If someone has given you a firearm and you’re trying to figure out how to register a gifted gun, the short answer is that in most of the country there is nothing to register. The federal government keeps no registry of standard rifles, shotguns, or handguns, and only about seven states and the District of Columbia require any kind of firearms registration. What actually matters is whether the transfer itself was legal, and that turns on where the giver lives, what state you live in, and what kind of firearm changed hands.
Why There’s Usually Nothing to Register
When people talk about “registering” a gifted gun, they’re usually thinking of something like a car title. That system doesn’t exist at the federal level for ordinary firearms. In roughly 43 states, a gift between two residents of the same state can happen with no government paperwork at all under federal law.
The handful of states that do require registration handle it differently from each other. Some require every firearm to be registered, others only handguns, others only firearms their state classifies as assault weapons. If you live in one of those states, you’ll file paperwork with a state or local law enforcement agency after the transfer. Your state attorney general’s office or state police website is the place to confirm what applies to you.
Separately, about 22 states and D.C. require a background check on private transfers, including gifts. In those states a same-state gift, even between family, has to run through a licensed dealer. That’s not registration, but it is a step you can’t skip.
You Have to Be Legally Allowed to Receive It
Before anything else, you need to be someone federal law allows to possess a firearm. If you’re not, the gift can’t legally happen and the person who gave you the gun can be charged. Federal law lists nine categories of prohibited people. You cannot receive a gifted firearm if you:
- Have a felony conviction or a pending indictment for any crime punishable by more than a year in prison.
- Are a fugitive from justice.
- Are a regular user of a controlled substance, including marijuana even in states where it is legal.
- Have been committed to a mental institution or adjudicated as mentally defective.
- Are in the country illegally or on most nonimmigrant visas.
- Received a dishonorable discharge from the military.
- Have renounced your U.S. citizenship.
- Are subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders.
- Have a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction.
These come from federal law and apply in every state.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts Your state can add more.
Marijuana is the one that catches people. Federal law still treats marijuana as a controlled substance, and regular users are prohibited from possessing firearms regardless of what their state has legalized. The ATF revised its definition of “unlawful user” in January 2026 to require evidence of regular and recent use over an extended period rather than an isolated incident, but that change does not open the door for people who use routinely.2Federal Register. Revising Definition of Unlawful User of or Addicted to Controlled Substance
Age matters too. Federal law says you must be at least 18 to possess a long gun and at least 21 to buy a handgun from a licensed dealer.3Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Minimum Age for Gun Sales and Transfers Many states set their own minimum age for possessing a gifted handgun. If you’re between 18 and 20, check your state’s rule before you accept one.
If the Giver Lives in a Different State
An interstate gift changes everything. Federal law prohibits an unlicensed person from transferring a firearm to someone they know or have reason to believe lives in another state. The narrow exceptions are firearms passed through a will or intestate succession and temporary loans for lawful sporting purposes. A gift qualifies for neither.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
So the firearm has to go through a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder in your home state. The giver ships or delivers it to a dealer near you. You go to that dealer, show government-issued photo ID, and fill out ATF Form 4473. The dealer runs your background check through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). If the check clears and any state waiting period has run, the dealer hands you the gun.4Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Form 4473 – Firearms Transaction Record
Dealers charge for the service. Fees usually run $20 to $75 per firearm, plus any small state background check fee. Call ahead so you know what you’re walking into.
If You Both Live in the Same State
Federal law mostly steps aside for a private transfer between two residents of the same state. There’s no federal background check requirement and no federal paperwork.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts Your state’s rules control from there, and they vary enormously. In the roughly 22 states and D.C. that require background checks on all private transfers, the process looks almost identical to an interstate transfer: you’ll go to an FFL, fill out Form 4473, and get run through NICS. In the rest, the gift can happen face-to-face with nothing more than a handshake.
Even where nothing is required, write it down. The ATF recommends that private buyers keep a personal record of the acquisition with the firearm’s make, model, caliber, and serial number.5Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Best Practices – Transfers of Firearms by Private Sellers A short document signed by both of you, listing each person’s name, address, and driver’s license number alongside those firearm details, proves you’re the lawful owner if the gun is ever stolen, recovered by police, or connected to a crime you had nothing to do with.
NFA Firearms Are a Different Story
If the gift is a machine gun, suppressor, short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, or destructive device, the National Firearms Act applies and these items are tracked on an actual federal registry. You can’t just take possession of one.
The giver has to file ATF Form 4 (Application to Transfer and Register a Firearm) before the transfer happens. The application requires photographs, fingerprints, and notice to your chief local law enforcement officer, and the ATF has to approve it before the item changes hands. Approval can take months.6Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Form 4 – Application to Transfer and Register NFA Firearm
As of 2026, the transfer tax on machine guns and destructive devices is $200. Suppressors, short-barreled rifles, and other NFA firearms carry a $0 transfer tax, but the Form 4 approval process still applies.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 5811 – Transfer Tax Inherited NFA items are handled through Form 5 by the estate’s executor and transfer tax-free to a named beneficiary or someone entitled through intestate succession.8Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 27 CFR 479.90a – Estates
Antique Firearms Fall Outside the Rules
Firearms manufactured in or before 1898 are classified as antiques and sit outside the Gun Control Act entirely. The same goes for replicas of pre-1899 guns not built for modern rimfire or centerfire ammunition, and for muzzle-loading rifles, shotguns, and pistols designed for black powder that can’t fire fixed ammunition.9Legal Information Institute (LII). 18 USC 921(a)(16) – Definition of Antique Firearm No FFL, no Form 4473, no background check under federal law. Some states still regulate antiques, so confirm your state’s rule before assuming the gift is completely unregulated.
Watch Out for the Straw Purchase Trap
Buying a gun with your own money to give as a genuine gift is legal. Having someone else buy a gun for you with your money is a federal crime called a straw purchase, and the person doing it faces serious time.
Form 4473 asks whether the buyer is the “actual transferee/buyer.” A true gift, paid for by the giver, is fine. If you handed the giver cash to pick up a specific gun for you, or promised them something in return, they are not the actual buyer, cannot legally answer “yes,” and cannot complete the purchase.4Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF Form 4473 – Firearms Transaction Record A gift is also not bona fide if you are a prohibited person. Straw purchase convictions carry up to 15 years, or up to 25 if the firearm was intended for a felony, terrorism offense, or drug trafficking.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 932 – Straw Purchasing of Firearms
After You Take Possession
Write down the serial number, make, model, and caliber, and keep the record somewhere you can find it. If the gun is ever stolen, you need those details to file a police report, and without them recovery is nearly impossible.
Federal law doesn’t require private owners to report a lost or stolen firearm, though FFLs must report within 48 hours.11eCFR. 27 CFR 478.39a – Reporting Theft or Loss of Firearms Several states do require private owners to report within a set window, with fines or misdemeanor charges for failing to do so. Even where reporting isn’t required, doing it promptly protects you if the firearm later shows up somewhere it shouldn’t.