State Gun Laws Overview for Online Firearm Buyers
Buying a firearm in the United States means working with two sets of rules at once. Federal law sets the floor, and it is the same in every state: a firearm sold by a licensed dealer goes on ATF Form 4473, the buyer passes a background check, and a handgun bought from a dealer in another state has to be transferred through a dealer in the buyer's home state. On top of that floor, each state adds its own layer, and those layers now differ more than they have at any point in living memory. This page explains how the two fit together so you know what to expect before you place an order.
The federal floor
Every firearm we ship goes to a licensed FFL dealer that you name. The dealer receives the package, logs it, and holds it until you come in. At the counter you fill out Form 4473, show a current government photo ID with your address on it, and the dealer runs the background check. In most states that check goes straight to the FBI's NICS system. In a handful of states a state agency acts as the point of contact and runs the check itself, which sometimes adds a day or two.
Federal age rules are straightforward. A dealer may sell a rifle or shotgun to a buyer who is 18 or older, and a handgun to a buyer who is 21 or older. Private sales between residents of the same state are governed by state law, and several states now require those to go through a dealer as well.
Federal law also decides what is a firearm in the first place. A stripped lower receiver is a firearm and ships to a dealer. A complete upper, a barrel, a handguard, a trigger, a magazine, an optic or a weapon light is not, so those ship to your door wherever state and local rules allow it. You can see how that splits across our catalog in the shop.
Where the states diverge
State law changes four things more than anything else: whether you need a permit or card before you can buy, whether you have to wait, what the gun itself is allowed to look like, and how big the magazine can be.
Permits and cards to purchase
Most of the states we serve require nothing beyond the federal check. A few do not. Nebraska has long required a handgun purchase certificate from your local police department or sheriff unless you hold a valid concealed handgun permit. Washington has enacted a permit-to-purchase system that phases in on a published schedule, and Colorado's 2025 law adds an eligibility card and a safety course for semiautomatic firearms that take a detachable magazine. Both are the kind of rule that changes on a fixed date, so check the current regulations with the state agency before you order rather than trusting a summary written last year.
Waiting periods
Florida's constitution imposes a three-day wait on handgun purchases, with counties allowed to go longer and an exemption for concealed weapon licence holders. Washington applies a ten-day wait to firearms generally. Colorado applies a three-day wait. Most of the southern states we ship into apply none at all, and the transfer is finished the same day the check clears.
Features and magazines
Washington bans the sale of a long list of semiautomatic rifles by name and feature, and caps magazine sales at ten rounds. Colorado caps magazines at fifteen. None of the southern states on our city pages caps magazine size. This matters when you buy a rifle, because the same model can be legal to ship to one state with a thirty-round magazine and not legal to ship to another at all. When in doubt, read your own city page before you order, and check the current regulations with your state agency.
Carry is a separate question
Whether you may carry a loaded handgun on your person has nothing to do with whether you may buy one. Most of the states we cover now allow eligible adults to carry concealed without a permit, including Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. Others still require a licence issued by a sheriff, a court or a state agency, including Virginia, North Carolina, Washington and Colorado.
Even in permitless states, getting the licence is usually worth the fee. Other states honour it when you travel, some states let a licence stand in for the NICS check at a dealer, and a few posted locations treat licence holders differently from everyone else. No state permit covers federal buildings, post offices, secure areas of airports or military installations, and schools, courthouses and posted private property are restricted almost everywhere.
What a dealer can and cannot ship
We ship standard rifles, shotguns, handguns, rimfire guns, ammunition, optics, lights, magazines and parts. We do not deal in items regulated under the National Firearms Act, which means no suppressors, no short-barrelled rifles as configured, and no machine guns of any kind. We also do not sell auto sears, conversion switches, lightning links or bump stocks. Those are not stock items that happen to be restricted; they are the one category we stay out of entirely.
Forced-reset and binary triggers are a different matter, and they cause a lot of confusion because of it. They are ordinary shelf items where state law allows them, and we ship them like any other drop-in trigger. The legal history and the state-by-state picture are worth reading in full before you buy one, so we wrote a separate forced-reset and binary trigger guide.
Ammunition and parts by mail
Ammunition ships to the door in most of the country. A small number of states require an in-person transfer, a licence check or a permit before ammunition can be delivered, and a few counties add their own rules on top. Magazines follow the same pattern as rifles: fine almost everywhere we ship, capped in Washington and Colorado. Optics, lights, slings, holsters, cleaning gear and most AR parts have no restrictions at all.
Practical steps before you order
- Pick your dealer first. Call a shop near you, ask whether they accept transfers from online sellers, and ask what they charge. Transfer fees are set by the dealer, not by us.
- Check your ID. The address on your driver's licence has to be current, or you need a second government document that shows where you live now.
- Read your state section. Every city page on this site carries the purchase, carry and hunting rules for that state, along with the office that issues permits.
- Confirm magazine and feature rules if you live in Washington or Colorado, because they decide whether a given model can ship at all.
- Budget for the transfer fee and any state fee on top of the price you see at checkout.
Once you know those five things, ordering is simple. Choose the gun in the shop, give us your dealer's details, and we handle the paperwork on our end. If you are still deciding what to buy, the AR-15 guide and the used and trade-in guide cover the two questions we get asked most, and the city pages carry the local detail.
This overview is a starting point, not legal advice. Firearm law in several of these states is in active flux, courts are reviewing parts of it, and effective dates move. Where a date matters to your purchase, check the current regulations with the agency that publishes them.
General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.
