Montana

Official Montana DOJ page confirms permitless concealed carry (HB 102, effective Feb 18, 2021) for anyone 18+ eligible to possess a firearm under state/federal law; open carry has been explicitly unrestricted without a permit since HB0228 (2009). A few carve-outs exist for state buildings, game preserves, and university campuses.

Montana has no statute prohibiting firearms in places of worship; carry there is a property-owner decision.

MCA § 45-8-328 makes it a class A misdemeanor to carry a concealed weapon "in a room in which alcoholic beverages are sold, dispensed, and consumed" under an on-premises liquor license — read literally, that could sweep in an ordinary restaurant dining room where wine is served with dinner, not just a stand-alone bar. Secondary sources nonetheless claim restaurant carry is generally fine if not intoxicated. Given that tension in what I could find, this is genuinely establishment/room-specific rather than a clean yes.

Montana's concealed weapon permit is only required to carry concealed 'within the official boundaries of a city or town or the confines of a logging, lumbering, mining or railroad camp' (Montana DOJ); outside those boundaries — which covers the vast majority of Montana's lakes, reservoirs, and rivers — no permit is required at all to carry concealed. No boat/vessel-specific restriction was found for the (narrower) case of carrying within town-boundary waters either.

MCA §45-8-328 bars carrying a concealed weapon in restricted portions of a building used for state/local government offices, BUT expressly exempts persons issued a Montana concealed-weapon permit (or recognized under Montana's reciprocity statute) from that particular restriction — meaning a Montana (or reciprocity-recognized) permit holder is generally not barred from an ordinary government office like a DMV or city hall by this section. Courtrooms/courthouse areas can still separately be closed to everyone, including permit holders, by order of a judge or justice of the peace.

No Montana statute directly addresses campus carry; the state constitution gives the Board of Regents authority over the university system, and campuses (e.g., University of Montana Policy 1009) restrict firearms in buildings by policy. Private institutions set their own rules.

Montana is a permissive constitutional-carry state with no statewide business-signage mandate; carry in an ordinary business is presumptively lawful absent a posted sign or a request to leave.

No MT statute requires advance owner consent; general trespass law (Mont. Code Ann. 45-6-201) requires notice before presence becomes unlawful (opt-out default). Constitutional-carry state.

No Montana source I found lists airports among restricted locations (usacarry.com's Montana list: state/local government offices, banks, alcohol establishments, school district buildings). Montana is a generally permissive, permitless-carry state with fairly strong preemption, which supports a likely 'yes,' but I found no Montana statute or second source directly confirming airport treatment.

Montana has had statewide permitless concealed carry since February 18, 2021 (repealing the old city-limits permit requirement), covering vehicle carry. I could not get a live fetch of the current MCA §45-8-316/321 text this session (leg.mt.gov kept redirecting to a domain that then 404'd), so this rests on Wikipedia's summary of the 2021 law change rather than the raw statute.

No Montana statute prohibits firearms in hospitals.

Montana's prohibited-place list (schools, correctional/detention facilities, secured airport areas, federal buildings, courtrooms, posted private property) contains no rest-area restriction, and the state has broad vehicle-carry rights for lawful carriers. Sourced via NRA-ILA; I could not independently pull the primary statute text.

No Montana statute found imposing a duty to inform law enforcement of concealed carry, proactively or if asked.

Mont. Code Ann. § 45-8-321(1) requires the applicant to hold "a valid Montana driver's license." Montana DOJ confirms: "Concealed weapons permits are available to Montana residents" only; Montana instead recognizes many other states' permits for non-residents.

Mont. Code Ann. §45-8-361(1),(5)(b) bans purposely/knowingly carrying a firearm in a school building; no exception is provided for concealed weapon permit holders — only advance school-district permission (or a district's armed 'school marshal' program under 2021 HB 572, which still requires the marshal to separately be a qualified officer/CCW holder appointed by the district) creates an exception. Montana is permitless-carry, which doesn't change this school-specific ban.

Montana's general criminal trespass to property statute, Mont. Code Ann. § 45-6-203, was fetched but the excerpt obtained did not define what counts as sufficient 'unlawful' entry/notice (the definitions likely live in a separate section I could not locate), and no Montana-specific firearms-signage statute is known to me.

Mont. Code Ann. § 45-8-351: local governments may not prohibit, register, tax, license, or regulate purchase/possession/carrying of weapons. Named local exception: municipalities may prevent carrying of CONCEALED weapons in publicly owned buildings, and may regulate discharge.

No Montana statute found prohibiting firearms at polling places. Based on MAP research; not independently verified against Montana's own statute.

No state-level magazine capacity restriction found.

No state ERPO/red flag law. RECENT: Montana HB 809, signed May 8, 2025, affirmatively bars local governments from enacting or enforcing extreme risk protection orders (civil penalty up to $10,000), reinforcing that no such removal process operates in the state.

Montana imposes no state permit or registration beyond the federal NFA process. Suppressors: Mont. Code Ann. 45-8-336/337 criminalize possessing a silencer only for an unlawful purpose, treating an unregistered silencer as prima facie evidence of unlawful intent — federal registration is the practical shield. SBR/SBS: the short-barrel prohibition exempts anyone with a valid federal tax stamp. Machine guns: legal to possess — Montana law (45-8-303 to -305) only criminalizes machine gun possession/use for an offensive/aggressive purpose or in commission of a crime of violence; no blanket state ban on federally-registered pre-1986 transferable machine guns.

Stand Your Ground by statute: Mont. Code Ann. § 45-3-110 — no duty to retreat.

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