How to Sell a Gun in Maryland

Your buyer needs a Handgun Qualification License before they can receive a handgun from you. Public Safety § 5-117.1 puts the duty on both sides: a person “may not sell, rent, or transfer a handgun” to someone who does not present a valid HQL, and a person may receive one “only if” they hold it. Note the word — the HQL attaches to a handgun, which Maryland defines as a firearm with a barrel under 16 inches, not to the broader “regulated firearm” category.

Getting one takes a while, which is worth knowing before you agree a date. The applicant must be 21, a Maryland resident, and must have completed within the previous three years a Secretary-approved course of at least four hours covering state firearm law, home firearm safety and handgun operation, plus a practical component — the State Police implement that as a live-fire demonstration, firing not required beyond 15 yards. Fingerprints go through LiveScan. The fee is $50 to apply and $20 to renew, the State Police have 30 days to decide, and the license then runs ten years. Someone who already lawfully owns a regulated firearm is exempt from the training, as are honourably discharged service members and holders of a Maryland hunter-safety certificate.

The sale itself goes through a dealer or a State Police barrack. Under § 5-124(a)(1) a private party may not transfer a regulated firearm until seven days after the firearm application has been executed and forwarded to the Secretary by a licensee — and (a)(2) lets you use a designated law enforcement agency instead of a dealer. The application is the MSP 77R, completed by the buyer in the State Police Licensing Portal; they bring the application number and PIN to the dealer or barrack. A dealer may charge up to $20 to process it. The State Police say the seven days begin when the Licensing Division receives the application, with notification by the morning of the eighth day, and the transaction must then complete within 90 days.

There is one duty that falls on you and not on the dealer, and it is easy to miss. Section 5-124(e)(1) requires the person who sells or transfers a regulated firearm to forward written notification of the completed transaction to the Secretary within seven days after delivery, giving calibre, make, model and serial number. Seven days before, and seven days after.

Rifles and shotguns are not exempt in Maryland, and many people think they are. Since 2020, Public Safety § 5-204.1 has required both parties to a private rifle or shotgun sale to ask a licensee to facilitate it; the dealer processes it as though the gun came from their own inventory and runs a NICS check, and may charge a reasonable fee. Breaking that rule is a misdemeanor carrying up to six months and $10,000.

The family exemption applies to that rifle and shotgun rule, not to handguns. Section 5-204.1(a) exempts a transfer between immediate family members, and § 5-201(c) defines that broadly — spouse, parent, stepparent, grandparent, stepgrandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling, stepsibling, child, stepchild, grandchild, stepgrandchild, niece or nephew, by blood or marriage. A handgun going to any of those people still runs the 77R process; the State Police charge no fee for a gift or an inheritance, but the paperwork is the same.

Two hard limits regardless: § 5-134(b)(1) bars transferring a regulated firearm to anyone you know or have reasonable cause to believe is under 21, and § 5-207(c) bars selling or even loaning a rifle or shotgun to a person in any of sixteen prohibited categories — which applies even where the family exemption removes the dealer. Knowingly taking part in an illegal transfer is a misdemeanor carrying up to five years and $10,000.