Can You Buy a Gun as a Gift? Rules in All 50 States

Can you buy a gun as a gift? Yes, if the gift is real; 19 states and D.C. add a dealer or permit check on at least some gifts.

Originally published: October 27, 2026

Can you buy a gun as a gift? Yes. A bona fide gift is a firearm you buy with your own money and give, with no strings, to someone who can legally own it, and federal law treats you as the actual buyer. Buying for someone who paid you is a straw purchase, a federal felony. Fifteen states and D.C. put every gift through a dealer, permit or license check, four more do it for handguns, three check only sales and 28 add nothing.

A gun under the tree is a fine tradition and an easy way to break a law you did not know applied. The federal rule is simple; the state rule decides whether the gift passes through a dealer, whether family is exempt, and whether the person opening the box is old enough for that gun where they live. The right way to give one keeps you the real buyer and puts the gun in hands your state already allows.

Gun Gift Rules by State

Find your state and read across. Each row was read from the law itself; a name in parentheses marks a copy used where the official site could not be read.

“Check needed” means a dealer background check, a state permit or license, or both, before a private gift changes hands. The 18–20 column covers handguns only and assumes the recipient is not otherwise barred. Click a state name for our full page on that state.

Can You Buy a Gun as a Gift Under Federal Law?

Yes, and ATF says so in plain words. Its June 2021 dealer newsletter quotes the Form 4473 instructions: you are the actual buyer if you are “legitimately purchasing the firearm as a bona fide gift for a third party.” Its scenario list is shorter: “Buying a firearm as a gift? NO” (not a straw purchase) “as long as the purchaser is the actual buyer, and the gift is bona fide.”

ATF says a gift “is not bona fide if another person offered or gave the person completing this form money, service(s), or item(s) of value to acquire the firearm for him/her, or if the other person is prohibited by law from receiving or possessing the firearm.” So if your brother-in-law hands you $600 and says “grab me that rifle,” that is not a gift (and the dealer cannot sell it to you).

Straw Purchase vs. Gift

Since 2022, straw buying has its own federal crime. 18 U.S.C. § 932 makes it a crime to buy a gun “for, on behalf of, or at the request or demand of” someone you know or have reason to believe is barred from owning one, or who plans a felony, terrorism or drug trafficking with it. The penalty is up to 15 years, or up to 25 if you know the gun is headed for one of those crimes. Lying on the actual-buyer question is a separate charge under § 922(a)(6), with up to 10 years under § 924(a)(2).

A private gift with no dealer involved is still a crime under § 922(d) if you know or have reasonable cause to believe the recipient is a felon, a fugitive, an unlawful drug user or otherwise barred. Think about it: the wrapping paper does not change who ends up holding the gun.

Gifting a Gun to a Family Member

Most check states write in a family exemption, but the family is not the same size everywhere. Colorado and Washington reach out to first cousins, aunts and uncles. New York stops at spouses, domestic partners, children and stepchildren, so a gift to your brother in Buffalo still goes through a dealer. California covers only parents and children or grandparents and grandchildren, and the recipient must be 18, hold a firearm safety certificate and report the gift within 30 days.

Six jurisdictions have no family gift exemption: Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island and D.C. Maryland exempts family only for rifles and shotguns. In New Jersey and Illinois, family skips the dealer but the recipient still needs the permit, ID card or FOID card. Guns that come from an estate follow different rules, which I covered in our guide to what to do with inherited guns.

Handgun Gifts to 18- to 20-Year-Olds

Federal law bars a dealer from selling or delivering a handgun to anyone under 21 (§ 922(b)(1)); the Justice Department said on September 18, 2026 that it will not prosecute dealers under that rule for sales to law-abiding 18- to 20-year-olds, but the statute has not changed. Federal law also bars anyone from transferring a handgun to a person under 18 (§ 922(x)). Between 18 and 21, state law decides. Counting the table, a handgun gift to an adult under 21 is allowed in 33 states, family-only in five, limited in four more jurisdictions counting D.C., and barred in nine.

