Carrying a firearm in Arkansas
What state law requires, and what federal law adds on top of it. Every fact below shows where it came from and how far we have verified it.
Check a specific address on the map →- Permit required to carry concealed
- No — Arkansas allows permitless carry from age 21, or 18 for active military and veterans.
- Duty to inform law enforcement
- You must tell an officer you are armed at first contact, without being asked.
- Permits Arkansas recognises
- We have not yet ingested Arkansas's published recognition list. That is a gap in our data, not a statement that it recognises nothing.
- Restricted areas mapped in this state
- Federal school zones (1,000 ft)1,237
- Corps of Engineers areas268
- Military installations6
The federal layer applies regardless
Federal law bars possession within 1,000 ft of a school, and the exemption requires a licence issued by the state the school sits in — a permit Arkansas merely honours through reciprocity does not satisfy it. Carrying permitlessly satisfies it even less, because there is no licence at all. This is the trap that catches travellers who correctly concluded their permit was good here.
18 U.S.C. § 922(q)(2)
Sources and how far we have verified them
- duty_to_inform·State duty-to-inform statutes (aggregated)Aggregated source — not yet verified against the statute · in force from 2026-01-01
- permitless_carry·Ark. Code § 5-73-120, § 5-73-329Aggregated source — not yet verified against the statute · in force from 2013-08-16