Does Arkansas's concealed-carry ban on Highway Department grounds reach the private property next door to a Highway Department building?

Plain-English summary

Representatives John Vines and Bruce Cozart asked AG Dustin McDaniel about A.C.A. § 5-73-306, the statute listing places where a concealed-carry license does not authorize a person to carry. Subsection (3)(A) prohibits carrying concealed in "[a]ny building of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department or onto grounds adjacent to any building of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department." Subsection (3)(B) exempts Department rest areas and weigh stations.

The legislators read "grounds adjacent to any building" literally: any property next to a Department building, including privately owned private property. The State Highway and Transportation Department's headquarters complex on Interstate 30 in Little Rock is surrounded by private property. Under the legislators' reading, concealed-carry licensees would be barred from those private parcels.

AG McDaniel disagreed. He read the phrase as referring only to grounds owned or controlled by the Department itself. The reading rests on three points of statutory construction:

1. Context matters. The other locations in § 5-73-306 are all owned or controlled by the entity providing the service (governmental, recreational, educational, religious). The one exception is the "any place" provision at subsection (19)(A), which lets a person or entity "exercising control over the physical location" post a no-carry notice. That provision applies to private places, but it requires the entity to "control" the place. Either way, "control" is the common thread.

2. Reading "adjacent to" as covering private property creates absurd results. It would mean the Department could effectively extend a concealed-carry ban over any property within walking distance by buying a single building. It would also leave concealed-carry licensees with no way to know whether they are violating the law as they walk down a street next to government property.

3. The two specific questions answered. No, concealed carry on private property near the Department headquarters is not prohibited. And no, the Department cannot extend the ban to neighboring private property merely by purchasing an adjacent parcel.

Currency note

This opinion was issued in 2014. Subsequent statutory amendments, court decisions, or later AG opinions may have changed the analysis. Treat this page as historical context, not current legal advice. Verify current law before relying on any specific rule, deadline, or remedy mentioned here. Arkansas's concealed-carry law has been amended multiple times since 2014.

Common questions

Does Arkansas's concealed-carry ban extend to private property next door to a state government building?
Under this 2014 reading of A.C.A. § 5-73-306(3)(A), no. The ban applies only to grounds owned or controlled by the State Highway and Transportation Department, not to private property that happens to be next door.

Can a state agency extend a no-carry zone by buying nearby property?
At the time of this opinion, no, not by itself. Adding new Department property creates new banned zones on the new property, but it doesn't reach private property that remains in private hands.

Can a private property owner ban concealed carry?
At the time of this opinion, yes, under A.C.A. § 5-73-306(19)(A), the person or entity "exercising control over the physical location of the place" could post a notice prohibiting concealed handguns.

What was the AG's main interpretive move?
Reading the phrase "grounds adjacent to any building of the [Department]" in light of the rest of the statute, which consistently ties the no-carry zone to ownership or control by the operating entity. The AG concluded that "adjacent" should be read consistently with the rest of the statute.

Background and statutory framework

Arkansas's concealed-carry licensing scheme is at A.C.A. § 5-73-301 et seq. Section 5-73-306 lists nineteen specific locations where a license does not authorize carrying. The locations are organized by the type of entity controlling the location:

• Government locations: subsections (1), (2), (4)-(10), (15), (17)
• Recreational: (11)-(13), (18)
• Educational: (14)
• Travel: (15)
• Religious: (16)
• Federal: (17)
• Any place posted by entity in control: (19)

The State Highway and Transportation Department subsection at (3)(A) sits in the governmental cluster. Its exception at (3)(B) carves out Department rest areas and weigh stations.

The AG's analysis is straightforward statutory interpretation. The general rule from cases like Flowers v. Norris is to give effect to legislative intent, starting with ordinary meaning and reading words in context. Ford v. Keith says no word should be left void or superfluous. Green v. Mills emphasizes whole-statute context. Macsteel adds the tools for resolving ambiguity if ordinary meaning fails. The AG concluded that "adjacent" should be read in light of the statute's consistent use of "owned or controlled" elsewhere.

Citations

• A.C.A. § 5-73-306 (concealed-carry location restrictions)
• A.C.A. § 5-73-306(3)(A) (Highway Department building and adjacent grounds)
• A.C.A. § 5-73-306(3)(B) (rest area and weigh station exception)
• A.C.A. § 5-73-306(19)(A) (private property posting)
• Flowers v. Norris, 347 Ark. 760, 68 S.W.3d 289 (2002) (legislative intent)
• Yamaha Motor Corp. v. Richard's Honda Yamaha, 344 Ark. 44, 38 S.W.3d 356 (2001) (ordinary meaning)
• Ford v. Keith, 338 Ark. 487, 996 S.W.2d 2 (1999) (no superfluous words)
• Green v. Mills, 339 Ark. 200, 4 S.W.3d 493 (1999) (whole-statute context)
• Macsteel v. Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp., 363 Ark. 22, 210 S.W.3d 878 (2005) (resolving ambiguity)
• Op. Att'y Gen. 2013-013 (related interpretation of "place" in § 5-73-306)

