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Georgia Concealed Carry Permit

Georgia allows permitless carry for non-prohibited adults 21+. A WCL is still available and is what other states recognize.

Permitless carry is legal in Georgia

A non-prohibited adult aged 21 or older may carry a concealed handgun without a permit (since 2022). Georgia is a permitless-carry ('constitutional carry') state. SB 319 took effect on the Governor's approval, April 12, 2022. It added the definition of 'lawful weapons carrier' to O.C.G.A. § 16-11-125.1 — verbatim: 'any person who is licensed or eligible for a license pursuant to Code Section 16-11-129 and who is not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing a weapon or long gun, any resident of any other state who would otherwise be eligible to obtain a license pursuant to such Code section but for the residency requirement, and any person licensed to carry a weapon in any other state' — and rewrote § 16-11-126 to read 'Except as otherwise provided in subsections (a) through (f) of this Code section, no person shall carry a weapon unless he or she is a lawful weapons carrier.' Practical effect: a person 21+ (or 18+ with qualifying U.S. armed forces basic training) who is not otherwise prohibited may carry a handgun openly or concealed with NO permit. Because the trigger is ELIGIBILITY for a WCL, anyone who could not lawfully be issued a WCL also may not carry permitlessly. Georgia.gov states plainly: 'You do not need a WCL to purchase or carry a firearm in Georgia.' Carrying while not a lawful weapons carrier is a misdemeanor for a first offense and a FELONY punishable by 2–5 years for a second offense within five years. Location restrictions (O.C.G.A. §§ 16-11-127, 16-11-127.1, 16-11-135, plus federal facilities) still apply, and a WCL is still worth holding for out-of-state reciprocity and certain in-state exemptions.

Getting the permit anyway is still worth it for most people: other states recognize the permit, not your residency, so without one you generally cannot carry across state lines.

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-125.1(2.1) ('lawful weapons carrier') and O.C.G.A. § 16-11-126, as amended by 2022 Ga. Laws Act 596 (SB 319, the Georgia Constitutional Carry Act)

There are 9 details on this page we could not confirm from a primary source. Read what they are before relying on this.

Requirements at a glance

Permit name Georgia Weapons Carry License
Issuing authority Judge of the Probate Court of the applicant's county of residence (Georgia has no single statewide issuing agency; the Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia coordinates the 159 county courts)
System shall-issue
Minimum age 21 — 21 for the standard license and for permitless carry. 18–20 year olds may obtain a WCL (and therefore carry) only with proof that they completed basic training in the U.S. armed forces and are on active duty or were honorably discharged. On May 29, 2025 the Supreme Court of Georgia unanimously upheld the under-21 public-carry restriction against a Georgia constitutional challenge. A separate federal Second Amendment challenge (Baughcum v. Jackson / Georgia Second Amendment, Inc. v. Governor of Georgia) was vacated and remanded by the Eleventh Circuit on July 24, 2026; the 21 threshold remains in force today.
Training required No
State fee $75 initial / $30 renewal — the state's own charge, not the total
Valid for 5 years
Processing time Roughly 30–45 days in practice. By statute the probate judge must, within five business days of receiving the application, direct the law enforcement agency to request a fingerprint-based criminal history check from GCIC and the FBI, and must issue the license not later than ten days after receiving the agency's report. Georgia.gov describes the background check as taking about 30 days. The applicant must be fingerprinted within five business days of filing.
Fingerprints Required
Non-resident permit Not 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 $5
County probate court fee varies — set locally, not by statute: Gwinnett $72, Fulton $77, Chatham $77, Coffee $81.50
Realistic total $72–$87

The $75 Georgia publishes is an average of what counties charge, not a fee anyone is entitled to pay — O.C.G.A. § 16-11-129 leaves the amount to each probate court. The law enforcement agency may take $5 for fingerprinting on top, though some counties fold it in (Chatham's $77 includes both fingerprinting and the background search). No training is required, so the county's charge plus at most that $5 is the whole bill.

Fees are set and collected by each county probate court, so they vary; the 75 figure is Georgia.gov's stated statewide AVERAGE, not a statutory amount ('The average fee is $75, but it varies by county'). Verified county examples: Gwinnett $72 new / $30 renewal / $6 duplicate / $1 temporary renewal permit; Fulton $77 new / $35 renewal; Chatham $77 new (includes fingerprinting and background search) / $30 renewal / $6 replacement, free for retired law enforcement; Coffee $81.50 new / $30 renewal. The law enforcement agency is statutorily entitled to a $5.00 fingerprinting fee. No refunds if the application is denied. Confirm the exact amount with your own county's probate court.

How to apply

  1. Confirm eligibility: 21+ (or 18+ with proof of U.S. armed forces basic training plus active duty or honorable discharge), a resident of the Georgia county where you apply, a U.S. citizen or lawfully present non-citizen, and not disqualified by criminal, drug, or mental-health history.
  2. Locate your county's Probate Court (call 1-800-GEORGIA / 1-800-436-7442, or use the Council of Probate Court Judges listing). Applications are filed in person in your county of residence — there is no statewide online application.
  3. Bring valid photo ID showing your current county address, proof of citizenship or lawful presence (naturalization certificate / USCIS number / certified birth certificate or passport if foreign-born), and, if you are 18–20, your DD-214 or active-duty orders showing completed basic training.
  4. Complete and swear to the application at the probate court and pay the county's fee (roughly $72–$82 for a new license).
  5. Get fingerprinted within five business days of filing — at the probate court, at the designated county law enforcement agency, or at a GBI-approved fingerprint vendor. The court may issue a Law Enforcement Affidavit to take with you.
  6. Wait for the GCIC/FBI fingerprint-based background check (about 30 days). The probate judge must issue within ten days after receiving the law enforcement report unless disqualifying facts are found.
  7. Receive your license, valid five years. Apply for renewal within the 90 days before expiration (or up to 30 days after) to get the reduced renewal fee; fingerprints are generally not retaken on renewal.

