as a person barred from possessing a firearm or ammunition by state law (including but not limited to 28-1206) or by 18 U.S.C. 922(d) or (g) as that section existed January 1, 2023. NOTE the date mismatch: permitless carry keys to federal law as of January 1, 2023, while permit eligibility under 69-2433 keys to 18 U.S.C. 922 as it existed January 1, 2005. Permitless carriers remain bound by the location bans in 28-1202.01(3), the zero-tolerance alcohol/controlled-substance bar in 28-1202.02, the duty to carry an identification document in 28-1202.03, and the peace-officer-contact / handgun-securing procedure in 28-1202.04. PERMIT-ONLY PRIVILEGE (new for 2026): LB 1237, which became law April 17, 2026 without the Governor's approval and is in effect (the Legislature's 2026 general effective date was July 18, 2026), makes it an offense to knowingly enter or attempt to enter the State Capitol while in possession of a weapon, and the concealed-handgun exception runs ONLY to "an individual holding a current and valid permit to carry a concealed handgun issued pursuant to the Concealed Handgun Permit Act" (plus persons with prior Nebraska State Patrol approval, on-duty law enforcement, and qualified/retired officers under 18 U.S.C. 926B/926C). The parallel carve-out was added as 28-1202.01(11). A permitless carrier therefore may NOT carry into the State Capitol; a Nebraska permit holder may. The State Patrol must implement weapons and prohibited-substance screening at the Capitol no later than January 1, 2027 (Neb. Rev. Stat. 81-1108.15(6)(b)). Separately, possessing a firearm in a school, on school grounds, in a school-owned vehicle, or at a school-sponsored activity or athletic event is the Class IV felony of unlawful possession of a firearm at a school under 28-1204.04, which binds permit holders and permitless carriers alike; LB 1329 (2024) BROADENED the school-parking-lot exception in 28-1204.04(2)(j) from a "valid holder of a permit issued under the Concealed Handgun Permit Act" to "a person other than a minor or prohibited person," so a permitless carrier now also may leave a handgun locked in a vehicle compartment in a school parking area open to the public. LB 1329 also added a "home school" definition to 28-1201 and excluded home schools from the definition of "school." A permit remains useful for out-of-state reciprocity and is now required for State Capitol carry. LOCAL PREEMPTION (Neb. Rev. Stat. 13-330 (as amended by LB 77, 2023, § 1; formerly § 18-1703)): LB 77 did far more than authorize permitless carry — its section 1 rewrote the preemption statute now codified at Neb. Rev. Stat. 13-330. It declares "that the regulation of the ownership, possession, storage, transportation, sale, and transfer of firearms and other weapons is a matter of statewide concern," and provides that "Notwithstanding the provisions of any home rule charter, counties, cities, and villages shall not have the power to: (a) Regulate the ownership, possession, storage, transportation, sale, or transfer of firearms or other weapons, except as expressly provided by state law; or (b) Require registration of firearms or other weapons," with any conflicting ordinance, permit or regulation "declared to be null and void." The "notwithstanding any home rule charter" language is what reaches Omaha (metropolitan class) and Lincoln (primary class). Before LB 77 the same section preempted only the regulation of concealed handguns "as such ownership, possession, or transportation is authorized under the Concealed Handgun Permit Act," and only "as against any permitholder" — so the 2023 rewrite is a large expansion. LB 77 also struck the concealed-weapons power out of each city-class enabling statute: 14-102 (Omaha), 15-255 (Lincoln), 16-227 (first class) and 17-556 (second class and villages) no longer authorize a city to "punish and prevent the carrying of concealed weapons." WHAT SURVIVED, precisely: (1) discharge. Section 13-330(2)(a) enumerates ownership, possession, storage, transportation, sale and transfer — not discharge — and the city-class statutes still expressly grant discharge authority, so local discharge ordinances stand. Omaha retains 14-102(6), "To punish and prevent the discharge of firearms, fireworks, or explosives of any description within the city, other than the discharge of firearms at a shooting range pursuant to the Nebraska Shooting Range Protection Act"; Lincoln retains 15-255(2), "prevent the discharge of firearms, rockets, powder, fireworks, or other dangerous and combustible material." (2) Gunpowder and explosives handling: 14-102(19) still allows Omaha "To regulate or prohibit the transportation and keeping of gunpowder, oils, and other combustible and explosive articles," and 15-255(3) is the Lincoln analogue. (3) The property-owner power that every place in Nebraska has: 28-1202.01(2) and (5) let "the person, persons, entity, or entities in control of the place or premises" — a city included, acting as a property owner rather than a regulator — prohibit concealed carry on that place by posting conspicuous notice or by asking the carrier to remove the handgun. WHAT DID NOT SURVIVE: Omaha repealed 22 gun ordinances and amended 8 more after LB 77, including its handgun purchase permit requirement, its ban on possession by people under 21, and its restrictions on carrying concealed without a state permit. STILL CONTESTED — do not tell a reader these cities are simply gun-ordinance-free: Omaha subsequently enacted ordinances banning bump stocks and "ghost gun" parts, and in February 2026 a Douglas County District Court judge upheld them, holding that neither bump stocks nor ghost guns fall within what LB 77 preempted; the separate challenge to Omaha's executive order barring firearms on city property was held moot because the order had been rescinded in 2025. Lincoln's ordinances (firearms on city property, firearms in parks, firearm sales reporting, prohibited devices, switchblades, and vehicle firearm storage) remain on the books and are still being litigated: the Nebraska Supreme Court decided the standing question in Nebraska Firearms Owners Assn. v. City of Lincoln, No. S-24-0503 (Aug. 29, 2025) — the association lacked associational standing but the individual plaintiffs had standing on a credible threat of prosecution — and the merits returned to the District Court for Lancaster County (Judge Andrew R. Jacobsen), where cross-motions for summary judgment were argued in July 2026. A reader in Omaha or Lincoln should assume these specific local rules may be enforced until a court says otherwise.

