How to Sell a Gun in Michigan: License Check, Records, and Penalties

To sell a gun in Michigan legally, you need to confirm the buyer has a valid license to purchase (or qualifies for an exemption), complete a state pistol sales record, and forward a copy to your local police department or county sheriff within 10 days of the transfer. Since February 13, 2024, the license requirement covers rifles and shotguns as well as handguns, so the paperwork obligations that used to apply only to pistol sales now reach nearly every private firearm sale in the state.

Confirm the Buyer’s Purchase License

Michigan law requires the buyer, not the seller, to obtain a license before acquiring a firearm. Your job as the seller is to see it. Under MCL 28.422, a person cannot purchase, carry, possess, or transport a pistol without a license issued by a local law enforcement agency, and a separate provision extends the same requirement to rifles, shotguns, and other non-pistol firearms purchased after February 13, 2024.¹ The license is void if the buyer doesn’t use it within 30 days of issuance, so check the date.

Some buyers are exempt from producing a purchase license. You can complete the sale without one if the buyer falls into any of these categories:²

The buyer holds a valid Michigan concealed pistol license. A CPL application receipt does not count.³
The buyer is a federally licensed firearms dealer buying inventory.
The buyer is a currently employed law enforcement officer certified under Michigan’s law enforcement standards act.
For a rifle or shotgun sale, a federally licensed dealer has run a NICS check on the buyer within the last five days.

Antique firearms, relics, and curios not designed for modern ammunition are exempt from the license process entirely, as are wholesale transactions between dealers.¹

If the buyer doesn’t have a license and doesn’t fit an exemption, the sale is not legal. There is no workaround. A private seller can’t run a NICS check, so the license is your evidence that the buyer passed a background check.

Complete the Pistol Sales Record

Both parties fill out a sales record on a form provided by the Michigan Department of State Police. For a pistol sale, the record includes the buyer’s CPL number, if that’s the exemption they’re using, or the FFL number of the dealer who ran the federal background check for a long-gun purchase.² The buyer signs it.

After signing, three copies matter:

One copy stays with you, the seller.
One copy goes to the buyer.
One copy goes to the local police department or county sheriff within 10 days of the transaction.

The 10-day clock starts the day the buyer takes possession of the firearm. You can deliver the copy in person or send it by first-class or certified mail. Missing this deadline is a violation on its own, separate from any problem with the license itself.

Know Who You Cannot Sell To

Even with a license in hand, you are not off the hook if you know or should know the buyer is prohibited. Michigan law makes it a felony to knowingly sell a firearm to a person under felony indictment or to a person prohibited under MCL 750.224f, and the penalty runs up to 10 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.⁴

MCL 750.224f prohibits anyone convicted of a felony from possessing, transporting, selling, or purchasing a firearm until at least three years after completing all prison time, probation, parole, and payment of fines. “Felony” here means any state or federal offense punishable by more than one year of imprisonment.⁵

Federal law under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) bars several more categories of buyers, including fugitives, unlawful drug users, people adjudicated mentally defective or committed to a mental institution, people dishonorably discharged from the military, people subject to certain domestic violence restraining orders, and people convicted of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence.⁶

A person subject to an active extreme risk protection order is also prohibited. Michigan’s ERPO law allows a civil court to bar someone from buying or possessing firearms for up to a year when they are found to pose a risk of harm to themselves or others.⁷ Selling to someone under an ERPO is selling to a prohibited person.

Age Rules

The minimum age depends on what you are selling and how. A private buyer must be at least 18 to obtain a purchase license for a handgun. A buyer purchasing a handgun from a licensed dealer must be 21, under federal law. For rifles, shotguns, and other long guns, the minimum age is 18 in both private and dealer sales.

Selling a long gun to anyone under 18 is a misdemeanor under Michigan law, and a second or subsequent offense is a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $2,000 fine.⁴ Minors can handle pistols in limited circumstances, chiefly at recognized target ranges under the direct supervision of a parent, guardian, or authorized adult who is at least 21, and only for target practice or safety instruction.¹

Safe Storage Follows the Gun

Michigan’s 2023 safe storage law applies to whoever has the firearm, so it becomes the buyer’s problem the moment the transfer is complete. It’s worth flagging for the buyer, though, because the penalties are steep and some sellers find it useful to include a lock with the sale.

If a firearm is stored or left unattended on premises the owner controls and a minor could reasonably be present, the firearm must either sit in a locked container designed for firearm storage or be unloaded and secured with a trigger lock, cable lock, or similar device.⁸ If a minor accesses an improperly stored firearm, the penalties escalate with the harm: a misdemeanor with up to 93 days in jail if the minor publicly displays the firearm or handles it recklessly, up to 5 years in prison if the minor fires it and injures someone, up to 10 years if the minor causes serious bodily harm, and up to 15 years if the minor causes a death.

Penalties for Getting the Sale Wrong

The Michigan penalties for a private sale break out by which step the seller skipped.

Selling a firearm without complying with the license-to-purchase requirements in MCL 28.422 is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a fine of up to $100, or both. The same penalty applies to a buyer who obtains a firearm without the required license.⁴

Knowingly selling a long gun to a person under 18 is a misdemeanor with up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $500. A second or subsequent offense becomes a felony punishable by up to four years in prison and a $2,000 fine.⁴

Knowingly selling a firearm or ammunition to someone under felony indictment or someone prohibited under MCL 750.224f is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $5,000, or both.⁴

Selling Through a Dealer

If you sell through a federally licensed dealer, or if you are one, the federal layer adds obligations that don’t apply to a straight private sale. Every dealer transfer to a non-licensee requires a NICS background check and an ATF Form 4473 documenting the buyer and the firearm’s manufacturer, model, serial number, type, and caliber.⁹ For handgun sales, the buyer must also present a valid Michigan purchase license or CPL.¹⁰

A dealer who transfers a firearm knowing the buyer is prohibited under federal law faces up to 10 years of imprisonment under 18 U.S.C. § 922, on top of any Michigan charges, and the ATF can revoke the FFL for willful violations of the Gun Control Act.⁶

1
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 28.422
2
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 28.422a
3
State of Michigan. Concealed Pistol Application and Instructions
4
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.223
5
Michigan Legislature. Michigan Code 750.224f
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 922 – Unlawful Acts
7
State of Michigan. Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO)
8
State of Michigan. Firearm Storage Requirements and Penalties
9
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Firearms Checks (NICS)
10
Jackson County, MI. License to Purchase FAQ