Mississippi prohibits any person, other than a concealed weapons licensee, from unlawfully possessing at any of the following intellectual disability and illness centers or facilities, or passing to any resident, patient, employee or officer of these centers or facilities, any firearm or deadly weapon:

• The North Mississippi Regional Center;¹

• The Ellisville State School;²

• The Boswell Regional Center;³

• The South Mississippi Regional Center;⁴

• The Hudspeth Regional Center;⁵

• The North Mississippi State Hospital and South Mississippi State Hospital;⁶

• The Central Mississippi Residential Center;⁷

• The Specialized Treatment Facility in Harrison County;⁸ and

• The Juvenile Rehabilitation Center in Brookhaven.⁹

Mississippi licenses to carry concealed handguns do not authorize a person to carry a concealed handgun into:

• Any “place of nuisance”;¹⁰

• Any police, sheriff or highway patrol station;

• Any detention facility, prison or jail;

• Any courthouse or courtroom, except that a judge may carrying a concealed weapon and determine who may carry a concealed weapon in a courtroom;

• Any polling place or meeting place of the governing body of any governmental entity;

• Any meeting of the Legislature or a legislative committee;

• Any school, college or professional athletic event not related to firearms;

• Any portion of an establishment, licensed to dispense alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, that is primarily devoted to dispensing alcoholic beverages;

• Any elementary or secondary school facility, and any junior college, community college, college or university facility, unless it is for the purpose of participating in any authorized firearm-related activity;

• Inside the passenger terminal of any airport, subject to limited exceptions;

• Any church or other place of worship;

• Any place where the carrying of firearms is prohibited by federal law; or

• Any place for which the person or entity exercising control over the location places a written notice clearly readable at a distance of not less than ten feet, stating that the “carrying of a pistol or revolver is prohibited.”¹¹

Additionally, a concealed carry license does not authorize a participant in a parade or demonstration for which a permit is required.¹²

However, a concealed handgun licensee who voluntarily completes a firearms safety training course offered by a certified, nationally-recognized organization that normally offers such courses, or by any other organization approved by the DPS, may carry firearms into any of the above-listed locations in which the carrying of concealed weapons is generally prohibited, except that he or she may not carry a weapon into:

• Any courtroom¹³ during a judicial proceeding or when otherwise prohibited by a judge;

• Any place of nuisance;

• Any police, sheriff, or highway patrol station; or

• Any detention facility, prison, or jail.¹⁴

Note that even license-holders who have completed a firearms safety training course may still be barred from bringing concealed guns onto privately-owned property (including private schools, churches, bars, etc.), if the owner chooses to exclude guns from his or her property.¹⁵

Mississippi allows churches and other places of worship to establish a security team and appoint concealed carry permit-holders who are authorized to carry concealed firearms for the protection of the congregation.¹⁶ Permit-holders appointed to protect a congregation must have completed a firearms safety training course to serve on the security team.¹⁷ Churches and houses of worship are not required to establish such a security team, and like other private property owners, they may still choose to exclude all concealed carry permit-holders from bringing guns onto their property.¹⁸

Mississippi has no statutes prohibiting firearms in the following places, although administrative regulations may apply:

• Sports arenas; or

• Gambling facilities.

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1. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-15(3).[↩]
2. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-116(c).[↩]
3. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-211(c).[↩]
4. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-155(3).[↩]
5. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-243(c).[↩]
6. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-261(c).[↩]
7. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-279.[↩]
8. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-291(7)(c).[↩]
9. Miss. Code Ann. § 41-19-301(7)(c).[↩]
10. Place of nuisance” is defined under Miss. Code Ann. § 95-3-1 as any place where lewdness or prostitution is conducted or permitted or where controlled substances are unlawfully used, possessed, sold or delivered more than once.[↩]
11. Miss. Code Ann. § 45-9-101(13).[↩]
12. Id.[↩]
13. “Courtroom” is defined as: “the actual room in which a judicial proceeding occurs, including any jury room, witness room, judge’s chamber, office housing the judge’s staff, or similar room.” Miss. Code Ann. § 97-37-7.[↩]
14. Miss. Code. Ann. §97-37-7(2).[↩]
15. Op. Miss. Att’y Gen. No. 2013-00023 (Oct. 1, 2013), 2013 Miss. AG LEXIS 248, *8-9 (“An enhanced permit cannot constitutionally take away the rights of property owners to exclude persons from their property if that is their wish. …Therefore, private property owners, including but not limited to owners or custodians of those types of property listed in section 45-9-101(13) (e.g., bars, churches, restaurants serving alcohol, private schools, professional athletic event property) may exclude from their premises persons carrying weapons.”).[↩]
16. 2016 Miss. H.B. 786, signed by the Governor April 15, 2016.[↩]
17. Id.[↩]
18. See Op. Miss. Att’y Gen. No. 2013-00023 (Oct. 1, 2013), 2013 Miss. AG LEXIS 248, *8-9.[↩]