Apply on the official Georgia site

What disqualifies you

Where to get the required training

Georgia does not publish a central list of certified instructors. Confirm directly with Judge of the Probate Court of the applicant's county of residence (Georgia has no single statewide issuing agency; the Council of Probate Court Judges of Georgia coordinates the 159 county courts) that a course will be accepted before you pay for it.

Training providers in Georgia

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 Georgia →

Reciprocity

Carrying into Georgia

Georgia recognizes permits from 32 other jurisdictions.

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming

31 jurisdictions honor a Georgia permit

Derived from what each of those states officially publishes.

Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Wyoming

Official Georgia reciprocity page Full reciprocity matrix →

Building your own in Georgia

Build for personal use
Allowed
Serial number required
No

Georgia law permits an individual who may lawfully possess a firearm to build one for personal use. There is no Georgia firearm registry: O.C.G.A. § 16-11-173 declares firearm regulation a matter of state-wide concern and bars counties, municipalities, and every state agency other than the General Assembly from regulating 'the possession, ownership, transport, carrying, transfer, sale, purchase, licensing, or registration of firearms or other weapons or components of firearms or other weapons.' Georgia has enacted no serialization mandate for privately made firearms, no 'ghost gun' statute, and no unfinished frame/receiver law as of August 2026. What Georgia DOES criminalize is O.C.G.A. § 16-9-70: buying, selling, receiving, disposing of, concealing, or possessing a firearm knowing that the manufacturer's name plate, serial number, or other distinguishing identification mark has been removed or altered for the purpose of concealing or destroying the article's identity. That forbids defacing an existing serial number; it does not require adding one to a firearm that never had one. Federal law applies independently: unlicensed making for personal use is permitted under the Gun Control Act, but the National Firearms Act governs NFA items, 18 U.S.C. § 922(p) bans undetectable firearms, prohibited-person rules apply, making with intent to sell requires an FFL, and ATF Final Rule 2021R-05F requires serialization once a licensee takes a frame/receiver into inventory. CAUTION: one secondary write-up encountered during research asserted Georgia requires serialization of firearms manufactured after July 1, 2024. I found no such Georgia statute, session law, or bill, and other sources contradict it — I believe it is inaccurate, but see uncertainties.

No Georgia statute prohibits or regulates making a firearm for personal use. See O.C.G.A. § 16-11-173 (state preemption of firearm regulation, expressly including 'registration' and 'components of firearms'), O.C.G.A. § 16-9-70 (criminal use of an article with an altered identification mark), and O.C.G.A. § 16-11-125.1 et seq.

Federal law, gunsmithing schools, and tools →

Statutes

What we could not confirm

  • Fee figures: Georgia sets no uniform statewide WCL fee — each probate court sets its own. The initial value of 75 is Georgia.gov's stated statewide AVERAGE, not a legal amount. Verified county amounts ranged $72 (Gwinnett) to $81.50 (Coffee); renewals ranged $30 to $35.
  • Exact current subsection lettering of O.C.G.A. § 16-11-126 could not be pinned down from an official code database. SB 319 renumbered subsections (the out-of-state recognition provision moved from (e) toward (d); the general carry prohibition from (h) toward (g)), and the enrolled-bill PDF loses strike/underline formatting on text extraction. Every free full-text code host tried (Justia, LexisNexis OCGA portal) and ATF's 'State Laws and Published Ordinances — Georgia' returned HTTP 403 to automated fetching. The quoted substance is verbatim from the enrolled bill; only the letter labels are uncertain.
  • Whether § 16-11-129 (fee mechanics, exact disqualifier look-back windows, temporary renewal permit) has been amended since 2022 could not be confirmed against an official current-code source. The disqualifier list and process details are reconstructed from the enrolled SB 319 text plus four official county probate court pages, which are mutually consistent.
  • The Attorney General's reciprocity page carries NO published last-updated date, and the DPS page mirrors it. The 32-state list may be stale relative to other states' recent changes. Re-verify before relying on it for interstate travel.
  • I could not affirmatively prove from a primary source the ABSENCE of a Georgia serialization requirement for privately made firearms (proving a negative). One secondary write-up claimed Georgia requires serialization of firearms made after July 1, 2024; no matching statute, session law, or bill was found and other sources contradict it, but ATF's official state-law compilation — the best primary-adjacent cross-check — returned HTTP 403 and could not be read.
  • Federal litigation over Georgia's 21+ carry age is live: the Eleventh Circuit vacated and remanded Georgia Second Amendment, Inc. v. Governor of Georgia (Baughcum v. Jackson) on July 24, 2026. The 21 threshold is currently in force but could change on remand.
  • The statutory processing deadlines (five business days to initiate the check; ten days to issue after the report) come from § 16-11-129(d) via search results rather than a directly fetched official code page. The '30 days' figure is Georgia.gov's descriptive estimate, not a legal deadline.
  • SB 499 (2026), which would remove suppressors from Georgia's dangerous-weapons list, was reported as advancing; its final disposition was not confirmed. SB 204 (gun-storage preemption) was reported vetoed May 13, 2026. Neither affects concealed-carry licensing.
  • 'nonResidentPermitAvailable' is set false because every probate court requires county residency; the narrow exception is active-duty military stationed in Georgia, who may apply in their duty-station county. Note separately that non-residents 21+ generally do not NEED a Georgia permit, since the 'lawful weapons carrier' definition covers out-of-state residents who would be eligible but for residency.

Sources