Idaho law prohibits any person with a felony conviction in any jurisdiction from purchasing, owning, possessing, or having custody or control of a firearm, but excludes those whose conviction has been nullified by expungement, pardon, setting aside the conviction or other comparable procedure by the jurisdiction where the felony conviction occurred, or whose firearm rights have been restored by any other provision of Idaho law. Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3316.

It is a misdemeanor crime for anyone under the age of 18 to possess a firearm unless the minor has the written permission of their parent or guardian to possess the weapon or is accompanied by their parent or guardian while in possession of the firearm. Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302E.

A separate section makes it a crime for any person under the age of 18 years to possess a handgun, or to possess (except as provided by federal law), a sawed-off rifle or sawed-off shotgun or a fully automatic weapon. Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302F. 

It is a crime to carry a concealed weapon on or about the person when intoxicated or under the influence of an intoxicating drink or drug; Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302B. In addition to any other applicable penalties, when a violation occurs on a college or university campus, the offender must have any Idaho concealed carry licenses (including an enhanced license or a license to carry concealed for a qualified retired law enforcement officer) revoked for a period of three years, and is ineligible to obtain or renew any such license or use any other license recognized by Idaho for the same period.

Permitless carry. Idaho law allows concealed carrying without a license (1) outside the limits of or confines of any city, if the person is over 18 years old and is not otherwise disqualified from being issued a license to carry concealed weapons under state law, and (2) by a person over 18 years old who is a citizen of the United States or a current member of the armed forces of the United States, and who is not otherwise disqualified from being issued a license to carry concealed weapons under state law.

Other places where concealed carrying is allowed without a license are at a person’s own home or fixed place of business, on property in which the person has any ownership or leasehold interest, and on private property where the person has permission to carry concealed weapons from any person with an ownership or leasehold interest. Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(3) and (4)(f).

Idaho also exempts certain officials and personnel from the license requirement, based on their status as office holders or employment. These are listed at Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(5) and include officials of a city, county or the state of Idaho; any publicly elected Idaho official; criminal investigators of the state attorney general’s office and criminal investigators of a prosecuting attorney’s office, prosecutors and their deputies, and others.

Licenses to carry. Idaho is a “shall issue” jurisdiction.

Idaho issues several kinds of licenses: standard licenses (Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(7)); “enhanced licenses” (§ 18-3302K); temporary emergency licenses pending an application for a five-year license (§ 18-3302(6)); provisional licenses for persons aged between 18 and 20 who meet the enhanced license requirements apart from the minimum age (§ 18-3302(20)); and licenses for qualified retired law enforcement officers pursuant to § 18-3302H. The information on licenses refers to standard licenses; information on the other license types is listed below.

Issuing agency/official: County Sheriff

Minimum age: 21 (see provisional licenses, below, for persons aged 18 to 20)

State residency required: Only for an enhanced license, which requires a minimum six-month in-state residence is required unless the person holds a valid carry license from their state of residence; § 18-3302K(k)(4)(b)

Objective disqualifications: Listed at Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(11) and include persons who are: currently charged with or convicted of any crime punishable by imprisonment of over one year (including a withheld judgment or suspended sentence, unless probation has been successfully completed; and those free on bond/personal recognizance pending trial, appeal or sentencing); a fugitive from justice or an unlawful user of marijuana or other controlled substances; currently suffering from or have been adjudicated as having suffered from any of the mental health conditions in that subsection; discharged from the armed forces under dishonorable conditions; an alien illegally present in the United States; subject to certain active protection orders; anyone who has received a period of probation after having been adjudicated guilty of, or received a withheld judgment for, a misdemeanor offense that has as an element the intentional use, attempted use or threatened use of physical force against the person or property of another, unless the person has successfully completed probation; and anyone otherwise ineligible to possess a firearm under state or federal law.  The sheriff cannot consider convictions or mental health adjudications that have been nullified by expungement, pardon, setting aside or other comparable procedures that restored the person’s firearm rights.

Non-objective disqualifiers: None

Training /Familiarity Requirement: The issuing sheriff “may” require the applicant to demonstrate familiarity with a firearm and must accept any one of the forms of training or competence listed at Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(9) as evidence of familiarity with a firearm. These include a current license to carry concealed weapons issued by Idaho, unless the license has been revoked for cause; hunter education or hunter safety courses, NRA firearms safety or similar training course, or class available to the general public offered by a law enforcement agency, community college, college, university, or private or public institution using NRA-certified or Idaho police state instructors, or “other training that the sheriff deems appropriate.”

Fingerprints required: Yes, for the initial application; Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(10)

Maximum processing time: 90 days; § 18-3302(7)

Fees: $20 for initial application and $15 for renewal; however, the “sheriff may collect the actual cost of any additional fees necessary to cover the processing costs lawfully required by any state or federal agency or department, and the actual cost of materials for the license lawfully required by any state agency or department;” Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(15). A licensee renewing 91 to 180 days after the expiration date of the license must pay a late renewal penalty of $10.00 in addition to the renewal fee unless waived by the sheriff.

Duration of permit: Five years

Mandatory notifications: None listed

Enhanced licenses: These are also five-year licenses with the requirements listed at § 18-3302K. Applicants must be over the age of 21 and complete, in the year before the application, a minimum 8-hour training course that must be taught in person (“face to face”) and that meets the mandatory curriculum requirements, including live-fire training. Unlike holders of a regular license, those with an enhanced license may carry at public colleges and universities with the exception of any building of a “public entertainment facility” (if properly posted at each point of public entry notifying attendees of any restriction on the possession of firearms in the facility during the game or event) and student dormitories/ residence halls.

