Buying a long gun online and transferring it in Baltimore
Order a rifle or shotgun here, collect it from a licensed dealer in the city or the county. This is how the transfer works and what Maryland law adds to it.
We are an online store, not a Baltimore gun shop with a counter. What we offer city and county buyers is a wide catalog at live prices and delivery to a dealer you choose, whether that is a shop off Belair Road, one out past the Beltway in Parkville, Essex or Catonsville, or one near where you work. Licensed dealers are thinner inside the city line than in the county, so many city residents use a county shop. Any of them works, as long as they accept shipped transfers.
What to bring to the dealer
- Government photo ID with your current address. A Maryland driver's license or MVA identification card is the usual one.
- The transfer fee, paid to the shop. Dealers set their own, so call and ask before you order.
- Your order number, so they can match the box to you.
You must be 18 or older to buy a rifle or shotgun from a dealer. The dealer runs the background check through the FBI's NICS system. Most answers come back in minutes, and a delayed check means the gun waits at the shop.
What Maryland law adds
For an ordinary long gun, less than people expect. The Handgun Qualification License, the Handgun Roster and the seven-day wait all attach to regulated firearms, which Public Safety Article § 5-101 defines as handguns and a list of assault weapons. A bolt-action deer rifle, a lever gun, a .22 or a pump shotgun is none of those.
What Maryland does restrict is the kind of long gun that can be sold at all. Criminal Law Article §§ 4-301 to 4-303 ban the listed assault long guns and feature-defined copycat weapons, and § 4-305 bars the sale or transfer of detachable magazines over 10 rounds. We apply those rules before anything appears on this site, so you will not find AR or AK pattern rifles, folding-stock semi-automatic shotguns or larger magazines here. Your dealer still has the final say at the counter.
Private sales are covered too. Since 2021, a rifle or shotgun sold between two private people generally has to go through a licensed dealer with a background check (Public Safety Article § 5-204.1).
General information, not legal advice. The statutes are collected on our Maryland gun law page. A Maryland attorney can answer questions about your own situation.
Getting it home
Leave the shop with the gun unloaded and in a case, and put it in the trunk or the rear of the vehicle, with ammunition packed separately. Natural Resources Article § 10-410 prohibits a loaded firearm in or on a vehicle. If you live in a rowhouse with children in it, or with anyone who should not have access to a firearm, buy a lock or a safe on the same day. Criminal Law Article § 4-104 makes it a crime to leave a firearm where an unsupervised minor could get to it.
Where Baltimore shooters use a long gun
Closer than you might think. The upper Bay starts at the city's edge. The Gunpowder, Middle and Back rivers hold puddle ducks and divers in season, and the Susquehanna Flats, an hour up I-95, are where Chesapeake canvasback gunning became famous. Resident Canada geese work the farm fields of northern Baltimore, Harford and Carroll counties from September on.
Deer are everywhere in the suburbs, to the point that the state runs managed hunts on some public land, including parts of Gunpowder Falls State Park. The central counties around Baltimore have traditionally been shotgun counties for deer, which is why slug guns and, more recently, straight-walled cartridge rifles sell here. The rule is set county by county, so confirm yours in the current Department of Natural Resources guide. Our waterfowl and deer gun guide goes through the choices.
For practice there are indoor ranges around the Beltway and rifle and shotgun clubs in Baltimore, Carroll and Harford counties. Many outdoor clubs are member-only, so look into that before you buy a rifle that needs 100 yards to sight in. Trap and skeet fields are easier to find and are the right place to learn a new shotgun before duck season.
What people here buy
