Carrying
ORC 2923.12 and 2923.111 — permitless carry and the duty to disclose
Since 2022 a qualifying adult may carry a concealed handgun in Ohio without a license. Qualifying means at least twenty one and not otherwise prohibited from possessing a firearm. The license still exists, and people still get one, because it is what other states recognize and what some sellers and ranges ask for.
Who handles this in Ohio: Ohio State Bar Association lawyer referral; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
Permitless changed who, not where and not what you owe at a stop. Dropping the license requirement did not touch the list of barred places and did not remove the disclosure duty. Those are separate sections and both still apply to someone carrying without a license.
The disclosure duty is the part people get wrong most, in both directions. Senate Bill 215, the same 2022 act that brought permitless carry, changed it. Before that, a person carrying concealed had to promptly volunteer it to an officer. The amendment tied the duty to the officer asking. Telling one officer during a stop covers the stop; you do not have to repeat it to each officer who walks up.
Sources still disagree about how much of the old duty survived. What is not in dispute is that an officer who asks must get a truthful answer, and that failing to disclose when asked is the offense. What is disputed is whether anything of the old proactive duty remains where no question is put. Published summaries contradict each other on this, including summaries written after the amendment, so this site is not going to pick a side. The words of 2923.12 are that the offense is to knowingly fail to disclose it before or at the time a law enforcement officer asks if the person is carrying a concealed handgun.
- The duty attaches to a stop for a law enforcement purpose, not to every conversation with an officer.
- The license holder has to keep hands in plain sight from when the officer starts approaching until the officer leaves, unless the officer directs otherwise.
- Failing to disclose when asked is a second degree misdemeanor.
- Failing to keep hands in plain sight, or to follow an officer's lawful order during the stop, is a first degree misdemeanor, and a fifth degree felony after an earlier conviction or guilty plea for it. A license holder convicted of that misdemeanor also has the license suspended on top of the sentence.
- Reaching for, holding or touching the loaded handgun after the officer begins approaching, unless the officer directs it, is a fifth degree felony.
- How a firearm may ride in a car is a different section again, and it turns on loaded or unloaded and how it is stored.
“Before I move, I want you to know I am carrying a concealed handgun, and I am going to keep my hands where you can see them.”
Carrying while intoxicated is its own section, with no vehicle in it. Carrying or using a firearm or dangerous ordnance while under the influence of alcohol or any drug of abuse is a first degree misdemeanor. Carrying is enough. Nothing has to be fired, no vehicle has to be involved, and lawful carry is no answer to it, which is what separates the section from the vehicle one and from OVI.
Saying it before being asked is a choice rather than a requirement, and the script above is written that way on purpose. It removes the question of whether a duty was triggered at all, which is the part the amendment left unsettled.
Sources for this section (7)
- ORC 2923.12 — Carrying concealed weapons
- ORC 2923.111 — Concealed carry by qualifying adults without a license
- ORC 2923.126 — Duties of a licensee, and the places a license does not cover
- ORC 2929.24 — Definite jail terms for misdemeanors
- ORC 2923.16 — Improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle
- ORC 2923.15 — Using weapons while intoxicated
- ORC 2923.11 — Definitions, including deadly weapon and dangerous ordnance
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.