Source

• Landing page: https://arkansasag.gov/divisions/opinions-foia/attorney-general-opinions-search/

Original opinion text

Opinion No. 2014-002
May 1, 2014

The Honorable John T. Vines
State Representative
123 Market Street
Hot Springs, Arkansas 71901-5308

The Honorable Bruce Cozart
State Representative
420 Rock Creek Road
Hot Springs, Arkansas 71913

STATE OF ARKANSAS
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
DUSTIN McDANIEL

Dear Representatives Vines and Cozart:

You have requested my opinion regarding A.C.A. § 5-73-306, which specifies
certain locations where concealed-carry licensees cannot carry their handguns.
Your question pertains specifically to subsection 5-73-306(3), which states:

No license to carry a concealed handgun issued pursuant to this
subchapter authorizes any person to carry a concealed handgun into:

(3)(A) Any building of the Arkansas State Highway and
Transportation Department or onto grounds adjacent to any building
of the Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department.

(B) However, subdivision (3)(A) of this section does not apply to
a rest area or weigh station of the Arkansas State Highway and
Transportation Department[.]

You state that this subsection "appears to apply to privately owned and privately
controlled property adjacent to any [Arkansas State Highway and Transportation
Department, hereinafter "Department"] building, with the exception of 'rest area
or weigh station' property specifically excluded in -306(3)(B)." You then ask:

Is this a correct reading? Specifically, does this statute prohibit the
carrying of a concealed handgun onto the private property that is
adjacent to the large complex that constitutes the state headquarters
of the Department on Interstate 30 in Little Rock? Moreover, if the
Department were to purchase a property containing a building that
was adjacent to private property, would that effectively disallow the
carrying of a concealed handgun on that private property?

RESPONSE

In my opinion, A.C.A. § 5-73-306(3)(A) is properly interpreted as applying to
grounds that are owned or controlled by the Department and that are adjacent to a
Department building. I must therefore disagree with your reading of this
subsection. In response to your specific questions, it is my opinion that subsection
5-73-306(3) does not prohibit the carrying of a concealed handgun onto private
property based simply on that property's proximity to the Department
headquarters or other property owned by the Department.

DISCUSSION

Your inquiry focuses on a subsection that is one of nineteen in A.C.A. § 5-73-306
specifying certain locations where concealed handguns may not be carried even
with a license. The subsection at issue addresses the Arkansas State Highway and
Transportation Department. In sum, with the exception of a Department "rest area
or weigh station," it identifies the prohibited locations as any "building of the
[Department]" and "grounds adjacent to any building of the [Department]." Your
inquiry centers on this latter reference to adjacent grounds, and specifically
whether it applies to private property.

In resolving that question, we are guided by well-established principles of
statutory interpretation. Of course, the cardinal rule is to give full effect to the
General Assembly's intent. The first step to achieving that goal is to examine the
ordinary meaning of the statute's wording. The statute must be read as a whole,
ensuring that no word is left void or superfluous. When ascertaining the meaning
of a word or phrase, the language must be considered in the context of the statute
as a whole. If this reading indicates that the statute is ambiguous, which occurs
when the statute is open to two or more plausible readings, only then do we
resort to the rules of statutory construction. Under these rules, we assess (among
other things) the statute's amendatory history, language, subject matter, and
statements of legislative intent.

Applying these principles, I read the phrase "grounds adjacent to any building of
the [Department]" in A.C.A. § 5-73-306(3)(A) to mean grounds that are either
owned or controlled by the Department. This reasonably follows, in my opinion,
from a reading of the phrase in the context of both -306(3) and the statute as a
whole, which is essential to determine its meaning. With one exception, the other
prohibited places listed in the statute are all publicly accessible and owned or
controlled by the person or entity providing the particular service or function,
whether that be governmental, recreational, educational, religious, or otherwise
generally related to the public. This includes both the prohibited places as well as
the exceptions to the concealed-carry prohibitions. The one exception to this
common theme of public access is the subsection pertaining generally to "[a]ny
place" within the "control" of a "person or entity." Carrying a handgun is
prohibited if the person or entity "exercising control over the physical location of
the place" posts a notice that effect. This provision presumably extends to
privately-owned places, but it clearly echoes the "control" element common to the
other specified locations and thus further supports the conclusion that "grounds
adjacent to any [Department] building" means grounds within the Department's
ownership or control.

In response to your specific questions, therefore, it is my opinion that your reading
of A.C.A. § 5-73-306(3) is incorrect and that this subsection does not prohibit the
carrying of a concealed handgun onto private property based simply on the
property's proximity to the Department headquarters or other property owned by
the Department.

Deputy Attorney General Elisabeth A. Walker prepared the foregoing opinion,
which I hereby approve.

DUSTIN McDANIEL
Attorney General

DM:EAW/cyh