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Carry & reciprocity

New Hampshire

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

Minimum carry age: 18

PERMITLESS — recognition is moot. NH State Police verbatim: 'Effective February 22, 2017, NH RSA 159:6 License to Carry was amended to no longer require a resident or non-resident to obtain a license to carry a pistol or revolver concealed. A license to carry a pistol or revolver concealed is now voluntary.' RSA 159:6, III confirms unlicensed concealed or open carry by 'a resident, nonresident, or alien if that individual is not otherwise prohibited by statute from possessing a firearm in the state of New Hampshire.' NH publishes NO list of honored out-of-state permits; RSA 159:6-d concerns getting NH licenses recognized elsewhere, not inbound recognition. So honorsAll is set true on the practical question (any permit holder may carry), not because a recognition statute exists.

NH 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 New Hampshire

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

New Hampshire has been a constitutional-carry state since Feb 22, 2017 (removing the prior concealed-license requirement); open carry has never required a license for anyone 18+ who can legally possess. The state constitution's right-to-bear-arms clause (Part I, Art. 2-a) is understood to cover open carry.

Source (2017-02-22) →

Places of worship

Depends

New Hampshire has no statute addressing places of worship (its only location-specific carry restriction is courtrooms, RSA 159:19); carry there is a property-owner decision.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Restaurants that serve alcohol

Yes

New Hampshire has not required a license to carry concealed since Feb. 22, 2017 (amending RSA 159:6), and its prohibited-places statute (RSA 159:19) covers courtrooms, not alcohol-serving establishments; no on-point restriction was found.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Boats

Yes

New Hampshire has statewide permitless carry for qualifying adults 18+ (since 2017), alongside an optional pistol/revolver license issued by NH State Police mainly for reciprocity. No boat/vessel/waterway restriction was found in New Hampshire carry law.

Source (2017-02-22) →

Government buildings

Depends

RSA 159:19 bans any weapon (licensed or not, open or concealed) in a 'courtroom or area used by a court.' For a building used exclusively for court purposes, that means the ENTIRE building (aside from the area between the entrance and courthouse security) counts as court area and is off-limits; for a mixed-use building that merely contains a court facility, only the court-related rooms/corridors are restricted, and the rest of the building is unaffected. No broader statewide 'government building' ban was found — an ordinary DMV or city hall with no court inside is unrestricted.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Universities — public or private

Depends

New Hampshire has no statute specifically governing campus carry; schools are free to set their own policy. As of Jan. 2025 every New Hampshire public and private university (including the University System of NH) prohibited weapons on any owned/controlled property.

Source (2025-01-07) →

Private property open to the public

Yes

New Hampshire is a constitutional-carry state with no gun-specific business-signage statute; general trespass law (RSA 635:2) governs, and carry is presumptively lawful absent a posted sign or verbal notice.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Private property — is owner permission required

Yes

No NH statute requires advance owner consent; general trespass law (RSA 635:2) requires notice before presence becomes unlawful (opt-out default). Constitutional-carry state.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Airports (non-secure areas)

Depends

New Hampshire's listed prohibited place, per usacarry.com, is essentially just 'courtroom or area used by a court' — an unusually short list for any state, consistent with NH's generally very permissive, permitless-carry posture and its firearms preemption statute (RSA 159:26). That is suggestive of 'yes,' but no source addresses airports specifically, so this remains unconfirmed rather than settled.

Source (2026-09-01) →

In a vehicle while traveling

Yes

New Hampshire has no license requirement to carry a firearm, loaded or not, in a vehicle — RSA 159:6(III) explicitly states that the availability of a carry license 'shall not be construed to impose a prohibition on the unlicensed transport or carry of a firearm in a vehicle.' Narrower loaded-firearm restrictions apply specifically to off-road/recreational vehicles, snowmobiles, and powered boats.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Hospitals / doctor's offices

Yes

No New Hampshire statute prohibits firearms in hospitals.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Rest areas, in a vehicle

Yes

New Hampshire is permitless-carry ('Live Free or Die'); its only carry-location restriction found is courthouses/court-used areas (RSA 159:19), and the licensing statute expressly says a carry license is not required to transport/carry a firearm in a vehicle. Verified against the statute text directly.

Source (2003-01-01) →

Duty to inform police or other authorities if asked

No

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

Source (2026-09-01) →

Can a non-resident apply for a permit

Yes

NH State Police: "Pistol and Revolver licenses are only issued to Non-Residents by the New Hampshire State Police" (residents instead apply through their local police department). New Hampshire itself is permitless-carry, but it still issues a non-resident license for reciprocity purposes — applicants mail an application to NH State Police, Permits and Licensing Unit.

Source (2026-09-01) →

K-12 school zones

Depends

Unusual profile: RSA 193:13(II) only restricts PUPILS from possessing a firearm in a 'safe school zone' without written superintendent authorization; independently checking NH RSA Chapter 159 (the general weapons chapter) turns up no school-specific possession ban for adults — New Hampshire appears to have no state-law prohibition on a non-pupil (including a permit holder or, since NH is permitless-carry, someone without any permit) carrying at/near a K-12 school. The practical catch is federal, not state: the 18 U.S.C. §922(q) buffer-zone exception still requires an actual state-issued license with law-enforcement verification, and NH's pistol/revolver license (RSA 159:6) is optional — someone relying on NH's permitless-carry right rather than holding that license would not have the federal exemption even though nothing in NH law stops them.

Source (2026-09-01) →

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

Unclear — needs a human look

No New Hampshire-specific firearms-signage criminal statute is known to me, and I could not fetch the text of NH's general criminal trespass statute (RSA 635:2) in this session to confirm its notice requirements.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Does state law preempt local/city carry ordinances

Yes

RSA 159:26: the state has sole authority/jurisdiction over firearms; all conflicting municipal ordinances not otherwise authorized are declared "null and void."

Source (2026-09-01) →

Polling places

Yes

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

Source (2025-12-19) →

Magazine capacity restricted

No

No state-level magazine capacity restriction found.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Red flag / extreme risk protection order law

No

No extreme risk protection order or red flag statute found in New Hampshire.

Source (2026-09-01) →

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

Yes

New Hampshire imposes no state-level restriction on NFA items beyond the federal process; secondary summaries and NFA-industry sources confirm suppressors, SBR, SBS, and pre-1986 transferable machine guns are all legal once the federal ATF Form 1/4 process is complete. Suppressor use for hunting has been expressly authorized since 2012. Only a CLEO notification (not approval) accompanies the federal filing. Primary NH statute text (RSA ch. 159) could not be pulled directly in this pass; relying on secondary sources.

Source (2026-09-01) →

Duty to retreat before using force in self-defense

No

Stand Your Ground by statute: N.H. Rev. Stat. § 627:4(III)(a); confirmed in State v. Etienne, 163 N.H. 57 (2011) — no duty to retreat.

Source (2026-09-01) →

"Universal" background checks required for private transfers

No

No New Hampshire statute requires background checks on private firearm transfers. 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.