Northern Mariana Islands

Unusual and worth flagging distinctly in the UI: a single secondary source (Wikipedia, citing Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero, D.N.M.I. 2016) states the Northern Mariana Islands allows OPEN carry of a loaded handgun without a permit, while separately BANNING concealed carry — essentially the inverse of most US jurisdictions. I could not independently verify this via an official CNMI source this session. Given the unusual/counterintuitive nature of the claim and single-source sourcing, treat as unconfirmed rather than a flat 'yes.'

6 CMC §10401(a)(12) bars knowingly possessing a firearm within 500 feet of any place of worship unless the leadership of that particular place of worship, however governed, elects to allow firearms — an opt-in rule (default no) that reaches a 500-foot radius, not just the building; "place of worship" includes its grounds (§10101(ff)). Knowing possession is a felony (§10402). The §10404 exceptions include none for Firearm Owner's ID card holders as such; they do exempt lawful transport on highways, roads and sidewalks in compliance with §10206 (§10404(a)(11)), and a person who lawfully resides within a Gun Free Zone may keep firearms at home or on that property and transport them to and from it in compliance with §10206 (§10404(a)(12)).

6 CMC §10401(a)(13) bars knowingly possessing a firearm in any establishment licensed to dispense intoxicating liquor for consumption on the premises, so a restaurant holding an on-premises liquor license is covered. The paragraph has no distance buffer and no revenue-percentage or restaurant carve-out, and the §10404 exceptions include none for Firearm Owner's ID card holders. Knowing possession is a felony (§10402).

A CCW-law aggregator (CCWCalc) reports that the Northern Mariana Islands does not issue carry permits/licenses to residents or non-residents at all, and that its 'extensive Gun Free Zone network makes practical carry virtually impossible' even after a federal court struck down the open-carry ban in 2016 — which would make the underlying premise of the question (a 'concealed-carry permit holder') largely inapplicable in the CNMI. I could not corroborate this from an official CNMI government source, so I'm marking it unclear rather than asserting 'no' on secondary sourcing alone.

The CNMI does not issue any concealed-carry license/permit to the public at all — its Firearm Owner's Identification Card only authorizes possession in narrow settings (home, another's land with permission, a licensed range, hunting/fishing under license, one's own business, or lawful transport), so there is no 'CCW permit holder' class to begin with. Separately and independently, 6 CMC §10401 ('Gun Free Zones') bars firearm possession by anyone other than on-duty law enforcement in 'any building occupied primarily by the government,' 'any government building,' and within 500 feet of 'any courthouse, or any courtrooms, administrative offices, libraries or other rooms of such court' — covering an ordinary government office and a courthouse alike, with a wide buffer around the latter.

6 CMC §10401(a)(16) bars knowingly possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of any higher education institution (the same paragraph covers early childhood development facilities and elementary and secondary school facilities), apart from law enforcement officers in the exercise of their duties and security personnel given express permission to carry a firearm. The text does not distinguish public from private institutions. Knowing possession is a felony (§10402). The §10404 exceptions include none for Firearm Owner's ID card holders as such; they do exempt lawful transport on highways, roads and sidewalks in compliance with §10206 (§10404(a)(11)), and a person who lawfully resides within a Gun Free Zone may keep firearms at home or on that property and transport them to and from it in compliance with §10206 (§10404(a)(12)).

6 CMC § 10205(b)(2) permits carrying on another person's land or in their dwelling as an invitee with permission. The statute does not settle whether a business's general invitation to the public supplies that permission. Section 10205(d) also preserves separate Gun Free Zone restrictions. Without current authoritative guidance on that specific business-permission question, this remains unclear; the statutory text alone does not justify changing it to a default-allow or definite opt-in answer.

Carrying on another person's land or in their dwelling is allowed as an invitee with that person's permission, so the owner's permission is required and carry there is not allowed by default. 6 CMC §10205(a) bars carrying a firearm except as the Division or Commonwealth law provides, and §10205(b)(2) allows a person lawfully in possession of a firearm to carry it on the land or in the legal dwelling of another person "as an invitee with that person's permission" — an opt-in rule; the other paragraphs of §10205(b) cover the registrant's own home or land, a range, licensed hunting, the registrant's place of business and lawful transport under §10206. §10205 does not authorize carrying in a Gun Free Zone (§10205(d)), and §10401(a)(18) makes private property posted by its owner, lessee or manager a Gun Free Zone (felony, §10402). The statute does not say whether a business's standing invitation to the public counts as that permission; the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Hawaii's express-permission rule for private property open to the public in Wolford v. Lopez (June 25, 2026) but did not address the CNMI statute.

