Can You Buy a Gun as a Gift? Straw Purchases, Form 4473, and the Rules That Trip People Up

This article reflects federal law and ATF forms as of October 2026. State law varies and changes often; check the rules in your state and the recipient's state before you buy. This is general information, not legal advice.

Holiday shoppers regularly want to buy a rifle for a spouse, a shotgun for a son, or a handgun for a parent three states away. Federal law allows a genuine gift. But the line between a gift and an illegal straw purchase turns on details people often get wrong, and getting it wrong can mean a felony.

Here are the federal rules in the order you will meet them, then the age, residency, and state-law issues that can turn a simple gift into a problem.

The question that decides it: Form 4473, question 21.a

When you buy a firearm from a licensed dealer, you fill out ATF Form 4473, the Firearms Transaction Record. The current version is the one ATF labels "Revised August 2023," which became mandatory on February 1, 2024, according to ATF's notice on the revised form.

Question 21.a asks: "Are you the actual transferee/buyer of all of the firearm(s) listed on this form and any continuation sheet(s) (ATF Form 5300.9A)?" The form warns that you are not the actual buyer "if you are acquiring any of the firearm(s) on behalf of another person."

The instructions for question 21.a, printed on the form itself, are where gifts come in. They say a person is the actual transferee/buyer if he or she is buying the firearm for himself or herself, and that "A person is also the actual transferee/buyer if he/she is legitimately purchasing the firearm as a bona fide gift for a third party."

Then comes the limit: "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."

The form gives two examples:

• The straw purchase. "Mr. Smith asks Mr. Jones to purchase a firearm for Mr. Smith (who may or may not be prohibited). Mr. Smith gives Mr. Jones the money for the firearm." Mr. Jones is not the actual buyer, must answer "no," and the dealer may not transfer the gun to him.
• The gift. If "Mr. Brown buys the firearm with his own money to give to Mr. Black as a gift (with no service or tangible thing of value provided by Mr. Black)," the form says Mr. Brown is the actual transferee/buyer and should answer "yes" to question 21.a.

What that means in practice

A bona fide gift has three features:

• It is your money. You pay for it, and you are not being paid back in cash, services, or anything else of value.
• It is your decision. You are buying it to give, not filling an order someone placed with you.
• The recipient can legally have it. If the recipient is prohibited, it is not a bona fide gift no matter who paid.

Here's a typical scenario that crosses the line. Your brother sends you money by payment app and asks you to pick up a rifle for him because he works late. That is not a gift, and the fact that he could legally buy it himself does not help, as the next section explains.

Compare: you decide to buy your brother a rifle for his birthday and pay for it yourself. Under the form's wording, the test is whether he offered or gave you money, services, or items of value to acquire it for him. A side agreement that he will pay you back later defeats the gift.

Abramski: lying about the buyer is a crime even if the real buyer is eligible

People sometimes assume a straw purchase only matters if the real buyer is a felon. The Supreme Court rejected that view in Abramski v. United States, decided 5–4 on June 16, 2014.

Bruce Abramski offered to buy a Glock 19 handgun for his uncle, who sent him $400 for it. Abramski bought the gun from a dealer, answered "yes" to the actual-buyer question on the version of Form 4473 then in use, and later transferred the gun to his uncle. He was convicted under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6), which makes it a crime to knowingly make a false statement to a dealer about a fact material to the lawfulness of a sale.

Justice Kagan's majority opinion held that the false answer was material even though the uncle could have bought the gun legally himself, because the dealer could not lawfully have made the sale had it known Abramski was only a straw buyer. Who the actual buyer is matters, whether or not the person behind the purchase is prohibited.

The 2022 straw-purchasing statute: 18 U.S.C. § 932

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed June 25, 2022, added a standalone straw-purchasing offense at 18 U.S.C. § 932.

Under § 932(b), it is unlawful to knowingly buy, or conspire to buy, a firearm for or on behalf of another person, or at another person's request or demand, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe that the other person:

• is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under the categories in 18 U.S.C. § 922(d);
• intends to use, carry, possess, or sell the firearm in furtherance of a felony, a federal crime of terrorism, or a drug trafficking crime; or
• intends to sell or otherwise transfer the firearm to someone in either of those groups.

The penalties under § 932(c):

• Up to 15 years in prison, a fine, or both, for a violation.
• Up to 25 years if the person acted knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the firearm would be used to commit a felony, a federal crime of terrorism, or a drug trafficking crime.

So there are two tracks. Section 932 targets purchases for prohibited or dangerous people; the false-statement rules from Abramski reach straw purchases even for eligible people. Form 4473 itself warns that "making any false oral or written statement" on the form "is a crime punishable as a felony under Federal law."

Giving a gun to someone who is prohibited

This is the hard stop. A gift to a prohibited person is not bona fide under the 4473 instructions, and a separate statute applies to everyone, not just dealers. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(d), it is unlawful for "any person" to sell or otherwise dispose of a firearm or ammunition to someone the person knows or has reasonable cause to believe falls into a prohibited category. The categories include, among others, people under indictment for or convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year, unlawful drug users, and people with certain domestic-violence orders or convictions. You do not have to know for certain: "reasonable cause to believe" is enough, even in a private transfer with no form.

