How to Sell a Gun in New Jersey

New Jersey runs two credentials and they do different jobs. A Firearms Purchaser Identification Card is what lets someone acquire a rifle or shotgun — and buy handgun ammunition. A Permit to Purchase a Handgun is needed for each handgun, and the phrase is literal: N.J.S. 2C:58-3(i) provides that “only one handgun shall be purchased or delivered on each permit” and no more than one handgun may be bought in any 30-day period.

The FPIC lasts into the tenth calendar year after issue, expiring on the holder’s birthday, and costs $50. A handgun permit is valid 90 days, renewable for another 90 — the State Police renew it automatically, so 180 days in practice — and costs $25. Both are applied for through the Firearms Application and Registration System (FARS), and both now require a safety course completed within the four years before the application. The issuing authority is the chief of police where the applicant lives, who has 30 days to decide (45 for a non-resident). FPIC at 18; handgun permit at 21.

Every private transfer goes through a licensed retail dealer — long guns included. Sections 2C:58-3(a)(2) and (b)(2) carry the same sentence for handguns and for rifles and shotguns: a person who is not a licensed retail dealer and disposes of or acquires one “shall conduct the transaction through a licensed retail dealer.” The dealer runs the NICS check and reports to the Superintendent of State Police. There is no quiet long gun sale in New Jersey.

The seven-day wait is a handgun rule, and it runs from an earlier date than people expect. Section 2C:58-2(a)(5)(a) bars delivering a handgun unless the buyer holds a valid permit “and at least seven days have elapsed since the date of application for the permit.” Not since the sale, and not since the permit issued — since they applied. Because the issuing authority has thirty days to decide, the seven days have almost always run before the permit exists. Rifles and shotguns carry no waiting period at all; the long gun condition requires the FPIC and a signed certification and nothing more.

That certification is yours to keep. Under 2C:58-3(b)(1) the buyer’s signed certification is retained by the seller — and a seller who is not a dealer may instead file it with the chief of police of the municipality where they live.

The family exemption is narrower than it looks. It is attached only to the dealer-routing paragraphs, and the statute says “the provisions of this paragraph shall not apply.” So an immediate-family transfer skips the dealer — but not the FPIC, and not the handgun permit, which live in different paragraphs and still apply. And under 2C:58-3(h) an immediate-family handgun transfer must still be conducted through the State’s portal. “Immediate family” is defined at 2C:58-3(n) as a spouse, domestic partner, civil union partner, parent, stepparent, grandparent, sibling, stepsibling, child, stepchild or grandchild.

New Jersey’s firearm law was rewritten several times in 2022 and 2023, and the litigation that followed — argued en banc in the Third Circuit in February 2026 — concerns carry, the “sensitive places” restrictions in particular. Nothing in the acquisition and transfer rules above is enjoined; they are being enforced today.