Per Wikipedia's 'Gun laws in the Northern Mariana Islands,' concealed carry is reported as banned in the CNMI, upheld in Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero — which would make the underlying question moot (no concealed-carry permit regime exists to authorize any carry, airport or otherwise). However, this rests on a single secondary source I could not corroborate with the actual CNMI code or the court opinion itself, and Second Amendment litigation in the territories has been actively moving, so I'm not confident this is still current as of the research date.

Concealed carry of a handgun is banned outright in the Northern Mariana Islands — a stateside concealed-carry permit gives no path to carry concealed there. This stems from the 'Handgun Prohibition Revival Act,' which the CNMI legislature passed specifically to keep the concealed-carry ban in force notwithstanding the Radich/Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero litigation. The flip side: OPEN carry of a loaded handgun is legal in CNMI WITHOUT any permit, as long as other laws (gun-free zones, etc.) aren't violated — so a visitor can lawfully carry, just not concealed in the way a CCW permit is meant for.

6 CMC §10401(a)(17) bars knowingly possessing a firearm in any hospital and any public or private clinics accessible by the public; the section does not define "clinics," so whether a particular doctor's office counts is not spelled out. Possession of a firearm in a vehicle on the premises of a hospital is not a criminal offense so long as the firearm is kept in accordance with §10206 (unloaded, with neither it nor any ammunition readily or directly accessible from the passenger compartment or, if the vehicle has no separate compartment, in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console). Knowing possession elsewhere in a covered place is a felony (§10402).

Following federal litigation (Radich v. Deleon Guerrero / Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero, 9th Cir. 2016) striking down its near-total handgun ban, the Northern Mariana Islands reportedly allows open carry but still bans concealed carry outright per secondary sources — meaning there may be no lawful concealed-carry-permit pathway at all for this question to apply to. I could not reach a CNMI government or primary legal source to confirm current status. Genuinely unclear.

6 CMC §10619(b) requires every Firearm Owner's Identification Card holder to have the card in their possession whenever in possession of a firearm and to exhibit it on the demand of a member of the Department of Public Safety; the duty is triggered by the demand, and the section does not require volunteering it first. Applicants generally must be Commonwealth residents (§10601(d)(3)(xviii); DPS may deny a non-resident, §10610(a)(20)). §10601(a) requires a card to acquire or possess any firearm in the Commonwealth, subject to the exceptions in §10601(c), which include transport through the Commonwealth under 18 U.S.C. §926A (§10601(c)(6)).

Multiple CCW-law compilations agree the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is a "no-issue" jurisdiction: "The Northern Mariana Islands does not issue any carry permits/licenses to residents or non-residents." CNMI's Title 6, Division 10 (SAFE Act) governs only a Firearm Owner's Identification Card, not a separate carry license. I could not locate a CNMI government page confirming this directly, so confidence rests on consistent secondary reporting for a low-stakes claim (no permit exists for anyone).

Read the full official text of 6 CMC §10401 ('Gun free zones,' part of the CNMI's SAFE Act) from the CNMI Law Revision Commission's official site. Subsection (a)(16) bans any person other than law enforcement from knowingly possessing a firearm within 1,000 feet of any early childhood, elementary, or secondary school facility (or higher-ed institution), with the only exception being security personnel given express permission. There is no civilian permit-holder exception anywhere in the statute, and separately, the CNMI generally does not even issue concealed-carry permits to ordinary civilians in the first place, per secondary reporting (CCWCalc) — reinforcing that there is no path for a private permit to satisfy this ban or the federal exception.

6 CMC §10401(a)(18) makes private property a Gun Free Zone when its owner, lessee or manager posts it with one or more conspicuous signs of at least 11 by 14 inches, with lettering of at least one inch, conveying at a minimum that the property is a Gun Free Zone and that it is a felony to possess a firearm there. Knowingly possessing a firearm in a §10401(a) location is a felony punishable by a fine of up to $10,000, up to 10 years' imprisonment, or both (§10402), and §10403 gives the owner a civil action for injunctive relief, actual and punitive damages, and statutory damages of at least $10,000, plus attorney fees if the owner prevails.

In the CNMI, concealed carry is reported as banned territory-wide (open carry of a loaded handgun is allowed without a permit instead), administered under one Commonwealth-wide legal system (litigated in part in Radich v. Guerrero, 9th Cir.). Because concealed carry itself is not a licensable activity under CNMI law, the 'can a locality add stricter carry rules' question is largely moot, and no information was found about any independent lawmaking power for Saipan/Tinian/Rota over firearms — this is thin, secondary-source (Wikipedia) information only.