Getting the permit anyway is still worth it for most people: other states recognize the permit, not your residency, so without one you generally cannot carry across state lines.

Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1202.01(1), 28-1202, 28-1201 (as amended by LB 77, 2023; LB 1329, 2024; LB 1237, 2026)

There are 13 details on this page we could not confirm from a primary source. Read what they are before relying on this.

Requirements at a glance

Permit name Concealed Handgun Permit
Issuing authority Nebraska State Patrol
System shall-issue
Minimum age 21 — Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2433(1) requires a permit applicant to "Be at least twenty-one years of age." There is no lower-age or provisional permit. For permitless carry the effective floor is also 21, except that 18+ active or reserve armed forces, National Guard, and Reserve Officers' Training Corps members, and peace officers or other duly authorized law enforcement officers, are excluded from the definition of "minor" in Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1201(11)(b) and may carry concealed at 18.
Training required Yes, live fire required
State fee $100 initial / $50 renewal — the state's own charge, not the total
Valid for 5 years
Processing time Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2430 requires NSP to issue within forty-five days after the date of application if the applicant has complied with that section and met all requirements of 69-2433. The NSP FAQ states: "If all requirements are met, an initial permit will be issued within 45 days after application. Renewal, data change, and lost/stolen applications will be processed in the order they are received." A federal record check is requested before state and local records. NSP advises calling the office before arriving, because days and hours vary and "Some offices do not always have staff available for fingerprinting and notarizing applications." An applicant denied a permit may appeal to the district court for the county of residence or of application under the Administrative Procedure Act (69-2430).
Fingerprints Required
Non-resident permit Not available

What it actually costs

The state fee is rarely the whole bill. Fingerprinting is usually charged by a private vendor, training is bought from an instructor, and several states add photographs, notarisation or other requirements on top.

State fee $100
Fingerprinting $15–$45 — our estimate; no vendor publishes a rate
Training course $75–$250 (private instructor)
Online portal charge $4.50 — only if paying online, so excluded from the total
Realistic total $190–$395 — includes an estimated component

Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2436 sets $100 for five years and $50 to renew, and Nebraska is tidy about the small things — name changes, address updates and replacing a lost permit are all free. 69-2432 prescribes the syllabus without an hour count, and the State Patrol's own FAQ declines to supply one: 'Courses will normally last from 8 to 16 hours, there is no required length.' That two-fold spread in the largest component, sitting on top of an unpriced fingerprint charge, is why the total is left open. Note that all of these costs describe the PERMIT. Carrying concealed without a permit in Nebraska costs nothing: there is no fee, no course and no application, only the duty to carry an identification document under 28-1202.03.

