Where You Can't Carry in Michigan, Even With a CPL

A carry license establishes authority to carry. It does not override the places where the state has decided carry is off-limits, and Michigan sets those out specifically rather than leaving them to interpretation. This is what MCL 28.425o says.

The statutory list

• Schools and school property. A parent or legal guardian of a student is not precluded from carrying while in a vehicle on school property when dropping off or picking up that student.
• Child care and day care centers, child caring institutions and child placing agencies — public or private.
• Sports arenas and stadiums.
• Bars and taverns where the primary source of income is alcoholic liquor sold by the glass and consumed on the premises. This does not apply to an owner or employee of the business.
• Places of worship — churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and other places of worship — unless the presiding official or officials permit carrying on that property.
• Entertainment facilities seating 2,500 or more, where you know or should know the capacity, or where a sign above each public entrance states it.
• Hospitals.
• Dormitories and classrooms of a community college, college or university.

Casinos are handled separately, through an administrative rule referenced in the same section rather than in the list itself.

The two things people get wrong

Parking areas are not included

The statute is explicit: for the purposes of that list, "premises" does not include parking areas of the places identified. That single sentence resolves a great deal of confusion about hospital and stadium car parks, and it is routinely left out of summaries elsewhere.

Places of worship can permit carry

The prohibition on carrying at a place of worship applies *unless the presiding official or officials permit it*. Michigan leaves that decision with the congregation's leadership. That is precisely why houses of worship that want an armed volunteer team need a deliberate, documented decision from leadership rather than an informal understanding.

Exemptions in the statute

The section does not apply to certain licensees, including retired police, law enforcement and federal law enforcement officers, and individuals licensed under the act who are employed or contracted by one of those entities to provide security services and are required to carry on the premises. If you think an exemption applies to you, read the section itself — the wording matters.

This is not the whole picture

State law is one layer. Federal restrictions apply independently — federal buildings and the Gun-Free School Zones Act among them — and private property owners can set their own rules regardless of what the state permits. Travelling changes the analysis entirely, because another state's restricted-place list will not match Michigan's.