First Gun, First Rules: Age Limits, Storage Laws and What Your State Adds

A first gun comes with a first set of rules, and most of them are simpler than new owners fear. The federal process is the same in every state. The state adds a layer, usually small. And the rules that matter most in a family house, the ones about children and storage, are the ones that new owners hear least about. This page sets them out in plain language: who may buy, how the gun reaches you, what each state adds, and what the law says about a gun in a home with children.

Who may buy

Federal law lets a licensed dealer sell a rifle or shotgun to a buyer of 18 or older and a handgun to a buyer of 21 or older. Florida raises the long-gun age to 21 for dealer sales. Handgun ammunition follows the handgun age. A parent may buy a rifle or shotgun and let a child use it under supervision in every state we serve; a parent may not buy a gun for someone who is prohibited from owning one, and Form 4473 asks about it directly.

How the gun reaches you

Every firearm you order ships to a licensed dealer you choose, never to your door. You name the dealer at checkout, we confirm their licence and ship to them, and you complete ATF Form 4473 at their counter with a government photo ID showing your current address. The dealer runs the federal background check, most of which clear in minutes. The dealer's transfer fee, usually twenty to seventy-five dollars, is paid to them. Ammunition, holsters, safes, locks, optics and cleaning kits are not firearms and ship straight to your address.

What your state adds

Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky add nothing to the federal transfer. Florida requires all buyers to be 21 and imposes a waiting period of three business days, or five in some counties, unless you hold a Concealed Weapon License or another exemption. Iowa lets you skip the dealer's check with an optional permit. Pennsylvania runs its own instant check alongside the federal one and requires handguns to go through a dealer. Michigan runs the federal check or accepts a licence to purchase and files a pistol sales record with the police. The city pages summarise each state with links to the official sources.

Ammunition and accessories

Ammunition ships to your door in every state we serve; you must be 18 to receive rifle and shotgun ammunition and 21 for handgun ammunition, and the carrier may ask for an adult signature. Optics, holsters, slings, cleaning kits, safes and locks ship the same way. The one thing worth knowing is that a few states elsewhere cap magazine capacity, and a magazine over a state's cap is removed from an order into that state before you pay rather than shipped.

Children and the law

This is the part that matters. About half the states have a child-access-prevention law, which makes it an offence to leave a firearm where a child is likely to reach it, with the penalties rising if a child is hurt. Florida's is one of the oldest: a loaded firearm must be stored in a locked box or secured with a trigger lock if a minor is likely to gain access. Texas makes it an offence to leave a readily dischargeable firearm accessible to a child under 17 through criminal negligence. Michigan's 2024 law goes further, requiring any firearm in a home where a minor is present to be unloaded and locked or stored in a locked container, with felony penalties if a child causes injury with an unsecured gun. Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Louisiana and Kentucky have narrower laws that punish providing a gun to a minor rather than storage itself; Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and Pennsylvania rely on general negligence law. In every state, the parent whose child finds a gun is the one who answers for it.

What that means in practice

Lock it. A quick-access safe bolted down by the bed for the home-defence gun, a cabinet or safe for everything else, and ammunition stored so that a child cannot load a gun they cannot open. The storage guide covers the hardware. The law sets a floor; the standard a family should hold itself to is that no child can get to a gun without an adult, ever.

Teaching children

Every state lets a child shoot under adult supervision, and most have youth hunting seasons and mentored or apprentice licences that let a child hunt with a licensed adult before completing hunter education. Hunter education itself is open from about age ten in most states and is worth doing as a family. The first range day guide covers how to start.

Carry and the vehicle

Most of the states we serve allow an eligible adult to carry a concealed handgun without a permit; Pennsylvania and Michigan require a licence. A gun in a vehicle with children aboard is subject to the same storage logic as a gun in the house: a console safe, out of sight, out of reach. Guns stolen from cars are the largest source of stolen guns in the country.