Working As A Locksmith Without a License is a Criminal Offense
As all Locksmiths should know, you are required to be licensed in your state to gain employment as a locksmith. Part of getting a license includes passing a criminal background check by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ). If you get caught performing locksmith services without a locksmith license, you could easily face heavy fines and potentially jail time. In many states locksmith tools are viewed as burglary tools. So if you are in possession of them and not a licensed locksmith, you may have a hard time explaining them to local law enforcement. So lock-picking hobbyist shouldn’t carry their lock pick tools around with them.
For example in California, practicing locksmithing without a license can carry a fine of $10,000 and up to a year in prison. If you have any concerns, you should look up the locksmith laws for your state. Most states have some similar rules.
An excerpt from California State Assembly Bill 2592:
6980.13. (a) Any person who violates any provision of this
chapter, or who conspires with another person to violate any
provision of this chapter, or who knowingly engages a nonexempt or
unlicensed locksmith, is guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a
fine of ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in a
county jail for not more than one year, or by both that fine and
imprisonment, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.