How Buying a Gun Online Works: From Checkout to the Dealer's Counter

Buying a gun online is how a growing share of Americans buy firearms, and it works the same way for a hundred-dollar .22 and a three-thousand-dollar shotgun. The gun is sold to you, shipped to a licensed dealer you choose, and handed over at that dealer's counter after the same paperwork and background check you would complete if you had bought it off their wall. This page walks through each step in order, with the things that go wrong and how to avoid them.

Step one: choose the gun

The catalogue is a live distributor feed, re-priced every night, and the price and stock shown are re-checked the moment you place the order. If the distributor's price has moved or the item has sold out between your click and the check, the order stops before anything is charged and you are told. Product pages show what the maker publishes; if a detail matters to you and is not there, ask before ordering.

Step two: choose a dealer

Every firearm ships to a Federal Firearms Licensee, an FFL. Any gun shop is one, and so are many pawn shops, sporting-goods stores and home-based dealers who do transfers as a sideline. Call ahead: ask whether they accept firearms shipped from online sellers, what they charge, and their hours. Fees run from about twenty dollars to seventy-five, set by the dealer and paid to them at pickup. Name that dealer at checkout. We confirm their licence against the ATF's public list before we ship, and we ship only to their licensed address, never to yours.

Step three: the shipment

Handguns travel by a carrier that accepts firearms; long guns can travel by ordinary ground. You receive a tracking number by email. The dealer logs the gun into their bound book when it arrives and usually calls or emails you; if you have not heard within a day of the tracking showing delivery, call them. Most orders arrive within three to seven days. Ammunition, optics, magazines, holsters and parts are not firearms under federal law and ship directly to your address where state and local law allows, by ground, with an adult signature where required.

Step four: the paperwork

At the dealer you complete ATF Form 4473, the federal transfer record, which asks for your identity and a series of yes-or-no questions about your eligibility. Answer them truthfully; a false answer is a federal felony. You show government photo identification with your current address. If the address on your licence is out of date, bring a government document such as a vehicle registration, a hunting licence or a tax bill that shows the current one. Some states require a permit, a card or a certificate as well; the state overview and the city pages say which.

Step five: the background check

The dealer runs the National Instant Criminal Background Check, either directly with the FBI or through a state agency. Most checks clear in minutes. Some come back delayed, which means the system needs more time to match records; the dealer must wait three business days for a final answer, after which most states let them release the firearm if none has come. A denial can be appealed through the FBI or the state agency. If your state has a waiting period, the clock starts when the check is submitted.

Step six: pickup

Once the check clears and any waiting period ends, you pay the dealer's fee, they hand you the gun, and it is yours under your state's ordinary possession rules. Inspect it before you leave the counter: check the serial number against the invoice, look for shipping damage, cycle the action. If something is wrong, do not accept the transfer; the dealer returns it to us for replacement, which is far simpler than accepting it and shipping it back yourself.

Age and residency

A dealer may transfer a rifle or shotgun to a buyer of 18 or older and a handgun to a buyer of 21 or older; Florida and a few other states raise the long-gun age. A handgun may only be transferred by a dealer to a resident of the state where the dealer is, which is why a handgun you buy online goes to a dealer in your own state. Rifles and shotguns may be transferred to residents of other states where legal in both, but nearly everyone uses a dealer at home.

What can go wrong

The dealer was not expecting the gun and refuses the box. Call ahead.
Your ID shows an old address. Bring a supporting document.
The check is delayed. Wait the three business days; it is not a denial.
You ordered a magazine your state caps. It was removed at checkout, not shipped.
The gun arrives damaged. Refuse the transfer and let the dealer return it.

Gifts and buying for someone else

You may buy a firearm as a genuine gift for someone who may lawfully own one, and you are the buyer on Form 4473. You may not buy a firearm for someone else with their money or at their direction; that is a straw purchase and a federal felony, and the form asks about it in plain words. The simplest way to give a gun is to have the recipient order it and complete the transfer themselves, or to give them the money. A handgun gift to a resident of another state must still go through a dealer in that state.

After the transfer

Register nothing unless your state requires it; none of the states in our main footprint do. Write down the serial number and keep the invoice somewhere other than the gun case. Buy a lock or a safe if you have not. If it is a first gun, take a lesson. Then browse the catalogue for the ammunition, which ships to your door, and read what else does.

General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.