Set by Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2436: "The fee for issuing a permit is one hundred dollars" and the renewal fee is "fifty dollars," each covering a five-year term. The NSP FAQ confirms "Initial = $100 Renewal = $50" and that paying by credit card, debit card or e-check online adds a $4.50 charge. Name/address updates and lost-or-stolen replacements are free. Training course costs are separate and paid directly to the instructor. Renewal may be applied for no earlier than four months before expiration and no later than thirty business days after the date of expiration (69-2436).

How to apply

  1. FIRST, check whether you need a permit at all. Since September 2, 2023, Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1202.01(1) lets any person who is not a minor or a prohibited person carry a concealed handgun anywhere in Nebraska with or without a permit, so a permit is optional for most Nebraska carry. Get the permit if you want out-of-state reciprocity, want to carry concealed in the State Capitol (a permit-only privilege under LB 77's successor LB 1237, 2026), or want to buy handguns without a separate NSP handgun purchase certificate.
  2. Confirm eligibility under Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2433: at least 21 years old, Nebraska resident for at least 180 days (waived if you moved to Nebraska holding a valid permit from a state on the NSP recognition list — but the application fee, background check, handgun training course and all other documentation still apply), not a prohibited person, not on parole, probation, house arrest or work release, and able to meet the Class O operator's license vision standard.
  3. Complete an NSP-approved handgun training and safety course covering the subject matter in Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2432, including the live-fire exercise that NSP requires be completed at a firing range. Online-only courses are NOT accepted. Find a certified instructor through the NSP Certified Concealed Handgun Instructors directory. Course length is set by the instructor — NSP says courses normally run 8 to 16 hours and that there is no required length.
  4. Obtain the signed training certificate from the certified instructor. It is valid as proof of training under the Concealed Handgun Permit Act; you do not need a new certificate for a later renewal.
  5. If you do not hold a current Nebraska driver's license, have an optometrist or ophthalmologist complete the NSP Vision Statement (form 1715). Eyeglass and contact lens prescriptions are not accepted.
  6. Complete the Nebraska Concealed Handgun Permit Application (NSP form 1710, rev. 01/06/2026). Answer every question accurately — providing false information or false evidence of identity is a Class IV felony.
  7. Gather your documents: proof of training; proof of citizenship or lawful status (certified state-issued birth certificate, naturalization papers, certificate of citizenship, current or expired U.S. passport, Permanent Resident Card, Employment Authorization Card, visa, or I-94); a current Nebraska motor vehicle operator's license, Nebraska-issued state identification card, military identification card, or tribal enrollment card (tribal enrollment cards were added by LB 1288, 2024); proof of address; a vision statement if you are not a Nebraska license holder; and a copy of military orders if applicable.
  8. Apply IN PERSON at a Nebraska State Patrol Troop Area Headquarters or the Criminal Identification Division in Lincoln (Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2430). Initial applications cannot be filed online. Call the office first — days and hours vary and not every office always has staff available for fingerprinting and notarizing.
  9. Submit two legible sets of fingerprints for the criminal history record information check under Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2430 and 69-2431. Federal, state and local records are checked.
  10. Pay the $100 fee ($4.50 more if paying by card or e-check online).
  11. NSP issues the permit within 45 days if all requirements are met. If denied, you may appeal to the district court for the county where you live or where you applied, under the Administrative Procedure Act.
  12. TO RENEW: apply in person or online through the NSP concealed handgun permit portal, no earlier than four months before expiration and no later than thirty business days after expiration. The renewal fee is $50 (plus $4.50 online). No retest or new training certificate is required if you renew on time. Name and address changes and lost-or-stolen replacements are free and are handled through the same portal. While a renewal is pending and your old permit has expired you may still carry concealed under LB 77, provided you are not a minor or a prohibited person — but you lose the permit-only State Capitol privilege until the new permit issues.