6 CMC §10401(a)(4) bars knowingly possessing a firearm within 500 feet of any polling place on any election day. Knowing possession is a felony (§10402). The §10404 exceptions include none for Firearm Owner's ID card holders as such; they do exempt lawful transport on highways, roads and sidewalks in compliance with §10206 (§10404(a)(11)), and a person who lawfully resides within a Gun Free Zone may keep firearms at home or on that property and transport them to and from it in compliance with §10206 (§10404(a)(12)).

10-round limit for both long guns and handguns, N.M.I. Pub. L. 19-73 ('SAFE II,' effective Dec. 1, 2016). Upheld as constitutional in Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero (D. N. Mar. I., Sept. 28, 2016) even as other provisions of the CNMI's gun law were struck down on Second Amendment grounds.

No extreme risk protection order/red flag statute found for the Northern Mariana Islands; absent from all national ERPO trackers checked, and its gun-law overview (Weapons Control Act, SAFE Act) contains no risk-based removal provision.

CNMI's original Trust-Territory-era Weapons Control Act (63 TTC §551 et seq.) banned nearly all civilian firearm ownership. Federal court rulings in 2016 (Radich and Murphy v. Deleon Guerrero) struck down the total handgun ban as unconstitutional; CNMI's SAFE Act (P.L. 19-42) and SAFE II (P.L. 19-73) legalized handgun ownership under licensing but explicitly kept NFA-type items banned. Two independently-written secondary sources state that short-barreled shotguns, short-barreled rifles, machine guns, suppressors, and grenade launchers remain prohibited under the revised law. The CNMI Commonwealth Code/SAFE Act text could not be accessed directly, so this rests on secondary sourcing, corroborated across two independent articles.

6 CMC §10210(c): the right to use deadly force in self-defense or defense of a third person does not exist if the individual correctly or reasonably believes that he or she (or, in defense of a third party, that third party) can with complete safety avoid the necessity of so defending by (1) retreating, if attacked in any place other than his dwelling place or a place that is also the dwelling of the other party, or (2) relinquishing the exercise of any right or privilege other than the privilege to prevent intrusion upon or dispossession of his dwelling place. No duty to retreat from the dwelling (or a place that is also the other party's dwelling); everywhere else the duty applies whenever retreat can be done with complete safety (for defense of another, safety is judged for the person being defended). §10210(c) has no separate workplace or vehicle exception.

The CNMI Weapons Control Act (6 CMC) requires a Firearm Owner's Identification Card -- issued only after a background check -- to acquire or possess any firearm or ammunition in the Commonwealth, per Wikipedia's summary, which by its 'acquire' language would extend to private transfers, not just dealer purchases. Caveat: this is a genuinely thinner citation than most other entries -- the primary CNMI code (cnmilaw.gov) and the ATF's compiled CNMI firearms-statutes document could not be accessed during this research (403/404 errors), so the exact section number and the specific mechanics for private (non-dealer) transfers are not independently confirmed.

6 CMC §2222(a) makes it 'unlawful for any person to knowingly manufacture, import, sell, ship, deliver, possess, transfer, or receive a firearm silencer, except as authorized by law.' No civilian federal-NFA carve-out was found; the ban is the subject of an active federal Second Amendment lawsuit (Murphy v. CNMI DPS, filed 2024) that had not been resolved as of the most recent reporting found.

Secondary sourcing (consistent across independent summaries citing 6 CMC §10208) places machine guns on CNMI's prohibited-firearms list alongside sawed-off shotguns, silencers, and short-barreled rifles; the primary CNMI Code text could not be directly retrieved to independently verify the section number, so confidence is lower than a directly-read statute.

Same secondary sourcing (6 CMC §10208 prohibited-firearms list) names short-barreled rifles alongside machine guns and sawed-off shotguns; primary text not independently confirmed.

Same secondary sourcing (6 CMC §10208 prohibited-firearms list) names sawed-off shotguns; corroborated separately by a general CNMI dangerous-weapons provision that lists 'machine gun, sawed-off shotgun...[and] any other dangerous device or destructive device' as prohibited.

A general CNMI weapons provision found via secondary sourcing bars possessing a machine gun, sawed-off shotgun, or 'any other dangerous device or destructive device'; primary CNMI Code text could not be directly retrieved to independently confirm the exact section number or AOW-specific treatment.