Reference, not legal advice. This page summarizes a federal statute. It does not tell you what is legal where you are standing. Laws change, courts read them differently, and your state, county and agency add rules on top. Get a written answer from your agency’s counsel or a lawyer who knows firearms law in your state before you rely on any of this.
TL;DR: The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (LEOSA) lets qualified active officers (18 U.S.C. § 926B) and qualified retired officers (§ 926C) carry a concealed firearm “notwithstanding” most state and local law, subject to the limits in the statute. It has four big limits: it does not override state rules on private property, it does not override state rules on state and local government property, it excludes machine guns, silencers and destructive devices, and it requires specific photo ID (and, for retirees, a current qualification). Everything below is quoted or paraphrased from the official text on the House Office of the Law Revision Counsel site (uscode.house.gov), which is current through Pub. L. 119-138 (November 3, 2026), checked 2026-11-11.
The core grant
Section 926B(a) reads:
“Notwithstanding any other provision of the law of any State or any political subdivision thereof, an individual who is a qualified law enforcement officer and who is carrying the identification required by subsection (d) may carry a concealed firearm that has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce, subject to subsection (b).”
Section 926C(a) is the same sentence for “a qualified retired law enforcement officer.” Two things to notice. It covers concealed carry, and it is “subject to subsection (b),” the carve-outs below.
Who is a “qualified law enforcement officer” (§ 926B)
Subsection (c) lists six requirements. The person is an employee of a governmental agency who:
- “is authorized by law to engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, investigation, or prosecution of, or the incarceration of any person for, any violation of law, and has statutory powers of arrest or apprehension under section 807(b) of title 10, United States Code (article 7(b) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice)”;
- “is authorized by the agency to carry a firearm”;
- “is not the subject of any disciplinary action by the agency which could result in suspension or loss of police powers”;
- “meets standards, if any, established by the agency which require the employee to regularly qualify in the use of a firearm”;
- “is not under the influence of alcohol or another intoxicating or hallucinatory drug or substance”; and
- “is not prohibited by Federal law from receiving a firearm.”
The ID requirement in subsection (d) is “the photographic identification issued by the governmental agency for which the individual is employed that identifies the employee as a police officer or law enforcement officer of the agency.” Subsection (f) says law enforcement officers of the Amtrak Police Department and the Federal Reserve, and law enforcement or police officers of the federal executive branch, count as meeting the agency-and-arrest-powers part of the definition in (c)(1). They still have to meet the rest of (c).
Practical read: an agency badge alone is not what the text asks for. The text asks for photographic identification, issued by your agency, that says you are a police or law enforcement officer.
Who is a “qualified retired law enforcement officer” (§ 926C)
Subsection (c) is longer. In summary, the person:
- “separated from service in good standing from service with a public agency as a law enforcement officer”;
- had the same arrest powers described above before separating;
- either “served as a law enforcement officer for an aggregate of 10 years or more” or separated “after completing any applicable probationary period of such service, due to a service-connected disability, as determined by such agency”;
- “during the most recent 12-month period, has met, at the expense of the individual, the standards for qualification in firearms training for active law enforcement officers,” as set by the former agency, the state of residence, or (where the state has no standard) a law enforcement agency or a qualified certified firearms instructor;
- meets the mental-health condition in (c)(5): the statute lists, as alternatives, not having been officially found unqualified for mental-health reasons by a qualified medical professional employed by the agency, or not having signed an agreement with the agency acknowledging that he or she is not qualified for mental-health reasons;
- “is not under the influence of alcohol or another intoxicating or hallucinatory drug or substance”; and
- “is not prohibited by Federal law from receiving a firearm.”
One more definition sits in § 926C(e)(2): “service with a public agency as a law enforcement officer” includes service with the Amtrak Police Department, the Federal Reserve, or as a law enforcement or police officer of the federal executive branch.
The ID a retiree has to carry
Subsection (d) offers two routes. Both need a photo ID from the agency the person retired from that identifies them as having been employed as a police or law enforcement officer.
- Route 1: the photo ID itself “indicates that the individual has, not less recently than one year before the date the individual is carrying the concealed firearm, been tested or otherwise found by the agency to meet the active duty standards for qualification in firearms training as established by the agency to carry a firearm of the same type as the concealed firearm.”
- Route 2: the agency photo ID, plus a certification from the state of residence or a certified firearms instructor that the person has met the qualification standard “not less than 1 year before” the day they carry, for a firearm “of the same type.”
The “same type” language matters. Qualifying with one pistol is not the same as qualifying with every firearm you own.
What LEOSA does not do
1. Private property
Section 926B(b)(1) and § 926C(b)(1): LEOSA does not supersede state laws that “permit private persons or entities to prohibit or restrict the possession of concealed firearms on their property.” If a state lets a business or owner say no, LEOSA doesn’t override that.