Apply on the official Nebraska site

What disqualifies you

Where to get the required training

Nebraska publishes an official list of certified instructors. That list is authoritative — a certificate from an instructor who is not on it may not be accepted. View the official instructor list

Training providers in Nebraska

Businesses in our directory that offer firearms training. These are not state-verified as certified permit instructors — check against the official list above, or ask the provider directly.

All firearms training in Nebraska →

Reciprocity

Carrying into Nebraska

Nebraska recognizes permits from 36 other jurisdictions.

Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming

32 jurisdictions honor a Nebraska permit

Derived from what each of those states officially publishes.

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming

Official Nebraska reciprocity page Full reciprocity matrix →

Building your own in Nebraska

Build for personal use
Allowed
Serial number required
No

Nebraska has NO STATE statute prohibiting or regulating the manufacture of a firearm for personal use, no state 'ghost gun' or unfinished-frame/receiver law, no state serialization mandate, and no firearm registry. A section-by-section review of Chapter 28, Article 12 (Firearms and Weapons), sections 28-1201 through 28-1225, found no provision addressing self-manufacture, undetectable firearms, unfinished frames or receivers, or registration. This is lawful by ABSENCE of prohibition rather than by an affirmative statutory grant — a weaker basis than a citation. LOCAL EXCEPTION, IMPORTANT: the City of Omaha enacted an ordinance banning 'ghost gun' parts used to assemble firearms (and one banning bump stocks) after LB 77, and in February 2026 a Douglas County District Court judge upheld both, finding neither was preempted by LB 77's statewide preemption in Neb. Rev. Stat. 13-330. So the statement 'Nebraska has no ghost gun law' is true of state law but NOT of Omaha city law as currently enforced. What Nebraska DOES criminalize statewide: knowingly possessing, receiving, selling or leasing, other than by delivery to law enforcement officials, any firearm from which the manufacturer's identification mark or serial number has been removed, defaced, altered or destroyed — possession of a defaced firearm, Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1207, a Class III felony; and intentionally removing, defacing, covering, altering or destroying the manufacturer's identification mark or serial number or other distinguishing numbers on any firearm — defacing a firearm, Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1208, also a Class III felony. (The baseline had these two section numbers possibly transposed; they are now confirmed from the statute catchlines: 28-1207 is possession, 28-1208 is the act of defacing.) By their terms both reach a firearm that HAD a serial number which was removed, not one that never bore a number; that reading is textual and was not confirmed against Nebraska case law. Federal law applies independently: a prohibited person may not manufacture or possess any firearm; NFA items require ATF approval; a self-made firearm may not be manufactured for sale without a license; and ATF Final Rule 2021R-05F governs commercially sold frames, receivers and kits.

No Nebraska statute on point; cf. Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1207 (possession of a defaced firearm) and 28-1208 (defacing a firearm), and 28-1203 (machine guns, short rifles, short shotguns)

