Idaho runs two separate concealed weapons licenses, and which one you carry determines where you can legally carry across state lines -- roughly 13 additional states will only honor the Enhanced version.

That's not a small number. If you road trip regularly — Spokane, Vegas, Denver, the whole Mountain West circuit — the difference between a basic CWL and the Enhanced is potentially the difference between legal carry and a felony stop. Worth knowing before you pack for a hunting trip through Nevada.

There are no exceptions, no waivers, and no workarounds -- even if you're a retired law enforcement officer, active military, or an NRA-certified pistol instructor.

This comes up constantly at the counter. Guys with decades of trigger time assume their background gets them a shortcut. It doesn't. The 8-hour course with 98 rounds fired and an Idaho-licensed attorney or POST-certified officer covering the legal portion — that's the requirement, full stop. I've heard more than a few experienced shooters grumble about it, but honestly, the legal portion alone is worth sitting through. Most people who've been carrying for years have never had an Idaho attorney walk them through use-of-force law in a classroom setting.

Per Idaho Code § 18-3302(2) and the Idaho Sheriffs' Association, a concealed weapon includes any dirk, dirk knife, bowie knife, dagger, pistol, revolver, or any other deadly or dangerous weapon carried on a person in a manner not discernible by ordinary observation.

People focus on the gun and forget the blade. If you're carrying a fixed blade tucked under a jacket, that's covered under the same statutes. The 4-inch-or-under exemption is useful to know, but anything bigger and you're in concealed weapons territory whether you thought about it that way or not.

Per Idaho Code § 18-310, an Idaho felony conviction results in automatic restoration of firearms rights upon final discharge from sentence -- but this applies only to Idaho felony convictions. Felonies from other states do not receive automatic restoration.

This one trips people up badly. Someone moves here from another state, does their time years ago, assumes their rights are restored because Idaho law is relatively favorable — and they're wrong. If your conviction happened out of state, automatic restoration doesn't apply. That's a conversation for an attorney, not a gun store counter, and definitely not something to guess at.

For those of you who've gone through the Enhanced course — what was the training quality actually like, and did the legal instruction portion cover anything that surprised you?

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