2. State and local government property
Section (b)(2): LEOSA does not supersede state laws that “prohibit or restrict the possession of firearms on any State or local government property, installation, building, base, or park.” The text does not say anything about federal property. Other laws cover that. We have not reviewed them here.
3. What counts as a “firearm”
Subsection (e) of each section defines “firearm.” In short:
- it has the meaning in 18 U.S.C. § 921;
- it “includes ammunition not expressly prohibited by Federal law or subject to the provisions of the National Firearms Act”; and
- it does not include “any machinegun,” “any firearm silencer,” or “any destructive device.”
The ammunition language was added in 2010 (Pub. L. 111-272). Before that, subsection (e) only excluded the three categories above, per the amendment notes. The text does not name any particular kind of ammunition, such as hollow points. What it covers is ammunition “not expressly prohibited by Federal law or subject to the provisions of the National Firearms Act.” How that interacts with a specific state’s ammunition rules is a question for counsel.
The statute is silent on magazine capacity. States regulate it differently, and whether LEOSA reaches a state magazine limit is a question to put to a lawyer, not to this page.
4. Open carry
The grant is for a “concealed firearm.” The text does not authorize open carry.
5. Other federal rules
LEOSA’s text does not discuss aircraft, federal buildings or military installations. Those are governed by other rules, not covered here.
The Gun-Free School Zones Act
The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act is in 18 U.S.C. § 922(q). LEOSA does not mention school zones. The exceptions in § 922(q)(2)(B) matter here:
- (ii): the person possessing the firearm “is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located or a political subdivision of the State,” and the state’s law “requires that, before an individual obtains such a license, the law enforcement authorities of the State or political subdivision verify that the individual is qualified under law to receive the license”; and
- (vi): the possession is “by a law enforcement officer acting in his or her official capacity.”
Read the words. Exception (vi) is limited to official capacity. Exception (ii) turns on a state license. LEOSA is a federal statute, not a license issued by a state. We are not saying how a court would treat an off-duty or retired officer in a school zone. We are saying the answer is not obvious from the text, that state law may add its own school-zone rules (§ 922(q)(4) says nothing in the subsection preempts state gun-free school zone laws), and that you should get a specific answer before you carry near a school.
What changed, and when
The source credits on the House site list the history of both sections: added by Pub. L. 108-277 (July 22, 2004; § 2(a) for § 926B, § 3(a) for § 926C), amended by Pub. L. 111-272 (October 12, 2010) and Pub. L. 112-239, div. A, title X, § 1089 (January 2, 2013).
- 2010: added “which could result in suspension or loss of police powers” to the disciplinary-action requirement in § 926B(c)(3); added the ammunition language to the definition of “firearm”; added subsection (f) on Amtrak, Federal Reserve and federal executive branch officers. In § 926C (§ 2(c) of the act) it changed “retired” to “separated from service,” cut the service requirement from 15 years to 10, dropped the requirement of a nonforfeitable right to retirement benefits, rewrote the annual qualification standard and the state or instructor certification route, and added the same ammunition language and the Amtrak, Federal Reserve and federal executive branch service definition.
- 2013: inserted the reference to “arrest or apprehension under section 807(b) of title 10” (the military justice cross-reference) in the arrest-powers requirements, and changed the ID language so the photo ID must identify the person as a “police officer or law enforcement officer.”
As of our check on 2026-11-11, the House site’s text is current through Pub. L. 119-138 (November 3, 2026), and its notes list no amendment to § 926B or § 926C after 2013. A 2016 law, the Federal Law Enforcement Self-Defense and Protection Act of 2015 (Pub. L. 114-180), is printed as a note under § 926B. It covers carry by federal officers during a covered furlough and did not change the text of either section. Congress can amend these sections at any time, so check the current text on the official site before relying on any summary, including this one.
Where this fits
This is the first article in Gear law. Carry rules sit beside the gear you buy. For the equipment side, see Duty Belts and Lights, or start at Gear. How we check things is on How we pick.
Sources
- 18 U.S.C. § 926B, Cornell LII, checked 2026-11-11. Official text: uscode.house.gov (current through Pub. L. 119-138), checked 2026-11-11.
- 18 U.S.C. § 926C, Cornell LII, checked 2026-11-11. Official text: uscode.house.gov (current through Pub. L. 119-138), checked 2026-11-11.
- 18 U.S.C. § 922(q), Cornell LII, checked 2026-11-11. Official text: uscode.house.gov, checked 2026-11-11.
- Amendment history: the source credits and “Amendments” notes on the two uscode.house.gov pages above.