How We Verify Carry-Law Data

Our promise: every legal fact on Freedom’s Lodge traces to an official primary source including the states attorney general, state police or the statute itself which is checked on a stated date, corroborated against respected trackers, and flagged in plain sight when sources conflict.

Where our data comes from

For each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., we pull the permit regime, constitutional-carry status, reciprocity lists, minimum ages, duty-to-inform rules and key restrictions from official primary sources: the state attorney general’s office, state police / department of public safety, and the state code itself. We then corroborate against long-running independent trackers (such as Handgunlaw.us and USCCA’s state pages). Every state page lists the exact sources used.

How we handle conflicts

When an official page and a secondary source disagree,  or two official pages disagree with each other,  we record the conflict, use the most authoritative source (statute text first, then the enforcing agency), and mark the item for editor re-verification rather than guessing. If we can’t verify something, we say so on the page.

How often we update

Every legal page shows the date it was last verified. We re-verify the full dataset on a recurring cycle and immediately when a law materially changes (new legislation, court rulings, or a state updating its official reciprocity list). The interactive map is rendered from the same dataset, so map and pages always match.

Editorial standards

All carry-law content is edited and approved by James Nicholas, Freedom’s Lodge’s editor, before publication. We do not use autogenerated legal claims without source verification, we cite official sources inline, and we display a prominent not-legal-advice disclaimer on every legal page, because this information is educational, not legal advice.

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See the full legal disclaimer that governs all legal content on this site.