Are Ghost Guns Legal in Tennessee to Own and Carry?

Ghost guns are legal in Tennessee. The state has no law restricting the possession, manufacture, or transfer of unserialized firearms, so a Tennessee resident who is legally allowed to own a gun can build one at home from an 80% receiver, a parts kit, or a 3D printer, keep it without a serial number, and carry it under the same rules that apply to any other handgun. Federal law is where the real limits sit, and those limits got sharper after the Supreme Court’s March 2025 decision in Bondi v. VanDerStok.

What Tennessee Law Says

Tennessee does not require serialization of privately made firearms, does not mandate background checks on homemade components, and does not prohibit possession of untraceable firearms at the state level. The state’s prohibited weapons statute lists explosive devices, machine guns, hoax devices, and knuckles. Unserialized firearms are not on it.¹ The definitions section of the firearms chapter addresses machine guns, short barrels, and restricted ammunition, and says nothing about serialization status.²

Local governments cannot fill that gap. Tennessee reserves firearms regulation to the General Assembly, which blocks cities, counties, and metropolitan governments from writing their own ghost gun rules.³ Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville, and every other Tennessee municipality operate under the same uniform rule: unless the state legislature acts, nothing in Tennessee law bars you from building or owning an unserialized firearm.

Who Cannot Legally Build or Possess One

The permissive state picture evaporates the moment a prohibited person is involved. Federal law bars certain categories of people from possessing any firearm, homemade included, and the same rules that apply at a gun store counter apply in your garage. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g), you cannot possess a firearm if you:⁴

Have a felony conviction (any crime punishable by more than one year in prison, regardless of the sentence actually imposed).
Are a fugitive from justice.
Use or are addicted to controlled substances.
Have been adjudicated as mentally defective or committed to a mental institution.
Are in the country unlawfully or on a nonimmigrant visa, with limited exceptions.
Were dishonorably discharged from the military.
Have renounced U.S. citizenship.
Are subject to a qualifying domestic violence restraining order.
Have a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction.

Building a ghost gun does not create a loophole around any of this. A prohibited person who builds a firearm at home has committed a federal crime carrying up to ten years in prison, exactly as if the gun had come from a store.

Building a Firearm for Personal Use

If you are not a prohibited person, Tennessee lets you build a firearm at home using an 80% lower receiver, a parts kit, or a 3D printer. Three conditions have to hold:

You must be legally allowed to possess firearms under both federal and state law.
The firearm must be for your own use. Manufacturing firearms for sale or distribution requires a Federal Firearms License.⁵
The build cannot create a short-barreled rifle, short-barreled shotgun, machine gun, or suppressor unless you have registered it federally first.

No Tennessee law requires you to add a serial number to a firearm you build for yourself. You do not need to notify any state agency, and you do not register the firearm with the state. It is yours to keep, use at a range, or carry under Tennessee’s carry laws.

Federal Rules That Still Apply

Three federal rules reach into what Tennessee otherwise permits. Skipping any of them is where legal builds turn into felonies.

Commercial Parts Kits After Bondi v. VanDerStok

The ATF finalized a rule in August 2022 expanding the regulatory definition of “frame or receiver” to cover unfinished parts kits that can be “readily” converted into a functional frame or receiver. Manufacturers and dealers selling those kits must serialize them and run background checks on buyers.⁶ On March 26, 2025, the Supreme Court upheld that rule 7–2 in Bondi v. VanDerStok.⁷

If you buy an unfinished receiver or weapon parts kit from a dealer, expect a background check and a serialized product. The rule does not require you to serialize a firearm you have already built for personal use, and it does not prohibit personal manufacture.

The Undetectable Firearms Act

Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(p), it is a federal crime to manufacture, possess, or transfer any firearm that cannot be detected by a standard walk-through metal detector. Every major component (the barrel, slide or cylinder, and frame or receiver) must produce an accurate image under airport-type X-ray.⁴ The benchmark is the “Security Exemplar,” an object containing 3.7 ounces of type 17–4 PH stainless steel shaped like a handgun. A firearm less detectable than the exemplar violates federal law.

