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District of Columbia Concealed Carry Permit

District of Columbia requires a Concealed Carry Pistol License (CCL / CPL) to carry. It is shall-issue, the minimum age is 21, and 18 (16 classroom + 2 range) hours of training is required.

Requirements at a glance

Permit name Concealed Carry Pistol License (CCL / CPL)
Issuing authority Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), Firearms Registration Branch — Chief of Police
System shall-issue
Minimum age 21 — 21 for the concealed carry license, with no exception. D.C. Code § 7-2509.02(a)(1) and 24 DCMR § 2332.1(a). The applicant must also hold a valid D.C. registration certificate for the specific pistol to be carried (§ 7-2509.02(a)(2)); D.C. firearm registration itself generally requires age 21.
Training required Yes — 18 (16 classroom + 2 range) hours, live fire required
State fee $75 initial / $75 renewal — the state's own charge, not the total
Valid for 2 years
Processing time Not officially published as a guaranteed timeline. 24 DCMR § 2338.1 requires only that the Chief investigate "within a reasonable period of time after receipt of a completed application," and neither D.C. Code § 7-2509.02 nor § 22-4506 sets a statutory decision deadline. MPD recommends filing a renewal 45 days before expiration.
Fingerprints Required
Non-resident permit Available

What it actually costs

The state fee is rarely the whole bill. Fingerprinting is usually charged by a private vendor, training is bought from an instructor, and several states add photographs, notarisation or other requirements on top.

State fee $75
Fingerprinting $35
Training course $75–$250 (private instructor)
Firearm registration $13 — waived if you have no pistol registered yet
Realistic total $185–$373

MPD fee schedule and 24 DCMR § 2331. Fingerprints are not retaken at renewal if already on file.

MPD's official Fees & Payment schedule and 24 DCMR § 2331 list: License to carry a pistol / Concealed Carry License $75.00; Fingerprints (FBI background check) $35.00; Firearm registration $13.00. MPD states the firearm registration fee is WAIVED if a concealed carry applicant does not yet have a gun registered. Fingerprints are not retaken for a renewal if prints are already on file. Payment by cash (in person), debit, or Visa/Mastercard at the time of application. The Chief may waive fees for good cause (24 DCMR § 2337). NOTE: MPD's fee schedule lists a single $75 CCL fee and does not separately itemize a renewal fee — the $75 renewal figure is inferred from that single line item and is not separately stated as a 'renewal' fee on an official page. Training course costs are paid to the private instructor and are not set by MPD.

How to apply

  1. Confirm eligibility: at least 21 years old, meet all D.C. firearm registration requirements, and meet the suitability standards of 24 DCMR § 2335.
  2. Register the specific pistol you intend to carry with MPD's Firearms Registration Branch (D.C. Code § 7-2502.01) — a valid D.C. registration certificate for that pistol is a prerequisite to the license (D.C. Code § 7-2509.02(a)(2)). The $13 registration fee is waived for CCL applicants who do not yet have a gun registered.
  3. Complete the required training with an instructor certified by MPD: 16 hours of classroom instruction plus 2 hours of range training with a 50-round, 15-yard qualification at 70% (24 DCMR § 2336). Use MPD's published list of certified instructors. You may apply first and submit the certificate within 45 days of preliminary approval.
  4. Submit the concealed carry license application through the MPD Firearms Portal at firearms.mpdc.dc.gov (or on MPD's prescribed form), including identifying information, proof of residency or D.C. business, the training certificate or exemption evidence, a five-year mental-health disclosure and authorization for release of mental health records, and a notarized oath under penalty of perjury (24 DCMR § 2337).
  5. Appear in person for fingerprinting and, per D.C. Code § 7-2509.02(b), an in-person interview at MPD headquarters (Firearms Registration Branch, 441 4th Street NW, Room 550 South) for identity and information verification. Pay the $75 license fee and $35 fingerprint fee if prints are not on file.
  6. MPD conducts the background investigation required by 24 DCMR § 2338 (criminal and juvenile records, mental health, references, propensity for violence, substance use, training verification).
  7. Receive the decision by email/mail. A denial may be appealed to the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings within 15 days (D.C. Code §§ 7-2509.02(d), 7-2509.08).
  8. Renew before the 2-year expiration: 4 hours of training plus proof of 2 hours of range practice in the prior 12 months; renewals can be completed entirely online through the Firearms Portal. MPD advises applying 45 days before expiration.

Apply on the official District of Columbia site

What disqualifies you

Where to get the required training

District of Columbia publishes an official list of certified instructors. That list is authoritative — a certificate from an instructor who is not on it may not be accepted. View the official instructor list

Training providers in District of Columbia

Businesses in our directory that offer firearms training. These are not state-verified as certified permit instructors — check against the official list above, or ask the provider directly.

All firearms training in District of Columbia →

Reciprocity

Carrying into District of Columbia

District of Columbia recognizes no out-of-state carry permits. A permit from another state does not authorize you to carry here.

11 jurisdictions honor a District of Columbia permit

Derived from what each of those states officially publishes.

Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, Wisconsin

Official District of Columbia reciprocity page Full reciprocity matrix →

Building your own in District of Columbia

Build for personal use
Allowed
Serial number required
Yes

Narrowly allowed, and only with a D.C.-format serial number plus MPD registration. D.C. Code § 7-2504.01(a) requires a dealer's license to engage in the business of manufacturing firearms, but expressly provides that "[n]othing in this section shall preclude persons not otherwise prohibited from possessing firearms from making their own firearms solely for personal use (not for sale or distribution)" in compliance with D.C. firearms law and federal law. However: (1) every firearm possessed in D.C. must be registered (D.C. Code § 7-2502.01); (2) a "ghost gun" is unregisterable, D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(8), and D.C. Code § 7-2501.01 defines "ghost gun" to include any firearm — including a frame or receiver — lacking a unique serial number engraved or cast by a licensed manufacturer/importer under federal law, assigned by a state agency, or placed on it in compliance with § 7-2502.02, and also expressly includes an "unfinished frame or receiver" (an 80% receiver or similar blank); (3) accordingly, a self-manufactured firearm must be serialized before it can be registered, and D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(c)(2) prescribes the exact format — the serial number "shall consist of the first and last name of the self-manufacturer, followed by the designation 'DC' and then a set of 2 to 5 numbers," the number set must not duplicate any serial the self-manufacturer placed on another firearm, and the self-manufacturer must confirm with MPD that the proposed serial is not already registered to another firearm before engraving or stamping it on the frame or receiver. The practical effect: buying or possessing an unfinished frame/receiver in D.C. is prohibited as a ghost gun, and any self-made firearm must carry the statutory D.C. serial and be registered with MPD. Machine guns, assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles, short-barreled rifles and sawed-off shotguns remain unregisterable regardless of who made them (§ 7-2502.02(a)).

D.C. Code § 7-2504.01(a); D.C. Code § 7-2502.02(a)(8) and (c); D.C. Code § 7-2501.01 (definitions of "ghost gun" and "unfinished frame or receiver")

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

Statutes

What we could not confirm

  • permitSystem is a judgment call. On the books, D.C. Code § 22-4506 still says the Chief "may issue" a license to an applicant who shows "good reason to fear injury to his or her person or property or has any other proper reason for carrying a pistol," and 24 DCMR §§ 2332.1 and 2337 still contain that same good-reason language — the Council and MPD never scrubbed it from the text. But MPD's own website states that, pursuant to Wrenn v. District of Columbia and Grace v. District of Columbia (D.C. Cir. 2017), applicants "no longer need to provide a good reason for carrying a handgun," and D.C. did not appeal Wrenn. So D.C. operates as shall-issue in practice, subject to a discretionary suitability determination under 24 DCMR § 2335 that is broader than most shall-issue states. I classified it shall-issue on that basis. I could not load the MPD page carrying that quote directly (mpdc.dc.gov/page/applying-license-carry-handgun and .../applying-concealed-carry-license-district-columbia returned HTTP 403 to my fetcher); the quote came through search indexing of that official MPD page and is corroborated by the OAG's October 2017 concealed-carry FAQ, but I did not render either document end-to-end.
  • Renewal fee is not separately itemized. MPD's Fees & Payment page and 24 DCMR § 2331 list one $75 "license to carry a pistol" / "Concealed Carry License" fee and no distinct renewal line. I reported renewal as $75 by inference from that single line item. Confirm with MPD's Firearms Registration Branch, (202) 727-4275, before relying on it.
  • Processing time is not officially published. There is no statutory or regulatory decision deadline — 24 DCMR § 2338.1 says only "within a reasonable period of time after receipt of a completed application." A widely repeated "90 days" figure circulates on non-official sites; I found no official MPD or D.C. Code source for it and therefore did not state it as fact.
  • Non-resident licensing: 24 DCMR § 2345 as written still requires a non-resident to show a good reason to fear injury "from a cause likely to exist within the District." That good-reason element is the same one Wrenn invalidated, so the regulation text is stale, but I could not find an official MPD page that spells out the current non-resident standard post-Wrenn. Non-residents can and do apply through the Firearms Portal, and 24 DCMR § 2332.1 lets a valid out-of-state carry permit satisfy the residency-nexus element. Non-residents should confirm current practice directly with MPD.
  • 24 DCMR sections were read via dcrules.elaws.us, an unofficial mirror of the D.C. Municipal Regulations, because the official dcregs.dc.gov search interface was not directly fetchable. All substantive DCMR points I relied on (16+2 training hours, $75/$35/$13 fees, age 21) are independently corroborated on MPD's own mpdc.dc.gov pages or in the D.C. Code at code.dccouncil.gov.
  • Sensitive-place restrictions under D.C. Code § 7-2509.07 and MPD's CCL Restrictions page are extensive (government buildings, schools, hospitals, public transit, stadiums, within 1,000 feet of certain protected events, etc.) and I did not enumerate them field-by-field here. A D.C. licensee still faces a large number of off-limits locations, and much of central Washington is federal property governed by separate federal law (e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 930, National Park Service and Capitol Grounds rules) that a D.C. license does not override.
  • I did not verify whether any 2025-2026 D.C. Council legislation amended the CCL scheme after the sources I read. The instructor roster on MPD's site is dated 7/31/2026 and the official application form is the November 2025 revision, which indicates the pages are actively maintained as of this research.

Sources