The simplest alternative: a gift card or gift certificate

If you are uneasy about the paperwork, or unsure whether the recipient is eligible, give a dealer gift card or gift certificate, or go shopping together and let the recipient buy. The recipient then fills out Form 4473 and goes through the background check in his or her own name, so there is no question about who the actual buyer is, and age, residency, and state rules are applied at the counter to the person who will own the gun. Check the dealer's terms for its gift cards.

Gifts to people under 21

Age rules depend on the type of firearm, who is transferring it, and the recipient's state.

Under 18. Federal law, in 18 U.S.C. § 922(x), makes it unlawful to transfer a handgun or handgun-only ammunition to anyone you know or have reasonable cause to believe is under 18, and generally bars juveniles from possessing handguns. The exceptions are narrow: temporary transfer and possession for activities such as employment, ranching or farming, target practice, hunting, or a firearms safety course, with the parent's or guardian's prior written consent, which the juvenile must carry, and in compliance with state and local law. There is also an exception for "transfer by inheritance of title (but not possession)." Long guns are treated differently under federal law, but state law may still restrict them.

So a parent generally cannot give a 16-year-old a handgun to keep, though the parent can keep it and allow use under those exceptions where state law permits.

18 to 20. Federal law has no 21 line for private transfers. An unlicensed adult may generally give a handgun to an 18- to 20-year-old who lives in the same state and is not prohibited, as a matter of federal law. Dealer sales are different: the federal statute bars dealers from selling handguns to anyone under 21. In September 2026, the Justice Department announced an opinion concluding that the provision "may not be enforced to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns" to law-abiding adults aged 18 to 20, but the statute remains on the books. Our guide on whether 18- to 20-year-olds can buy a handgun covers how that is playing out.

When you buy a handgun at a dealer as a gift for an 18-year-old, you are the actual buyer, so the dealer age limit applies to you, not the recipient. The transfer from you to the recipient is then a private transfer, governed by federal law's 18 line for handguns and by your state's rules, which may be stricter. Many states set higher minimum ages.

Gifts across state lines

If you are not a licensee, federal law generally does not let you hand a firearm directly to a resident of another state.

Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(5), an unlicensed person may not "transfer, sell, trade, give, transport, or deliver" a firearm to someone the transferor knows or has reasonable cause to believe does not reside in the transferor's state. The word "give" is in the statute. The only exceptions are transfers to carry out a bequest or intestate succession, and temporary loans or rentals for lawful sporting purposes. A companion provision, § 922(a)(3), generally bars the recipient from bringing into or receiving in his or her home state a firearm obtained outside it, with a matching inheritance exception.

That applies to rifles and shotguns too, not just handguns. The practical route for any interstate gift from an unlicensed person is to ship or deliver the firearm to a licensed dealer in the recipient's state, who then completes the transfer with a Form 4473 and background check.

Dealers have their own residency rules. Under § 922(b)(3), a dealer may not sell a firearm to someone who does not reside in the dealer's state, except that a rifle or shotgun may be sold to an out-of-state resident who meets the dealer in person, if the sale complies with the laws of both states. A dealer may not sell a handgun to a nonresident at all.

Consider a Texas resident who wants to give his father in Ohio a handgun. He can buy it at a Texas dealer as the actual buyer, but he cannot then hand it to his father. It has to go to an Ohio dealer, where his father completes the transfer. Our guide to interstate firearm purchases and FFL transfers explains how transfers through a dealer work. Check the destination state's rules first: some states have permit, registration, or roster requirements that apply when the recipient takes possession.

Inheritances are treated differently from gifts. If the transfer is part of an estate, see our guide on how to inherit a firearm legally.

State law: when a gift still needs a background check

Federal law does not require a background check for a private, same-state transfer between unlicensed people who are not prohibited. Many states do, so a private gift may have to go through a dealer or a state check unless it fits an exemption. Some states exempt certain family members; others do not, or define "family" narrowly. Permit-to-purchase and registration states add their own steps.

Our guide to private-party firearm sales by state covers the state overlay. Check both your own state's law and, for an interstate gift, the recipient's.

Before you buy

• Your money, nothing coming back? If not, it is not a gift.
• Recipient legally eligible? If you have reason to doubt it, do not make the gift.
• Recipient's age? Handguns to anyone under 18 are generally prohibited outside narrow exceptions; check state age rules for everyone under 21.
• Recipient's state? If it differs from yours, plan on a dealer in that state.
• Your state's private-transfer rules? Plan any required background check before the holiday.

If you are unsure, ask the dealer before you fill out the form, not after; a dealer with doubts about who the actual buyer is may refuse the sale. For complicated situations, such as a recipient with a past criminal case, consider a consultation with a lawyer who practices firearms law in your state. For the basics of the purchase process, see our first-time gun buyer guide.

Planning a holiday purchase? Browse our dealer directory to find dealers near you.