Arms / A3
Concealed carry
The person wants to carry a loaded handgun, concealed, in everyday public places.
What we score
Can they get the right to carry, and on what terms?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | Permitless carry. |
| 8 | Shall-issue permit, cheap and fast. |
| 6 | Shall-issue permit with real cost, training or delay. |
| 4 | May-issue permit, rarely granted to ordinary citizens. |
| 3 | Not available; carrying is an administrative offence. |
| 2 | Not available; carrying is a crime, under 1 year. |
| 1 | Not available; 1 to 5 years. |
| 0 | Not available; over 5 years. |
Evidence used: Carry-permit law, issuance rates per capita, penalties for unlicensed carry.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 8 | 7.5 | −0.5 | 7.2 | 29 states with about 46% of the population allow permitless concealed carry (10). After Bruen (2022) struck down proper-cause rules, every other state must issue on objective criteria. Former may-issue states (CA, NY, NJ, MD, MA, HI, about 25%) now require fees, long training (16+ hours in NY), months of processing and broad sensitive-place bans, scored about 5.5. SCOTUS struck down Hawaii's default no-carry rule on private property open to the public in Wolford v. Lopez (25 June 2026). Visitors carrying on out-of-state permits are still arrested in NY and NJ, where unlicensed carry is a felony. |
| Czechia | 6 | 6 | 0 | 6.0 | Carrying a registered firearm requires the extended firearms authorisation (rozšířené zbrojní oprávnění, the former licence group D). It is issued on objective criteria: age 21, a theory exam (28 of 30 questions), a shooting test, a medical certificate and integrity. Carry must be concealed (§ 80). There is no need requirement, but the exam, medical and fees involve real cost. |
| Switzerland | 4 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.7 | Carrying a weapon in public needs a carry permit (Art. 27). It requires the applicant to 'plausibly justify' needing the weapon to protect against a genuine danger and to pass an exam, so it is effectively may-issue and issued mainly to security professionals. Carrying without a permit is a crime punishable by up to 3 years (Art. 33(1)(a)). |
| Germany | 4 | 3.5 | 0 | 3.7 | Carrying a handgun in public needs a Waffenschein, issued only to people shown to be substantially more endangered than the general public (§ 19(2) WaffG). Ordinary citizens are in practice refused. Carrying a semi-automatic handgun without a permit is a crime with 6 months to 5 years (§ 52(1) Nr. 2b WaffG). |
| Mexico | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2.8 | Carry licences are discretionary: the applicant must 'acreditar, a criterio de la Secretaría', a need based on occupation or local circumstances (LFAFE art. 26 I F) and renew every year. About 2,500 individual licences are in force for roughly 133 million people, and only 20 new ones were issued in the first half of 2026. Carrying a permitted gun without a licence carries 3-8 years (art. 81). |
| Netherlands | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1.6 | Carrying weapons is prohibited (art. 27 Wwm). A carry endorsement (art. 29) can be issued only for a 'reasonable interest' and in practice goes to a few professional categories, never for personal self-defence. A person carrying a handgun without a possession licence commits the art. 26 offence, punishable by up to 8 years for firearms (art. 55(3)). Courts typically impose unconditional prison terms of months. |
| Singapore | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.0 | No carry permit exists for private citizens, and self-defence is not a recognised licensing purpose. Unlicensed possession is punished under GEWCA s17 with up to 5 years plus a fine. Carrying a gun with intent to injure or frighten anyone is punished under Arms Offences Act s3 with 5 to 10 years plus at least 6 strokes of the cane. |
| New Zealand | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.0 | There is no carry licence. A pistol may not be carried beyond the curtilage of the holder's dwelling except under the endorsement's conditions (Arms Act 2026 s258), which cover travel to a club or range. Carrying a pistol in a public place without lawful purpose carries up to 3 years (s257), and without a lawful, proper and sufficient purpose up to 5 years (s254); self-defence is not an accepted purpose. |
| Denmark | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.6 | There is no carry permit for self-defence. Carrying an unlicensed firearm in public is treated as 'especially aggravating' under § 192 a straffeloven: 2 to 8 years, and carrying it with ammunition makes it worse (stk. 4). Because the minimum is 2 years, even a first offender gets at least 2 years. |
| United Kingdom | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | No carry licence exists in Great Britain. Handguns are prohibited weapons, and carrying one means the 5-year minimum under Firearms Act s51A. Northern Ireland (about 3% of the population) issues personal-protection-weapon certificates only on a 'verifiable specific risk' to life (around 2,900 licences, mostly ex-police and prison officers). The population-weighted score rounds to 0. |
| Ireland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | There is no carry licence for self-defence: new certificates for short firearms are barred (Firearms Act 1925 s3D) and self-defence is not an accepted purpose. Carrying an unlicensed handgun is an offence under s2 with up to 7 years for a restricted firearm, plus the Firearms Act 1964 s27A suspicious-circumstances offence (up to 14 years). Gardaí treat unlicensed handguns as serious-crime cases. |