In most states, people who are at an elevated risk of causing harm can purchase guns online, without a background check, from unlicensed sellers within the same state. Federal law provides important limitations on the sale and transfer of guns across state lines and has clarified that certain online gun sellers must be licensed, but every state should close the deadly private sale loophole and require that all gun sales—including online purchases—are subject to a comprehensive background check.

Background

• A recent large-scale survey found that 45% of gun owners who acquired a gun online in the past two years did so without any background check.¹
• Nearly one in nine prospective gun buyers on Armslist.com (a major web platform for gun classifieds) would not have passed a background check.²
• In 2018 alone, there were 1.2 million ads on Armslist.com for firearm sales where no background check was required.
• In addition, the availability of firearm parts online has played a role in the proliferation of privately made firearms, or ghost guns, which can be assembled at home by an unlicensed person without a background check. Further information on ghost guns can be found on our Ghost Guns page.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) found that in firearm trafficking investigations between 2017 and 2021, online marketplaces were associated with the third highest average number of firearms trafficked per investigation by trafficking channel.³ ATF also found that firearms sourced from online marketplaces were in the top five trafficking channels for investigations involving US-to-foreign and foreign-to-US trafficking.⁴ For more information on firearms trafficking, visit our Trafficking and Straw Purchasing page.

Federal law does provide some important, straightforward limitations on the sale or transfer of guns across state lines, making it more difficult for a prohibited person in a state with strong guns laws to buy guns online from sellers in states with weaker gun laws. Importantly, federal law generally requires people to conduct interstate gun sales or transfers through licensed gun dealers, who are required to conduct background checks and maintain a record of the sale. Additionally, online gun sellers who make repetitive sales must be licensed and thus conduct background checks on and maintain records of gun sales.

As discussed below, these limitations, along with federal and state background check laws, also govern whether gun sales ordered or arranged online are subject to background checks, sale records, and other requirements.

Summary of Federal Law

Interstate Gun Sales

Federal law governing the sale or transfer of guns across state lines differs depending on the type of firearm.

Handguns

Under federal law, anyone who does not have a federal gun dealer license, or other Federal Firearms License (FFL), is generally prohibited from acquiring a handgun directly from a seller or transferor who resides in a different state.⁵ This means that people generally cannot obtain handguns out of state and then transport them into their state of residence, and cannot otherwise receive a handgun from an out-of-state seller or transferor without the assistance of a licensed dealer in their home state.

People may acquire handguns from out-of-state sellers or transferors if the sale or transfer of the weapon is conducted through a licensed dealer in the recipient’s state of residence.⁶ In other words, a person in one state may buy a handgun online from a licensed or unlicensed seller in another state so long as the handgun is shipped to a licensed dealer in the purchaser’s home state who facilitates the sale. Usually, gun dealers will charge a small fee for providing this service, conducting a background check, and fulfilling other requirements.

One exception to this requirement is when a person inherits a handgun through a will or other inheritance after its owner’s death. In these cases, the person may receive the handgun directly without the involvement of an in-state gun dealer, as long as the person inheriting the handgun complies with any applicable gun laws in his or her own state regarding possession of the weapon.⁷ Another exception applies when a person obtains a handgun through a temporary loan or rental, like when visiting a firing range in another state, so long as the person uses the gun for lawful sporting purposes.⁸

Long Guns

Federal law places somewhat looser restrictions on the sale or transfer of long guns like rifles and shotguns across state lines. Under federal law, individuals can lawfully obtain a long gun from a seller or transferor in another state, provided that:

• Both parties meet in person to conduct the sale or transfer.
• The sale or transfer is conducted by, or through, a licensed dealer, pursuant to a background check and other requirements.
• The sale, delivery, and receipt of the long gun fully comply with state law in both parties’ states of residence.⁹

The same exceptions for out-of-state handgun transfers also apply to long guns, meaning that people can sell or transfer long guns through a dealer in the recipient’s state of residence, inherit a long gun from an out-of-state owner after the owner’s death, and temporarily receive a long gun through a loan or rental for lawful sporting purposes.¹⁰

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Online Gun Sales

Federal law does not treat online gun sales differently from other gun sales—these sales are simply governed by the same laws governing other firearm transfers, including laws regarding interstate and “private party” gun sales. The applicable rules for an online gun sale therefore depend primarily on (1) whether the firearm is being shipped across state lines and (2) whether state and federal law require a background check for that gun sale.

Interstate

As described above, federal law generally prohibits anyone from selling or transferring a firearm directly to an unlicensed person in another state.¹¹ This means that in order to acquire a gun online from a seller located in another state, a buyer will generally have to have the firearm shipped to a licensed dealer to process the sale. If the buyer is acquiring a handgun, the gun will have to be shipped to a licensed dealer in the buyer’s state of residence; if the person is acquiring a long gun, the sale or transfer may be conducted by a dealer in either the buyer’s or seller’s state of residence.

