Honorable Michael Cooke

*1 Attorney General Mike Moore has received your request for an opinion and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter states:

*1 In response, it is noted that both of the provisions mentioned in your letter are contained in Chapter 609 of the General Laws of the State of Mississippi, 1991. This chapter amended § 97-37-1 of the Mississippi Code. This is the general statute which makes it unlawful “except as provided in § 45-9-101” (the permit statute) to carry a concealed deadly weapon. Subsection 2 of this concealed weapon statute was added by the 1991 Laws specifically to provide that:

*1 Based on this section, as amended, it is our opinion that a person may legally carry a weapon within a motor vehicle regardless of whether or not he has obtained a permit under § 45-9-101.

*1 You also ask for guidance from our office on the disposal of weapons under § 97-37-3 of the Code. I enclose prior opinions of this office to Joe Price (1/31/90), Mary Nell Jenkins (6/28/85) and George Cossar (2/13/81) which address your concerns.

*1 You also ask whether a forfeited weapon may be assigned by the police department to the county coroner/ranger. As stated in the prior opinions a court may order a forfeited weapon be disposed of by having the weapons put on the property roll of the municipality. When this is done, the forfeited weapon becomes subject to the same rules and limitations regarding the use of all other property belonging to the city. Since a city is prohibited from granting any donation by § 21-17-5 (2)(g) of the Code, it is our opinion that the police department may not assign one of its weapons to the county coroner/ranger.

*1 Please contact us if you have further questions regarding this matter.