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Carry & reciprocity

Indiana

Allows permitless (constitutional) carry for qualifying residents and, per its own rules below, often visitors too.

Minimum carry age: 18

Official IN.gov: 'Licenses to carry handguns, issued by other states or foreign countries, will be recognized according to the terms thereof but only while the holders are not residents of Indiana.' So all states are honored, but an out-of-state license does not cover an Indiana resident. Permitless carry since 7/1/2022 (IC 35-47-2-1.5) for anyone 18+ who is not a 'prohibited person'; ISP's official prohibited-person list includes aliens but has no residency requirement, so most visiting US citizens need no permit.

IN official source →

Reciprocity status reviewed August 2026.

Quick reference

Tap any answer to jump to its full write-up and source, below.

Where you can carry in Indiana

23 specific questions, each with its own answer and, where one was found, a real source.

Reviewed September 2026. First-pass research: sourced per answer below, not yet independently re-verified line by line.

Open carry allowed in this state

Yes

Official Indiana State Police document confirms: since HEA 1296 (2022), effective July 1, 2022, anyone 18+ who is not otherwise prohibited may carry a handgun — openly or concealed — without a license.

Source (2022-07-01) →

Places of worship

Depends

Indiana has no statute prohibiting firearms in places of worship; carry there is governed by the property owner's own policy, like any other private property.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Restaurants that serve alcohol

Depends

No Indiana statute was found restricting handgun-license carry in restaurants or bars by location; multiple secondary sources agree there is no such state-level restriction (a private owner may still exclude by posting, enforceable as trespass). Could not confirm via a primary Indiana source in the time available.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Boats

Yes

Indiana has statewide permitless carry since 7/1/2022 for qualifying 'proper persons' (IC 35-47-2-1.5). No boat/vessel restriction was found via Indiana State Police or DNR boating-safety materials.

Source (2022-07-01) →

Government buildings

Depends

Indiana has broad statutory preemption of local firearm regulation, but carves out an exception letting a county/city/town prohibit handguns in a building containing a courtroom if the building has metal detectors at every public entrance staffed by at least one law-enforcement officer. So courthouse carry depends on whether that specific courthouse has adopted such a security setup and ordinance — it is not an automatic statewide ban. A DMV branch or city hall without a courtroom is not covered by this exception and remains protected by preemption.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Universities — public or private

Depends

Indiana has no statute specifically governing campus carry; each public and private institution sets its own weapons policy under general property authority. As of Jan. 2025 no Indiana public or private university permitted concealed guns on campus grounds or in buildings.

Source (2025-01-07) →

Private property open to the public

Yes

Indiana has strong firearms preemption (IC 35-47-11.1) and no statewide business-signage mandate; a property owner may ask a carrier to leave (general trespass, IC 35-43-2-2), but carry is presumptively lawful absent any notice.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Private property — is owner permission required

Yes

No IN statute requires advance owner consent; general criminal trespass law (Ind. Code 35-43-2-2) requires notice before presence becomes unlawful (opt-out default). Constitutional-carry state.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Airports (non-secure areas)

Yes

Indiana's carry-restrictions statute (I.C. 35-47-11.1, discussed in Wikipedia's 'Gun laws in Indiana' with a related citation to IC 35-47-6 on aircraft) and usacarry.com's Indiana summary both describe the airport restriction as limited to 'controlled access areas of an airport' / 'the controlled section of an airport' — i.e., the post-screening secure area. Non-secure public terminal areas (ticketing, baggage claim) are not restricted by Indiana law for a licensee (or, since July 1 2022, a permitless carrier).

Source (2022-07-01) →

In a vehicle while traveling

Yes

Indiana is a permitless-carry state (2022) for eligible adults 18+; this covers vehicle carry with no license required. A school-property vehicle exception exists separately under IC 35-47-9-2.

