General Information - Concealed Weapons Permit Information (CWQ/CWR)
Concealed Weapons Permit Information (CWQ/CWR)
This section describes how Nlets users may exchange concealed weapon permit information between state, local and federal law enforcement and criminal justice agencies.
The purpose of the Concealed Weapons Permit Information System is to provide a standardized, secure, and efficient method for states that have automated concealed weapon permit (CWR) systems to respond automatically (without manual intervention) to requests (CWQ) from other states over Nlets.
Those states without automated systems should respond manually or notify Nlets of their inability to participate (CWR). In these cases, Nlets will return a standard "not available" response.
Overview
An agency may request out-of-state concealed information by submitting a fixed format query to the state of record. The query (CWQ) may be on name and date of birth, the permit number, or social security number. A user may include some or all of these elements but should clearly understand that each search element may generate a separate response, depending on the capabilities of the state. A response (CWR) will be returned with the notification that a permit does or does not exist, its status, and a description of the owner.
Query Requirements
- CWQ messages may be sent to only a single 2-character state code.
- Full nine-character destination ORIs will cause rejection of the entire message.
- One of these must always be present in a request:
- Name/DOB
- Social Security Number
- Permit Number
- Users of this system must also recognize that each state will deal with the searching of their database in their own way. For example, some states may not support a search of social security number. Others may support this but not permit number.
- Trailing spaces should be eliminated in all data fields.
- When sending a free-form response format, states should ensure that no special codes or abbreviations are used.
Query Help
Details on the unique way states will search their concealed weapons file may be found in their HELP record.
The way to obtain this record is to send an administrative message, "AM", to a 9 character ORI where the first two characters is the state code followed by "GUNHELP". For example, to access Arizona's HELP record the destination ORI address would be "AZGUNHELP".
A list of all states participating can be found by querying "NLGUNHELP". Below is a table example from February of 2021.
State
Yes/No
State
Yes/No
State
Yes/No
State
Yes/No
AK
YES
ID
YES
MT
YES
PR
N/A
AL
NO
IL
YES
NB
NO *
RI
YES
AR
YES
IN
NO
NC
YES
SC
NO
AZ
YES
KS
NO *
ND
NO
SD
YES
CA
NO
KY
YES
NH
N/A
TN
NO *
CO
NO
LA
N/A
NJ
NO
TX
YES
CT
NO
MA
YES
NM
YES
UT
NO
DC
NO
MD
NO
NV
YES
VA
YES
DE
NO
ME
NO
NY
NO
VT
NO
FL
YES
MI
NO
OH
YES
WA
NO
GA
NO
MN
YES
OK
NO
WI
YES
HI
N/A
MO
NO
OR
NO
WV
NO
IA
NO
MS
NO
PA
YES
WY
YES
- Indicated on drivers license response
More information on help files can be located in Help File Transactions.
Concealed Weapons Permit Query Field Requirements (CWQ)
The following entries are required for Concealed Weapon Permit queries.
XML Tag:
Legacy Prefix:
Field Size:
Data Requirements:
Translation:
nc:PersonFullName
NAM/
30
Alpha Characters
Full name; format is last name, comma, space after comma is optional) first name, space, middle initial or name, space, suffix (Jr., III, etc.) Titles or degrees should not be used as part of the name
nc:Date
DOB/
8
Express as ccyy-mm-dd
Date of Birth. Some states have different requirements. Check their GUN HELP file for details. When a name is used this field may be optional for some states
nc:IdentificationID
SOC/
9
See NCIC manual
Social security number
nc:IdentificationID
PER/
Max. 15
Alphanumeric
Permit number
Concealed Weapons Permit Queries / Responses (CWQ/CWR)
- All CWQ queries should be answered by a CWR from the destination.
- The format of the responses is optional, however states should make every effort to translate any state-specific codes.
- States should attempt to show what action was taken on the search. For example, a record may be available on the NAM/DOB however, no information was found on the permit number. The requestor should be told this.
- If the state does not have the ability to search their file by one of the indices the requestor should be so notified.
- In all cases, the original inquiry should be the first part of all responses in order to let the requester identify their request.
- States may have reciprocity with certain states and not others. This information should be included in each state's help file record. See Section 5 of the Nlets Users Guide for directions on how to add a help record to the Nlets system.
- If one uses a format with more than one index (e.g., NAM/DOB and SOC or NAM/DOB and PER) the responder should indicate which search element was used to search the file and which one, if any, produced the hit.
- Some states search by name only. This may produce multiple hits. States' responses may differ slightly.