Same State

Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to conduct in-person background checks on gun purchasers and to maintain records of their sales.¹² If a person orders a firearm through a licensed gun dealer’s website—whether or not the dealer operates in the same state as the buyer—the dealer will generally be required to ship the firearm to its physical location or to another local gun dealer, who will then be responsible for handling the background check and sale record and delivering the gun to the buyer. However, a federally licensed dealer can ship a firearm directly to a person’s home if that person is exempt from the federal background check requirement, such as someone with a Brady exempt permit.¹³ For more information, visit our Gun Dealers policy page.

However, federal law does not extend these requirements to unlicensed sellers. This means that a person can acquire a gun online from an unlicensed seller who resides in the same state without any background check or sale record required, unless the buyer and seller reside in a state that has closed this dangerous loophole by requiring background checks on all gun sales. In some cases, the buyer could have the gun mailed directly to his or her door. (The US Postal Service, for instance, will mail unloaded long guns between individuals who are mailing the guns within the same state).¹⁴

As our Universal Background Checks policy page discusses more thoroughly, this enormous loophole in our nation’s gun laws helps explain why online “private” gun sales are a major source of guns trafficked on the black market and sold to people who could not pass a background check. Closing this loophole is one of the gun violence prevention movement’s top priorities.

In 2022, Congress took a step toward addressing this loophole when it passed and President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), changing the definition of “engaged in the business” of dealing in firearms to include anyone who deals firearms “to predominantly earn a profit,” rather than individuals who sell guns with “the principal objective of livelihood and profit.”¹⁵ In April 2024, ATF published a rule implementing the BSCA change, guiding sellers, including online gun sellers, on whether they should be licensed according to the revised definition.¹⁶ The rule amended, among other things, the regulatory definition of “dealer” to clarify that a dealer includes “[a]ny person engaged in the business of selling firearms at wholesale or retail….over the internet (e.g., online broker or auction) [or] through the use of other electronic means (e.g., text messaging service, social media raffle, or website).”¹⁷ This change makes it so that the definition of “dealer” includes anyone involved in the online firearm marketplace. Visit our Gun Dealers page for more information on the revised definition of “engaged in the business” and “dealer.”

Summary of State Law

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Key Legislative Elements

The strongest state laws in this area close gaps in federal law by generally requiring that all gun sales—including sales arranged or completed online—must be conducted through a licensed firearms dealer, pursuant to a background check and sale record.

Alternatively, gun buyers should be required to physically appear in person to buy a firearm and to present a firearm purchase permit that was issued by law enforcement, pursuant to a background check.

States should also ensure that a state law enforcement agency receives a record of any gun sale, regardless of where the resident acquired the weapon.

1. Matthew Miller, Lisa Hepburn, and Deborah Azrael, “Firearm Acquisition Without Background Checks: Results of a National Survey,” Annals of Internal Medicine 166, no. 4 (2017): 233–239.[↩]
2. “Unchecked,” Everytown for Gun Safety, February 2019, https://everytownresearch.org/report/unchecked-an-investigation-of-the-online-firearm-marketplace/[↩]
3. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment: Firearms Trafficking Investigations; Part V: Type and Volume of Firearms Trafficked,” US Department of Justice, April 2024, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-iii-part-v/download.[↩]
4. In international firearms trafficking, US-to-foreign trafficking occurs when the US serves as the source country and a foreign country serves as the market country, whereas in foreign-to-US trafficking, a foreign country serves as the source country and the US serves as the market country. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, “National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment: Firearms Trafficking Investigations; Part IV: Source-to-Market Type,” US Department of Justice, April 2024, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/docs/report/nfcta-volume-iii-part-iv/download.[↩]
5. 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(3).[↩]
6. See id.; 18 U.S.C. §922(a)(5).[↩]
7. Id.[↩]
8. Id.; 18 U.S.C. §922(b)(3).[↩]
9. 18 U.S.C. §922(a)(3); 18 U.S.C. §922(b)(3).[↩]
10. Id.[↩]
11. 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(5), 922(b)(3).[↩]
12. 18 U.S.C. § 923.[↩]
13. “May a licensee transfer a firearm to a nonlicensed individual who does not appear in person at the licensed premises?”, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, accessed August 5, 2019, https://www.atf.gov/firearms/qa/may-licensee-transfer-firearm-nonlicensed-individual-who-does-not-appear-person-licensed.[↩]
14. See USPS.com, Publication 52, “Hazardous, Restricted, and Perishable Mail, at https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c4_009.htm#ep308518.[↩]
15. Pub. L. No. 117-159, 136 Stat. 1313, 1324-25 (2022) (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(21)(C) ).[↩]
16. Definition of “Engaged in the Business” as a Dealer in Firearms, 89 Fed. Reg. 28,968 (Apr. 19, 2024) (codified at 27 C.F.R. pt. 478).[↩]
17. Definition of “Engaged in the Business” as a Dealer in Firearms, 89 Fed. Reg. at 29,090 (codified at 27 C.F.R. § 478.11).[↩]
18. Cal. Penal Code § 27585.[↩]