Maryland enacted ghost gun reform legislation in 2022, and most of its provisions became effective on June 1, 2022.¹

First, and importantly, this new law clarified the definition of “firearm” for the purposes of many of Maryland’s gun safety laws, ensuring that public safety protections including firearm background checks and gun dealer licensing requirements apply not just to completed frames and receivers but also to unfinished frames and receivers that have “reached a stage in manufacture where [they] may readily be completed, assembled, or converted to be used as the frame or receiver of a functional firearm.”²

The new law also included multiple provisions to stop the unregulated sale and proliferation of unserialized firearms:

Subject to narrow exceptions,³ this law now makes it generally unlawful to sell, offer to sell, or transfer an unserialized firearm, including completed and unfinished frames or receivers.⁴ (See footnotes for definitions of relevant terms).⁵


The law also makes it generally unlawful to purchase, receive, sell, offer to sell, or transfer an unfinished frame or receiver unless that product is required by federal law to be, and actually has been, imprinted with a serial number by a federally licensed manufacturer or importer in compliance with federal law.⁶ The practical effect of this provision is to stop commerce in the sale and distribution of unfinished frames or receivers that are not deemed firearms under federal law and subject to serialization, background check, and other gun safety protections accordingly.

Beginning March 1, 2023, Maryland’s law will also broaden its more immediate restrictions on the sale, transfer, and manufacture, etc., of unserialized firearms and unfinished frames and receivers to also apply to possession too. On March 1, 2023, it will become generally unlawful to possess an unserialized firearm, including a completed or unfinished frame or receiver.⁷ The law provides processes for people in possession of unserialized firearms and unserialized unfinished frames and receivers to follow to lawfully have their weapon serialized prior to that date.⁸ (These processes require either that (1) the firearm or completed or unfinished frame or receiver is a firearm under federal law such that it is required to be and actually has been imprinted with a valid serial number in accordance with federal law, or (2) the firearm or completed or unfinished frame or receiver has been imprinted with specified information by a federally licensed firearms dealer, manufacturer, or other authorized licensee, and registered with the Maryland State Police.⁹

Certain exceptions apply to these serialization requirements, including for antique firearms; for the transfer or surrender of a firearm or unfinished frame or receiver to a law enforcement agency; and for the sale, offer to sell, transfer, or delivery of a firearm or unfinished frame or receiver to, or possession by, a federally licensed firearms dealer, manufacturer, or importer.¹⁰ The prohibitions on possession also do not apply unless a person knew or reasonably should have known that their firearm was not imprinted with a valid serial number, among other exceptions.¹¹

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1. See 2022 MD HB 425 & 2022 MD SB 387 (adding a new Subtitle 7, titled “Untraceable Firearms”, to Title 5 of the Public Safety Code, commencing with Section 5-701).[↩]
2. Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety §§ 5-101(h); 5-701(h).[↩]
3. SeeMd. Code Ann. Pub. Safety §§ 5-702 and 5-703(b)(1) regarding exceptions to the ghost gun law’s requirements.[↩]
4. Md. Code Ann., Pub. Safety § 5-703(a)(2).[↩]
5. The term “firearm” is defined for these purposes to mean:
   
   (i) a weapon that expels, is designed to expel, or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive;

   (ii) the frame or receiver of such a weapon; or

   (iii) an unfinished frame or receiver, as defined in § 5-701 of this title.

   Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety §§ 5-701(f); 5-101.
   
    The term “Unfinished frame or receiver” is defined to mean “a forged cast, printed, extruded, or machined body or similar article that has reached a stage in manufacture where it may readily be completed, assembled, or converted to be used as the frame or receiver of a functional firearm.” Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety § 5-701(h).[↩]

6. Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety § 5-703(a)(1).[↩]
7. Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety § 5-703(b)(2).[↩]
8. Id.[↩]
9. Id. The term “Secretary” used in this provision refers to the “Secretary of State Police or the Secretary’s designee.” See Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety § 5-701(g).[↩]
10. SeeMd. Code Ann. Pub. Safety §§ 5-702 and 5-703(b)(1) regarding exceptions to the ghost gun law’s requirements.[↩]
11. Md. Code Ann. Pub. Safety §§ 5-703(b)(1).[↩]