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

Statutes

What we could not confirm

  • Training hours: neither Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2432, the NSP FAQ, the NSP Instructor Curriculum Minimum Requirements page, nor the 191-slide NSP Instructor Universal Curriculum (rev. 09/02/2023) sets a minimum number of hours. The FAQ says courses "will normally last from 8 to 16 hours, there is no required length." I still could NOT verify whether Title 272 NAC Chapter 21 imposes a numeric minimum: the only official copy, the NSP-hosted 272_nac_21_07-19-2022.pdf, is a 21-page scanned image with a zero-length text layer on every page, so it cannot be read or searched. Do not publish a specific hour figure for Nebraska.
  • The Title 272 NAC Ch. 21 PDF on the NSP site is dated 07-19-2022, before LB 77 took effect on 09-02-2023 and well before LB 1237 (2026). Whether a post-LB 77 revision of that regulation exists is still unverified; the Nebraska Secretary of State rules-and-regs URL I tried returned HTTP 404, and the only full texts of Chapter 21 I could locate are commercial mirrors, which this record does not cite.
  • Live-fire: the requirement rests solely on one sentence in the NSP FAQ, "A live fire exercise must be completed at a firing range." Neb. Rev. Stat. 69-2432 does not use the phrase (it requires "safe handgun shooting fundamentals" and "a demonstration of competency with a handgun"), and the NSP Universal Curriculum deck contains no occurrence of "live fire." No official source gives a round count, distance or qualification score, so none should be published. The underlying numeric standard may live in the unreadable Title 272 NAC Ch. 21.
  • The NSP reciprocity page shows no visible 'last updated' date, so I cannot state how current the 36-jurisdiction recognition list is. It does reflect the post-September-2023 permitless-carry framing, so it has been revised since 09/2023.
  • The NSP FAQ is internally inconsistent: one passage still describes the pre-2023 framework, saying that effective August 30, 2009 recognition of other states' permits "extends ONLY to persons who are NOT residents of Nebraska" and lets non-resident permit holders carry in Nebraska as if they held a Nebraska permit. That paragraph is obsolete under LB 77 and is contradicted by the same agency's reciprocity page, which says the list is now used only to waive the 180-day residency requirement. Treat the reciprocity page, not this FAQ paragraph, as current.
  • LB 1237 (2026) is in effect, but the Nebraska State Patrol's Capitol weapons-screening procedures are not due until January 1, 2027, and I found no NSP page describing the screening as operational. How a permit holder actually presents a permit at the Capitol, and whether NSP will publish 'prior approval' procedures under section 2(3)(a) of the act, is not yet documented on any NSP page I could find.
  • Whether the State Capitol exception in LB 1237 and 28-1202.01(11) — which speaks of "a permit to carry a concealed handgun issued pursuant to the Concealed Handgun Permit Act" — extends to a recognized out-of-state permit is not addressed by any source I could read. On its face the phrase means a Nebraska permit, which is how this record describes it, but that reading has not been confirmed by NSP guidance or a court.
  • The Lincoln ordinance litigation is unresolved. The Nebraska Supreme Court decided only standing in Nebraska Firearms Owners Assn. v. City of Lincoln, No. S-24-0503 (Aug. 29, 2025); the merits were argued on cross-motions for summary judgment before the District Court for Lancaster County in July 2026 and I found no decision as of 2026-09-15. Lincoln's firearms ordinances remain on the books meanwhile. I could not obtain the Supreme Court opinion or the district-court filings from a .gov source — only the Judicial Branch case-call page — so the procedural detail here comes from that page plus secondary reporting that this record does not cite.
  • The February 2026 Douglas County District Court decision upholding Omaha's bump-stock and ghost-gun-parts ordinances against LB 77 preemption is a trial-level order I could not retrieve from any .gov source; Nebraska district court orders are not published online. Its existence and holding rest on secondary reporting, which this record does not cite. Whether it has been appealed is unknown, so Omaha's ghost-gun ordinance should be described as currently enforced but not settled law.
  • The Nebraska Attorney General's December 2023 opinion concluding that Omaha and Lincoln could not bar concealed carry in 'quintessentially public spaces' such as parks, trails and sidewalks could not be retrieved: ago.nebraska.gov/opinions is a paginated application whose year filter did not work for 2023 in my requests, and no direct opinion URL resolved. The opinion is therefore not cited in this record.
  • Home manufacture is lawful under STATE law by absence of any prohibiting statute, not by affirmative statutory authorization. I found no Nebraska provision on self-manufacture, unfinished frames/receivers, undetectable firearms, or serialization within Chapter 28, Article 12, but a negative finding across a code is inherently less certain than a citation, and a provision could exist outside Article 12. Omaha city law is a live exception (see homeManufacture.notes).
  • Whether Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1207 (possession of a defaced firearm) or 28-1208 (defacing a firearm), both Class III felonies, could be construed to reach a home-built firearm that never bore a serial number is unresolved. Both speak of a mark 'removed, defaced, altered, or destroyed,' which on its face does not cover a never-serialized firearm, but this was not checked against Nebraska case law.
  • Neb. Rev. Stat. 28-1206 was amended by Laws 2025, LB 80, § 35 and Laws 2026, LB 935, § 22, both operative July 18, 2026. Reading the current text, these appear to be conforming changes that point the protection-order and deferred-judgment prohibitors at the new Protection Orders Act and at sections 26-123, 26-124 and 29-4803, rather than substantive additions to who is a prohibited person. I read the amended section but not the two slip laws section by section, so a substantive change cannot be completely ruled out — which matters, because 'prohibited person' in 28-1201(12) is what determines who may carry permitlessly.

Sources