North Dakota has no law that imposes a penalty on someone who fails to secure an unattended firearm and leaves it accessible to an unsupervised minor.

However, a parent or guardian of, or person having charge or custody of, a child under 15 years of age who permits the child to carry or use a loaded firearm in public commits a class B misdemeanor unless the child is under the direct supervision of the parent, guardian or person authorized by the parent or guardian.¹ North Dakota has no other law penalizing allowing a child access to firearms.

For age requirements for the purchase or possession of firearms in North Dakota, see the North Dakota Minimum Age to Purchase / Possess section.

North Dakota has no law that requires unattended firearms to be stored in a certain way.

North Dakota also does not require a locking device to accompany the sale of a firearm, and no state statutes require firearm owners to affirmatively lock their weapons.

North Dakota law requires a person carrying a handgun that is not in plain view between the hours of one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset to carry it unloaded and “secured.” At other times (between the hours of one hour after sunset and one hour before sunrise), any handgun that is being carried, even one that is in plain view, must be unloaded and “secured.”¹

“Secured” means:

• Closed into a trunk or non-passenger part of a vehicle;
• Placed into a closed and secure carrying device;
• Rendered inoperative by use of a trigger, hammer, cylinder, slide, or barrel-locking device that renders the firearm incapable of firing until the device is unlocked and removed; or
• So disassembled or disabled as to be rendered incapable of firing.²

This requirement does not apply to concealed weapons licensees and certain other individuals.³ See the North Dakota Carrying Firearms section above for a complete list of exceptions. North Dakota has no law requiring firearms owners to lock their weapons while not in public.

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1. N.D. Cent. Code § 62.1-02-07.[↩]