Ghost guns are not legal in Maryland. Since March 1, 2023, state law has banned the possession, sale, purchase, and transfer of any firearm or unfinished frame or receiver that lacks a serial number imprinted by a federally licensed manufacturer or importer.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Public Safety 5-703 – Serial Number Requirement for Firearms Violations are misdemeanors carrying up to five years in prison.
What Maryland Treats as a Ghost Gun
The law reaches two things: a finished firearm with no serial number, and an “unfinished frame or receiver.” The statute defines an unfinished frame or receiver as a manufactured body or similar item that has either reached a stage where it can readily be made into a working frame or receiver, or is marketed and sold to the public for that purpose.2Maryland General Assembly. 2022 Laws of Maryland – Chapter 18 (House Bill 425)
That marketing prong is important. Even a blank that isn’t close to functional qualifies if it’s sold as a build-your-own firearm kit. The products commonly called “80% lowers” fall under the ban, and so do 3D-printed frames and receivers, because the definitions cover printed items regardless of how they were made.3Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Public Safety 5-701 – Definitions
Who and What Is Exempt
A handful of narrow exceptions exist:
- Firearms manufactured before October 22, 1968, and antique firearms are entirely outside the subtitle.2Maryland General Assembly. 2022 Laws of Maryland – Chapter 18 (House Bill 425)
- Federally licensed dealers, manufacturers, and importers may possess unserialized firearms and unfinished frames or receivers in the course of their business.
- Transferring or surrendering an unserialized firearm or unfinished frame or receiver to a law enforcement agency is permitted.
- The possession ban does not apply if you genuinely did not know and had no reason to know the firearm lacked a serial number.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Public Safety 5-703 – Serial Number Requirement for Firearms
- If you inherit an unserialized firearm, you have 30 days to get it serialized and registered.
- If you make an unfinished frame or receiver entirely from scratch, without any prefabricated parts, you have 30 days to serialize and register it.
Those 30-day windows are strict. Once the period runs, you face the same criminal exposure as anyone else.
Penalties for Selling or Possessing One
Selling, purchasing, or transferring an unserialized firearm or unfinished frame or receiver is a misdemeanor punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Possessing one is a misdemeanor punishable by up to two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Each item is a separate offense in either category.1Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Public Safety 5-703 – Serial Number Requirement for Firearms
Charges can also stack. If the ghost gun is also a “regulated firearm” under Maryland law, which includes all handguns, a separate statute makes knowingly participating in the illegal possession of a regulated firearm a misdemeanor carrying up to five years and a $10,000 fine on its own.4Maryland General Assembly. Maryland Code Public Safety 5-144 Someone caught with an unserialized handgun can face both. And ghost gun rules don’t displace any other weapons charges that might apply, such as those against people already prohibited from possessing firearms.
If You Still Have an Unserialized Firearm
The statewide deadline to bring a pre-existing unserialized firearm into compliance was March 1, 2023. If you still have one and no exception covers you, you are currently in violation of the law.
The compliance path, where it’s still available (for example, during the 30-day inheritance or self-manufacture window), has two steps. A Federal Firearms Licensee authorized to provide marking services must permanently imprint a unique serial number or personal identification number on the firearm.5Maryland State Police. Untraceable Firearms The marked firearm then has to be registered with the Maryland State Police through their online Licensing Portal, and registration includes a full background investigation.6Maryland State Police. Registration Of Unserialized, Privately-Made Firearms In Effect As Of June 1, 2022 Professional engraving typically runs $35 to $85, plus the shop’s FFL processing fees.
If none of the exceptions fit your situation, surrendering the firearm to a law enforcement agency is one of the few routes the statute expressly protects from criminal liability. Talking to a Maryland firearms attorney before you do anything else is worthwhile when the facts are complicated.
How This Differs From Federal Law
Federal rules regulate the commercial supply side. The ATF’s 2022 rule reclassified parts kits as “firearms” under the Gun Control Act, requiring commercial sellers to be licensed, to serialize the kits, and to run background checks on buyers.7Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Definition of “Frame or Receiver” and Identification of Firearms The U.S. Supreme Court upheld that rule 7–2 in Bondi v. VanDerStok in March 2025.8Supreme Court of the United States. Bondi v. VanDerStok, 604 U.S. ___ (2025)
Maryland goes further. Federal law doesn’t criminalize private possession of an unserialized firearm you already own; Maryland does. If federal rules ever changed, the Maryland statute would still apply on its own.
Traveling With One
Carrying an unserialized firearm across state lines doesn’t fix the Maryland problem and usually creates new ones, since ghost gun laws vary from state to state. The safe answer is not to travel with an unserialized firearm at all. Get it serialized first, or leave it out of the trip.