What Do You Need to Buy a Gun in Arizona?

To buy a gun in Arizona you need a valid government-issued photo ID, you need to meet the minimum age for the type of firearm you want, and you need to pass a federal background check when the seller is a licensed dealer. That’s it. Arizona requires no state permit, no registration, and no waiting period. The rules that matter are mostly federal, layered with a few Arizona-specific disqualifications and a separate set of restrictions on where you can carry once the gun is yours.

How Old You Have to Be

Federal law sets the floor at a licensed dealer: 18 for a rifle or shotgun, 21 for a handgun.¹ These ages apply at every dealer in every state.

Private sales work differently. Federal age limits only bind licensed dealers, so an 18-year-old can legally receive a handgun from a private Arizona seller. What Arizona does prohibit is selling or giving any firearm to someone under 18 without written parental consent — a class 6 felony under A.R.S. § 13-3109.²

One separate age rule to note before you plan how you’ll carry the gun home: concealed carry of a deadly weapon requires you to be 21 under A.R.S. § 13-3102.³ An 18-year-old can lawfully buy and open-carry a rifle, but not conceal it.

What You Bring to the Dealer

Bring a valid, non-expired government-issued photo ID that shows your name, date of birth, photo, and current Arizona address. An Arizona driver’s license or state ID card is the standard document.

At the counter the dealer will hand you ATF Form 4473. The form is a series of yes-or-no questions covering your criminal history, drug use, mental health history, citizenship, and whether you are the actual buyer. Answer every question honestly. Lying on Form 4473 is a separate federal crime, and the question about controlled substance use is the one that trips up otherwise-eligible Arizona buyers most often (more on that below).

The dealer then submits your information to the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System. Arizona does not run its own state check — everything goes straight to NICS.⁴ A “proceed” result usually comes back within minutes. You pay, sign for the firearm, and leave. There is no state-imposed waiting period.

If the result is “delayed,” the FBI needs more time to resolve something in your record. Under the Brady Act, if the delay isn’t resolved within three business days, the dealer is legally permitted to transfer the firearm, though the dealer can choose to wait for a final answer.⁵ A “denied” result can be appealed through the FBI’s NICS Appeal Services Team using the transaction number from the dealer; the FBI typically responds within five business days with the general reason and instructions for contesting an inaccurate record.⁶

The CCW Shortcut

If you already hold a valid Arizona concealed weapons permit, ATF recognizes it in place of the NICS check. You still fill out Form 4473, but the permit itself satisfies the background check requirement because the state ran a full investigation before issuing it. The permit must have been issued within the past five years and still be valid.⁷

Who Cannot Buy a Gun

You have to clear two disqualification lists — federal and Arizona — and a bar under either one is enough to stop the sale.

Federal Disqualifications

Under 18 U.S.C. § 922, you cannot possess a firearm if you:

Have been convicted of any crime punishable by more than one year in prison (all felonies and certain serious misdemeanors)
Have a misdemeanor domestic violence conviction
Are subject to a qualifying restraining order protecting an intimate partner or child
Use or are addicted to any controlled substance, including marijuana
Have been involuntarily committed to a mental institution or found mentally unfit by a court
Are a fugitive from justice
Received a dishonorable discharge from the military
Are an undocumented immigrant or in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa (with narrow exceptions)
Have renounced U.S. citizenship

These are what NICS is screening for when the dealer runs your check.⁴

Arizona Prohibited Possessors

A.R.S. § 13-3101 defines Arizona’s own prohibited possessor categories, some of which go further than federal law. You are a prohibited possessor if you:

Have a felony conviction (from any state) and have not had your civil rights restored
Were adjudicated delinquent for a felony as a juvenile and have not had rights restored
Are currently imprisoned or serving probation or parole for a felony or domestic violence offense
Have been found by a court to be a danger to yourself or others, or to have a persistent or acute mental disability, and your firearm rights have not been restored
Have been found incompetent to stand trial or guilty except insane
Are an undocumented immigrant or nonimmigrant alien (with limited exceptions for hunting permits and certain diplomatic personnel)

⁸

The practical gap between the two lists: Arizona specifically covers anyone on probation or parole for a felony or domestic violence offense. If you’re on any form of supervised release in this state, you cannot legally possess a firearm here, full stop.

