Resources
The parts people get wrong.
Written explanations of the questions that come up over and over — with sources you can check and a date on every page, because this material goes out of date.
Guides
Explainers worth your time.
Reciprocity Is Not the Same as Being Licensed by a State
Two different legal facts that most permit holders treat as one. The distinction occasionally matters a great deal.
Traveling Armed: What to Settle Before You Leave
A checklist built around the ways careful people actually get into trouble on the road.
Nonresident Permits, Explained
Several states will license you without you living there. Here is why that exists and when it is actually useful.
Free resource
Keep learning after the class.
A student reference from U.S. LawShield, available through our instructor relationship. Free, and yours to keep. We share it because the questions it covers keep coming up long after a course ends — not because it asks anything of you.
Published by U.S. LawShield. Opening it doesn't sign you up for anything.
Scan to open it on your phone
State reference
Requirements by state.
Each state page carries the eligibility rules, live-fire requirement, issuing authority, sources and a last-reviewed date.
Course paths
Where to start, depending on where you are.
I just bought my first handgun
It's in the house and you'd rather be competent with it than merely in possession of it. Start with how it works and how to store it.
5 coursesI just got my permit — now what?
The license came through. These cover the parts a permit class doesn't have time for: holsters that don't defeat you, where carry is off-limits, and what to do at a traffic stop.
5 coursesI'm driving out of state with a firearm
Your risk here isn't marksmanship. It's crossing into a state whose transport rules you never checked — including the ones you only drive through.
4 coursesThere are kids in the house
Storage and access deserve more thought than the firearm did. How to keep it genuinely out of reach while it's still available to you.
4 coursesHow we handle legal content
Everything on this site that touches law carries a last-reviewed date and links to primary sources — statutes, state agencies and issuing authorities. Where a requirement is uncertain or in flux, we say so instead of picking the version that reads better. Where we cannot source a claim, we do not make it.
This is educational information, not legal advice, and it is no substitute for an attorney licensed in the state that matters to your situation.
Read our editorial standardsStill not sure?
Ask someone who teaches this.
If you cannot work out which permit fits your situation, a short conversation usually settles it faster than another hour of reading.