This is the trap for 3D-printed builds. A purely plastic firearm is illegal under federal law regardless of what Tennessee permits. You have to design in enough metal to clear the detectability threshold.

NFA Items Require Registration Before You Build

If your homemade firearm falls into a category regulated by the National Firearms Act, you need federal approval before you start. NFA-regulated items include short-barreled rifles (barrel under 16 inches), short-barreled shotguns (barrel under 18 inches), suppressors, and machine guns. Tennessee’s definitions track the federal categories.²

To legally build an NFA item, file ATF Form 1 (Application to Make and Register a Firearm), submit fingerprints and a photograph, pass a background check, and wait for approval. As of January 2026, the federal tax for making most NFA firearms is $0, down from the longstanding $200. The tax for machine guns and destructive devices remains at $200. The registration itself is still mandatory, and building an NFA item without approval is a federal felony carrying up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.⁸ One requirement that catches ghost gun builders off guard: when you make an NFA firearm, you must engrave the frame or lower receiver with your name, city, state, and the firearm’s caliber. In practice, that forces serialization on any homemade NFA build.

Selling or Giving Away a Homemade Firearm

Tennessee does not require background checks for private, occasional firearm sales between individuals, and that rule treats ghost guns the same as any other firearm. Under Tennessee Code § 39-17-1316, the background check requirement applies only to licensed gun dealers.⁹ The Tennessee Attorney General has confirmed that someone not engaged in the business of dealing is not required to run a check before an occasional sale or transfer.¹⁰

Two hard limits apply. If you regularly build and sell firearms, the ATF treats that as “engaging in the business” of dealing, which requires an FFL. And when a licensed dealer takes a privately made firearm into inventory for any reason, the dealer must serialize it and run a background check before transferring it on.¹¹ Transferring any firearm to a person you know is prohibited is a federal crime whether the gun has a serial number or not.

Carrying a Ghost Gun in Tennessee

Tennessee allows permitless carry of handguns for residents who are at least 21 (or at least 18 with qualifying military service), who lawfully possess the handgun, and who are in a place where they have a legal right to be.¹² A homemade handgun without a serial number is still a handgun under Tennessee law. If you meet the eligibility requirements, you can carry it openly or concealed under the same rules.

The restricted locations are also the same: schools, courthouses, government buildings, and other places specified in state law. Serialization status does not change where you can or cannot carry.

Crossing State Lines

Tennessee’s permissive stance is not shared by every neighboring state. As of 2026, at least 16 states have enacted laws regulating or banning unserialized firearms, from mandatory serialization to outright possession bans.

Federal law offers narrow protection for interstate travel. Under 18 U.S.C. § 926A, you can transport a firearm through a state where it would otherwise be illegal, but only if you can lawfully possess it at both the origin and the destination. During transport, the firearm must be unloaded and stored where it is not readily accessible from the passenger compartment. In a vehicle without a trunk, it must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console.¹³

If your destination itself bans unserialized firearms, that federal safe passage does not apply. Check the law of every state on your route and at your destination before you leave. Getting it wrong can turn a legal Tennessee firearm into a felony charge the moment you cross a border.

1
Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-1302 – Prohibited Weapons
2
Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-1301 – Part Definitions
3
Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-1314 – Preemption of Local Ordinances
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
5
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal Firearms Licenses
6
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Definition of Frame or Receiver and Identification of Firearms
7
Justia. Bondi v. VanDerStok, 604 U.S. ___ (2025)
8
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Application to Make and Register NFA Firearm – ATF Form 1
9
Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-1316 – Unlawful Firearms Sales
10
Office of the Tennessee Attorney General. Opinion 16-44 – Private, Occasional Sales of Firearms in Tennessee
11
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Summary of Final Rule 2021R-05F
12
Justia. Tennessee Code 39-17-1307 – Unlawful Carrying or Possession of a Weapon
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 926A – Interstate Transportation of Firearms