The Marijuana Problem

Recreational marijuana has been legal in Arizona since 2020. Federal law hasn’t changed. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(3), anyone who regularly uses marijuana is a prohibited person for firearm purposes, and Form 4473 asks about controlled substance use directly. Answering “no” when you are a current user is a federal crime on top of the underlying prohibition.⁴

In January 2026, ATF published a revised rule clarifying what “unlawful user” means. The updated standard requires evidence of regular, ongoing use rather than a single past incident, and ATF removed earlier guidance that treated a single failed drug test or a single possession conviction within the past year as sufficient for a denial.⁹ Isolated or sporadic use no longer meets the threshold. Current, regular use still does, regardless of what Arizona’s recreational laws allow.

If You’re 18, 19, or 20

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act added an extra step for buyers between 18 and 20. NICS examiners look beyond the standard databases and contact state juvenile justice agencies, mental health repositories, and local law enforcement for records that may not sit in the federal system.¹⁰

When that outreach turns up something to investigate, the review window extends from three business days to up to ten. Most under-21 transactions still clear without issue, but the timeline is less predictable. Plan for extra days if you’re in this age range.

Buying From a Private Seller

Arizona does not require a background check for private sales between two individuals who aren’t licensed dealers. You can legally buy a gun from another Arizona resident at a gun show, through an online classified, or face to face without going through NICS. A.R.S. § 13-3109 explicitly states that nothing in that section requires reporting or registration of firearm sales.²

What doesn’t change: if you’re a prohibited possessor under federal or Arizona law, buying privately is still illegal. The seller has exposure too — knowingly transferring a firearm to a prohibited person is a class 6 felony in Arizona, and knowingly selling to someone who intends to use it in a felony is a class 3 felony.³ Some private sellers ask to run the sale through a licensed dealer for that reason. Dealers typically charge a transfer fee.

Buying Out of State or Online

Federal law separates handgun and long gun rules when the buyer and seller are in different states. You generally cannot buy a handgun from a dealer outside Arizona. If you find one online or at an out-of-state shop, the seller has to ship it to a licensed dealer in Arizona, where you complete Form 4473 and the NICS check just as you would for a local purchase.⁴

Rifles and shotguns have a narrower exception. You can buy a long gun in person from a dealer in another state, but the sale has to comply with the laws of both states, buyer and seller must meet face to face, and the dealer still runs a background check.

Two private individuals in different states cannot legally hand a firearm to each other. The gun has to be shipped to a licensed dealer in the buyer’s home state for transfer. The receiving dealer sets the transfer fee.

Where You Still Can’t Carry After You Buy

Owning the gun legally is not the same as being able to bring it everywhere. Federal buildings — courthouses, Social Security offices, VA facilities, any building where federal employees work — are off-limits under 18 U.S.C. § 930.¹¹ Post offices are prohibited by federal regulation, including the parking lot.

Under A.R.S. § 13-3102 and related statutes, Arizona adds public school grounds (a firearm inside a vehicle on school property must be unloaded and out of sight), polling places on election day, licensed bars and restaurants that post signs prohibiting firearms, public colleges and universities that have banned firearms on campus, nuclear and hydroelectric generating stations, jails and prisons, and the secure side of airports past TSA checkpoints.³ Private businesses can prohibit firearms on their premises regardless of whether you have a permit; refusing to leave or disarm when asked can support a trespassing charge.

Arizona has a strong preemption statute at A.R.S. § 13-3108 that stops cities and counties from adding their own firearm regulations, so the list above is essentially the full state map — no municipal registries, no local gun-free zones beyond what state law already allows.¹²

1
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Minimum Age for Gun Sales and Transfers
2
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 – 13-3109
3
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13-3102 – Misconduct Involving Weapons; Defenses; Classification; Definitions
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922
5
FBI. About NICS
6
FBI. NICS Guide for Appealing
7
ATF. Brady Permit Chart
8
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 – 13-3101
9
Federal Register. Revising Definition of Unlawful User of or Addicted to Controlled Substance
10
FBI. NICS Enhanced Background Checks for Under-21 Gun Buyers Showing Results
11
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 930 – Possession of Firearms and Dangerous Weapons in Federal Facilities
12
Arizona Legislature. Arizona Revised Statutes 13-3108 – Firearms Regulated by State; State Preemption; Injunction