Source (2022-07-01) →

Hospitals / doctor's offices

Yes

No Indiana statute prohibits firearms in hospitals.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Rest areas, in a vehicle

Depends

Indiana moved to permitless carry in 2022 and has historically narrow prohibited-place rules, but despite several attempts I was unable to load the current text of IC 35-47-11-1 (the prohibited-places statute) from any working source to independently confirm there's no rest-area carve-out. My only support is a secondary summary (NRA-ILA) that likewise didn't address vehicle/rest-area carry specifically, so I'm flagging this as conditional rather than asserting a confirmed yes.

Source (2022-07-01) →

Duty to inform police or other authorities if asked

No

No Indiana statute found imposing a duty to inform law enforcement of a handgun license during a stop.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Can a non-resident apply for a permit

Depends

Indiana Code 35-47-2-3(a)(3): "if the applicant is a resident of another state and has a regular place of business or employment in Indiana," they may apply to the sheriff of the county where that business/employment is located.

Source (2026-09-01) →

K-12 school zones

Depends

Ind. Code §35-47-9-2(a) bans firearms on/at K-12 school property and functions; the only exception is a person 'specifically authorized by a school board or charter school administrative body' — an ad hoc, discretionary authorization, not an automatic exemption for handgun-license holders generally. Indiana is permitless-carry, which is irrelevant here since the school ban already applies to everyone absent specific board authorization.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Is a posted "no guns" sign criminally enforceable, or just a request

No

A secondary summary (echoing the generally understood Indiana rule) states signs prohibiting concealed carry at private businesses 'do not have force of law in Indiana,' and that refusing to leave when asked by the property owner is what creates a trespassing charge under Indiana's general trespass statute (IC 35-43-2-2). I could not independently fetch the Indiana Code text to confirm this in a primary source in this session, so treat with slightly reduced confidence, but this matches the well-established general understanding of Indiana law.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Does state law preempt local/city carry ordinances

Yes

Ind. Code § 35-47-11.1-2: "No unit of government may regulate in any manner firearms, ammunition, and firearm accessories" including ownership, possession, carrying, and transportation.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Polling places

Yes

Indiana has no enacted polling-place firearm ban. Similar bills (SB28 in 2022, SB26 in 2024) titled 'Prohibition of firearms at polling places' were introduced but did not become law, requiring repeated reintroduction — confirming no such statute currently exists.

Source (2024-01-01) →

Magazine capacity restricted

No

No state-level magazine capacity restriction found.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Red flag / extreme risk protection order law

Depends

Indiana's 'Jake Laird Law' (Ind. Code § 35-47-14, 2005) is one of the oldest red-flag-type statutes but operates as a law-enforcement seizure-then-hearing/warrant process, not a citizen civil-petition ERPO — police seize firearms from a person believed dangerous and then a prosecutor seeks court retention; family members have no independent petition right.

Source (2026-09-01) →

NFA weapons allowed (suppressors, SBR/SBS, etc.)

Yes

Indiana requires no state permit or registration beyond the federal NFA process for suppressors, SBR/SBS, machine guns, or other NFA items. Suppressor use while hunting is affirmatively authorized (Ind. Code § 14-22-6-11). Indiana's machine gun statute (Title 35, Article 47) exempts persons possessing or having applied to possess machine guns under applicable U.S. statutes and in compliance with the NFA, so federally registered pre-1986 transferable machine guns are also lawful.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Duty to retreat before using force in self-defense

No

Stand Your Ground by statute: Ind. Code § 35-41-3-2 — no duty to retreat.

Source (2026-09-01) →

"Universal" background checks required for private transfers

No

No Indiana statute requires background checks on private firearm sales. Confirmed via absence from Giffords' UBC list.

Source (2026-09-01) →

This is information, not legal advice, and it can be wrong or out of date — carry law changes without notice and varies by locality in ways a single page can't fully capture. Verify anything load-bearing against the official source linked above and each answer's own citation before you rely on it.