Chief Robert B. Russell
Office of the Attorney GeneralJune 14, 2012
2012 WL 3060408 (Miss.A.G.)
Office of the Attorney General
State of Mississippi
*1 Opinion No. 2012-00248
*1 June 14, 2012
Re: Concealed Weapons
*1 Chief Robert B. Russell
*1 Ellisville Police Department
*1 104 West Holly Street
*1 Ellisville, MS 39437
Dear Chief Russell:
*1 Attorney General Jim Hood has received your request and has assigned it to me for research and reply. Your letter concerns the carrying of weapons in Mississippi.
ISSUE
*1 Is there a law in Mississippi that requires a permit holder to completely cover his weapon in public by means of a shirt, jacket or other piece of clothing?
RESPONSE
*1 Yes. The authority to legally carry a pistol or revolver is derived from Section 45-9-101 of the Mississippi Code which provides in the first sentence: “(1)(a) The Department of Public Safety is authorized to issue licenses to carry stun guns, concealed pistols or revolvers to persons qualified in this section.”
*1 This provision does not authorize a person to carry a pistol “concealed in part”, but requires that it be totally concealed. This conclusion is succinctly set forth in Section 45-9-101 (18): “... Further, nothing in this section shall be construed to allow the open and unconcealed carrying of any stun gun or deadly weapon as described in Section 97-37-1, Mississippi Code of 1972.”
*1 Section 97-37-1 prohibits the carrying of listed weapons “concealed in whole or in part”:
*1 (1) Except as otherwise provided in Section 45-9-101, any person who carries, concealed in whole or in part, any bowie knife, dirk knife, butcher knife, switchblade knife, metallic knuckles, blackjack, slingshot, pistol, revolver, or any rifle with a barrel of less than sixteen (16) inches in length, or any shotgun with a barrel of less than eighteen (18) inches in length, machine gun or any fully automatic firearm or deadly weapon, or any muffler or silencer for any firearm, whether or not it is accompanied by a firearm, or uses or attempts to use against another person any imitation firearm, shall upon conviction be punished as follows:
*1 Thus, it is illegal to carry the weapons described in Section 97-37-1(1) without securing a license as provided in Section 45-9-101, which license authorizes the carrying of a concealed pistol or revolver. The securing of the “‘enhanced” permit provided in Section 97-37-7 does not abrogate the requirement that the weapons be carried totally concealed.1
Footnotes
Section 12 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 states, “The right of every citizen to keep and bear arms in defense of his home, person, or property, or in aid of the civil power when thereto legally summoned, shall not be called in question, but the legislature may regulate or forbid carrying concealed weapons.” In addition, it is a violation of Section 97-37-1 of the Mississippi Code, except as provided in Section 45-9-101, to carry a weapon described in the statute “concealed in whole or in part”. See also Martin v. State, 47 So. 426 (Miss. 1908); Powell v. State,184 So. 2d866 (Miss. 1966); Reed v. State, 199 So. 2d 803 (Miss. 1967) and the dissent of Justice Roy Noble Lee in L. M., Jr. V. State, 600 So.2d 967 (Miss. 1992). (Even if weapon is visible, there is still violation since statute prohibits carrying of weapon only part of which is concealed.)
2012 WL 3060408 (Miss.A.G.)
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