Provisional licenses: Under § 18-3302(20), a sheriff is authorized to issue a license to applicants aged between 18 and 21 who, except for the age requirement, would otherwise qualify for an enhanced license. A provisional license expires on the holder’s 21st birthday but the holder is allowed to reapply for an enhanced license using the process for a renewal of an enhanced license.

Temporary emergency licenses: Pursuant to § 18-3302(6), the sheriff of the county of residence may issue a temporary emergency license for good cause pending review of an application made for a standard license. A temporary emergency license is valid for a maximum of 90 days.

Qualified retired law enforcement officer licenses: § 18-3302H authorizes a county sheriff to issue a license to carry to a qualified retired law enforcement officer who meets the requirements in that section. These licenses are valid for one year. Retired law enforcement officers are eligible to seek other licenses (standard, enhanced) instead. 

Non-resident carry. Idaho’s permitless carry law (see above) applies to residents of other states who meet the requirements of that law. Idaho honors all other states’ resident and non-resident permits/licenses. Any person who has physical possession of their valid license or permit authorizing them to carry concealed weapons from another state is exempted from the requirement to secure a license to carry concealed weapons, based on Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(5)(g). Non-residents are also eligible to apply for Idaho carry licenses: the Idaho Sheriffs’ Association webpage lists, at its FAQ, the following: Q. “I’m not an Idaho resident, but can I get an Idaho concealed weapons license? A. Idaho doesn’t distinguish between resident and non-resident licenses. They are the same.”

Places where carrying is prohibited:

Carrying a concealed weapon is generally prohibited in a courthouse, juvenile detention facility or jail, and public or private schools. Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302C.

It is a separate crime to possess a firearm while on the property of a private or public elementary or secondary school “or in those portions of any building, stadium or other structure on school grounds which, at the time of the violation, were being used for an activity sponsored by or through a school in this state or while riding school provided transportation.” Students of schools, while attending or participating in any school-sponsored activity, program or event regardless of location, are subject to the same prohibition on firearm possession. Exceptions include any adult non-student in lawful possession of a firearm secured and locked in their vehicle in an unobtrusive, nonthreatening manner; a person who lawfully possesses a firearm in a private vehicle while delivering minor children, students or school employees to and from school or a school activity; or any person or employee of the school or school district who is authorized to carry a firearm by the board of trustees of the school district or the governing board; Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302D.

Public colleges and universities are authorized to prescribe rules and regulations relating to firearms on their property, although “this authority shall not extend to regulating or prohibiting the otherwise lawful possession, carrying or transporting of firearms or ammunition by persons” with enhanced carry licenses or licensed as qualified retired law enforcement officers. Regardless, persons with enhanced carry licenses cannot carry on campus within any building of a “public entertainment facility” (if properly posted at each point of public entry notifying attendees of any restriction on the possession of firearms in the facility during the game or event) or student dormitories/ residence halls; Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3309.

Private property: Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3302(25) preserves the right of private property owners, private employers, and private business entities to regulate carrying of weapons on their property. Any such prohibitions or restrictions cannot apply to any property owned by the state of Idaho or its political subdivisions that is normally and habitually open to the public and is leased, rented, licensed, or loaned to a private entity, unless “the use of such property is for a private event by invitation only, for a commercial event that charges admission, or for any other event with restricted access whether admission is charged or not.”

The preemption law allows a county to adopt ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within that county’s boundaries. However, such ordinances may not apply to or affect:

• A person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or persons or property.
• A person discharging a firearm in the course of lawful hunting.
• A landowner and guests of the landowner discharging a firearm, when the discharge will not endanger persons or property.
• A person lawfully discharging a firearm on a sport shooting range (an area designed and operated for the use of rifles, shotguns, pistols, silhouettes, skeet, trap, black powder, archery, or any other similar sport shooting).
• A person discharging a firearm in the course of target shooting on public land if the discharge will not endanger persons or property.

The preemption law allows a city to enact ordinances to regulate, restrict or prohibit the discharge of firearms within its boundaries, but such ordinances may not apply to or affect a person discharging a firearm in the lawful defense of person or persons or property, or a person lawfully discharging a firearm on a sport shooting range.

The preemption law does not affect the ability of counties and cities to regulate the location and construction of sport shooting ranges consistent with chapter 26, title 55, Idaho Code. The preemption statute likewise preserves the authority of the Department of Fish and Game to make rules or regulations concerning the management of wildlife in the state.

Idaho Code Ann. § 18-3309, on the authority of the governing boards of public colleges and universities regarding firearms, allows the board of regents of the university of Idaho, the boards of trustees of the state colleges and universities, the board of professional-technical education and the boards of trustees of each of the community colleges established under chapter 21, title 33, Idaho Code, to prescribe rules and regulations relating to firearms, with the exception of persons with an enhanced license or a license authorizing a qualified retired law enforcement officer to carry. State law prohibits anyone with an enhanced license from carrying within a student dormitory or residence hall, as defined; or within any posted “public entertainment facility,” as defined, unless the person is otherwise permitted to carry under Idaho Code § 18-3309(2)(c).