Oklahoma Still Issues Permits
Video Transcribed: Hey, this is Tulsa Attorney, Brian Jackson. Today I want to talk to you about the process for obtaining a concealed carry permit in Oklahoma. To start with, although there is a process involved, our state is in fact a shall-issue state. In other words, if you can qualify for a permit and you’ve jumped through all the hoops, you will get your permit.
Albeit it will cost you some money, but you will get your permit. The first step in getting a permit is you have to take a classroom and on-range safety course. The classroom portion of the course basically deals with getting, teach you about the applicable law of self-defense such as where you can and can’t carry a weapon. When you can and can’t resort to deadly force.
It talks about Oklahoma’s stand your ground laws and castle doctrine. And you’re taught about the basic safety rules of handling firearms and that portion of the class will end with a short written exam, that basically makes sure you actually learned something. After which you go to the live range portion and you will be required to shoot about 50 to 100 rounds of ammunition, which may sound like a lot, but you can actually burn that pretty fast with most firearms.
The purpose of the range is not an accuracy test, ironically. The main purpose is to make sure you can safely load and unload a firearm. And if you can do that, you’ll pass the test, you get your certification and then you go to the next step.
You take that certificate and you need to go get a passport size photo from … usually you can get those with the drugstore or whatever, but you have to get that and you go to the Sheriff’s and you have to complete the application to the OSBI for your permit. And once you’ve done that, then you go to the local Sheriff’s Office and you have to actually get fingerprinted.
Now, the Sheriff will submit your photo, your certificate that you completed your class, and your application to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, which does a pretty extensive background check on you to make sure that you don’t have anything in your background that will disqualify you from having your permit.
And that typically takes two to three months to complete. After which time you will be mailed a card in the mail. That is your carry permit. Now an interesting thing, Oklahoma still issues permits, but we are in fact, a constitutional carry state. You don’t need the permit to carry a weapon, but it’s probably not a bad idea to have the permit, because if you want to travel outside of the state, not all states are constitutional carry, but an awful lot of states will recognize an Oklahoma permit.
The exceptions being most of them, pretty much all the West Coast states and a fair number of the Northeastern, East Coast states plus Illinois. But a lot of the country will recognize an Oklahoma permit, so it’s not a bad thing to have and there is a fee involved. And when you send in your application with all the other requisites to the Sheriff, you have to pay about it, it’s $300 for a five-year permit. And it’s, last I checked it’s about six, $700 for a 10-year permit.
And that will pretty much cover you for that time period. Now there are some caveats with having a permit. If you are armed, whether you have your permission or not, you are required, if you encounter police, you have to tell them that you’re armed.
And you’re supposed to tell them at the earliest possible opportunity and there’s the right way and a wrong way to do this. Obviously don’t want to tell the police, “Hey, I have a gun.” Because they’re probably going to show you theirs and no one’s going to like that.
You do want to announce though, “Officer, I’m a concealed carry permit holder and I’m armed tonight. And my firearm is here.” Is a good way to handle that. In future videos, I’m going to talk a little bit more about some other nuances of going armed in Oklahoma, but that’s the basic process for getting started. If you are looking for a Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney you should go to makelaweasy.com