Remember, a dealer is still a dealer when he handles your private transfer, so in a state that routes gifts through a shop, a non-family handgun gift to a 19-year-old still meets the federal under-21 dealer rule at the counter. Ohio surprises most folks: R.C. 2923.21 bars furnishing a handgun to anyone under 21 except for supervised hunting, sport or instruction. Florida runs the other way, since § 790.065(13) bars an under-21 purchase and dealer sales, not a private gift.

Giving a Gun to Someone in Another State

Here is where good intentions turn into federal charges. Under § 922(a)(5), an unlicensed person may not “transfer, sell, trade, give” a firearm to someone who lives in another state, except by bequest or inheritance or a temporary loan for lawful sporting use. So the rifle for your nephew in Ohio ships to a dealer in Ohio, and he picks it up after his own background check. Online gifts ship to a dealer too; I covered the proposal to change that in our breakdown of the ATF ship-to-home rule.

The Gift Card Route

Not sure the recipient can legally own a gun, or which one they want? Buy a gift card from the shop (or put cash in an envelope) and let them pick it out and fill out their own Form 4473. They become the actual buyer, the dealer runs the check on them, and you never answer a question on their behalf. It is also the cleanest way through Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving. If the gift is a carry pistol, check our concealed carry by state page too, because in Delaware a carry permit exempts the recipient from the private-transfer check, and in Nebraska from the handgun certificate.

What Happens If You Get It Wrong

A “gift” that was a straw purchase all along can be charged federally under § 932 or § 922(a)(6). In the four state penalty sections I read, the person handing over the gun is on the hook. In Nevada, a first offense is a gross misdemeanor and a second is a category C felony. In Oregon, it is a Class A misdemeanor, then a Class B felony with a prior conviction. Vermont allows up to a year in jail, a $500 fine or both, and Maryland up to six months or $10,000 for a long gun handed over without a dealer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you legally give someone a gun as a gift?

Yes. Federal law allows a bona fide gift to anyone who can legally own the gun, as long as nobody paid you for it. Fifteen states and D.C. require a dealer, permit or license check first, and four more do for handguns.

Can my dad just give me his gun?

In most states, yes. Twenty-eight states have no state check on private gifts, and most check states exempt a parent-to-child gift. Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island and D.C. have no family exemption, Maryland has none for handguns, and a parent in another state must ship to a dealer in yours.

Is gifting guns legal in Texas?

Yes. Texas has no state background check on private gifts. Texas Penal Code § 46.06 bars giving a firearm to a child under 18 (a parent’s consent is a defense), and federal law still bars gifts to prohibited people and residents of other states.

Do you need a background check to gift a gun to a family member?

Usually not. Most check states exempt close family, but New York covers only spouses, domestic partners, children and stepchildren, while Colorado and Washington include first cousins, aunts and uncles. New Jersey and Illinois still require the recipient’s permit or FOID card.

Can you give a gun to someone who lives in another state?

Not directly. 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(5) bars an unlicensed person from giving a firearm to a resident of another state, except by inheritance or a temporary sporting loan. Ship it to a licensed dealer in the recipient’s state.

So buy it with your own money, give it to someone your state already lets own it, and use a dealer whenever your row or a state line says so. Then wrap it, and go protect the right that lets you give it.

Sources: State statutes: see each table row. ATF, “FFL Newsletter, June 2021”; U.S. Code, “18 U.S.C. § 932”; U.S. Code, “18 U.S.C. § 922”; U.S. Code, “18 U.S.C. § 924”; LegiScan, “Oregon HB 4145 (2026)”; Colorado General Assembly, “SB25-003”; Washington Legislature, “HB 1163 (2025)”; U.S. Department of Justice, “Federal Ban on Handgun Sales to 18-20 Year Olds”.

James Nicholas

NFA Firearms Manufacturer · Professional Gunsmith for over 20 years · Firearms Writer, Photographer and Firearms Expert. The XDMAN has a talent for taking complex firearms subject matter and breaking it down into an easy-to-understand format that all experience levels can relate to.

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