Oklahoma Does Not Have Any Rule About How Many Firearms You Can Carry
Video Transcribed: So you’re interested in carrying a weapon in Oklahoma and you don’t know what you can legally carry. Well, my name is Brian L. Jackson. I am one of the Criminal Attorneys in Tulsa, Oklahoma with the Wirth Law Office. And we’re going to talk today about what types of weapons you can legally carry in the state of Oklahoma.
So to start with, we should take a look at the Oklahoma Self-Defense Act, which specifies that first of all, if you want to carry a firearm for self-defense, it needs to be a handgun, a handgun being defined as a firearm that’s designed to be fired in the hand without a stock.
And the handgun needs to be chambered in a caliber between 22 calibers and 45 calibers. So in other words, you can’t carry that 50 caliber Desert Eagle or a 500 Smith & Wesson, and you can’t carry your brother’s BB gun either. It’s got to be between 22 and 45 calibers.
Now, what that does mean is that you can carry a 380. So if you like the old Walther PPK, like James Bond, that’s perfectly fine. You could carry a nine-millimeter, that’s one of the most popular carry weapons out there. That’s perfectly fine. You could even carry a 44 Magnum legally in Oklahoma, like Dirty Harry.
It May is not be the first recommendation of firearms for a number of reasons, but it is legal. You can’t carry a 50 caliber. You can’t carry anything above 50 calibers if you happen to come across a handgun that’s above 50 calibers. The next thing to know is there are certain types of ammunition that are allowed and certain types that are not. Oklahoma specifies, again, under the Self-Defense Act that you are not allowed to carry anything that can be defined as an armor-piercing bullet.
Now, what does that mean? Well, the way that armor-piercing bullets are defined under Oklahoma law is it would be a bullet with a core or where the bullet is comprised largely of metals other than lead and copper.
And that would be harder metals such as brass, or bronze, or steel, or iron, and also bullets that are Teflon coated or otherwise designed to penetrate a bulletproof vest, Kevlar. So those types of bullets are illegal.
Now, the good news is that there aren’t really any commercial loadings anymore that are designed that way because those types of bullets are also illegal under federal law.
So you’re not going to find a commercial loading that violates that rule. Legally, you can carry a full metal jacket, although that may not be the best choice.
You can carry hollow points of any type of variety. One other type of bullet you cannot carry as a self-defense round is what’s called an explosive bullet.
Now, I want to clarify something by saying explosive bullets and hollow points are not the same things. Sometimes people refer to a hollow point as being “exploding round.” They’re not explosive rounds.
What the law is referring to is basically designed to actually detonate on impact. Now also, you can’t carry tracers and you can’t carry a weapon loaded with incendiary bullets, in other words, bullets that are designed to start fires on impact. But hollow points are okay.
The full metal jacket’s okay. Wadcutters and semi-wadcutters are okay. Any of those types of bullets are perfectly fine. Oklahoma does not have any rule about how many firearms you can carry.
As long as they’re all handguns and as long as they’re within the caliber limitations, you can carry as many as you want. There’s no rule about the number of handguns. Another interesting weapon that is actually legal, despite the fact that it can take a shotgun shell, is the Taurus Judge.
Although Taurus Judge will accept the shotgun shell, it is not prohibited. Now it is prohibited would be weapons such as a sawed-off shotgun, short-barrel rifle, anything like that. Anything with stock is going to generally be prohibited. Some other types of weapons that are non-firearms that you cannot carry under the SDA and under Oklahoma law include sword canes, blackjacks.
There’s a rule about Bowie knives. Anything bigger than a certain size becomes a potential problem. Chains, any of that kind of thing is not allowed. Billy clubs. Pepper spray and tasers are allowed. However, like any other weapon, you should be trained on them.
That also, by the way, includes handguns. If you’re going to carry, you should be trained. And in my next video, I want to talk to you guys about when and where you can carry a weapon and when and where you can’t. So for right now, if you have questions about what type of weapons you can legally carry in Oklahoma, I would encourage you to go to makelaweasy.com.
