Universal Background Check States (2026): Complete List of 22 UBC States

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Last updated May 2026 · By Nick Hall, CCW instructor tracking private-sale background check statutes across all 22 states + DC, the all-firearm vs sales-only vs handgun-only distinction, the limited-exception structure that exempts immediate-family transfers in most states, the recent changes in Michigan, Minnesota and Maine, and the federal NICS framework that underlies every state-level rule

Disclaimer: This is an editorial round-up of universal background check laws across the United States. We do our best to make sure it’s correct, but do not rely on this as legal advice. Background-check law has procedural detail that varies meaningfully state to state. Consult a licensed firearms attorney in your state for any specific question.

Table of Contents

Universal Background Check Laws in 2026: What You Need to Know

TL;DR: As of October 2026, 22 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia require a background check, permit or state approval on at least some private gun sales. Fifteen of them plus DC cover every private transfer, two cover sales but not gifts, four cover handguns, and Maine covers gun-show and advertised sales. Federal law, the Brady Act (18 U.S.C. § 922(t)), requires NICS checks only when a licensed dealer transfers a gun, not on private sales. Most of these state laws exempt transfers between close family members.

Universal background check laws are the most-discussed but least-uniform firearm regulation at the state level. The federal Brady Act of 1993 established NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) and required licensed dealers to run NICS on every prospective buyer. Federal law does NOT require background checks at private sales. The 22 states close that gap in different ways: some route private sales through a licensed dealer, others use a state permit, authorization number or police check, and a few cover only handguns.

The 22 states divide into five groups. Fifteen states plus DC cover every private transfer: nine of them through a licensed dealer (CA, CO, DE, NV, NJ, NY, OR, VT, WA, plus DC) and six through a state check or permit (CT, HI, IL, MA, MI, RI). Virginia and New Mexico cover sales but not gifts. Pennsylvania, Maryland, Minnesota and Nebraska cover handguns, and Maryland and Minnesota also certain listed rifles. Maine covers only sales at gun shows and sales that come from an advertisement.

I hold an out-of-state CCW and have processed private-transfer paperwork in three different UBC states. The single most important practical point: most of these states have limited exceptions for transfers between immediate family members, and the exception scope is the most important variable for a private seller. A transfer that doesn’t fit an exception has to go through the state’s process, which in most of these states means a licensed dealer.

This page is the master comparative index for UBC laws across the country. State-specific rules are detailed in our state gun law index; this article gives you the comparative procedural framework. For the federal framework that underlies every state rule, see our National Firearms Act explainer and the broader Brady Act / NICS background context.

The 22 Universal Background Check States: Complete List

TL;DR: Fifteen states plus DC cover every private transfer: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Virginia and New Mexico cover private sales but not gifts. Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska and Pennsylvania cover handguns, and in Maryland and Minnesota certain listed rifles. Maine covers sales at gun shows and sales that come from an advertisement. Each entry below cites the statute itself, read in October 2026.

Every Private Transfer, Through a Licensed Dealer

• California, Cal. Penal Code § 27545 (all firearms; when neither party is a dealer, the sale, loan or transfer goes through a licensed dealer)
• Colorado, C.R.S. § 18-12-112 (all firearms; a licensed dealer runs the check for a fee capped at $10; a private seller can’t sell any firearm to anyone under 21)
• Delaware, 11 Del. C. § 1448B (all firearms through a licensed dealer; handgun buyers also need a handgun qualified purchaser permit)
• Nevada, NRS 202.2547 (all firearms; both parties appear together with the gun at a licensed dealer)
• New Jersey, N.J.S.A. 2C:58-3 (handguns and long guns through a licensed retail dealer, plus a purchase permit or Firearms Purchaser Identification Card)
• New York, N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 898 (all firearms; a dealer completes a NICS check, fee capped at $10)
• Oregon, ORS 166.435 (all firearms through a gun dealer; the Measure 114 permit-to-purchase language is tied up in litigation)
• Vermont, 13 V.S.A. § 4019 (all firearms; both parties appear with the gun before a licensed dealer)
• Washington, RCW 9.41.113 (all sales and transfers through a licensed dealer; family gifts and loans are exempt, family sales are not)
• District of Columbia, D.C. Code § 7-2505.02 (transfers run through a licensed dealer)

Every Private Transfer, Through a State Check or Permit

• Connecticut, Conn. Gen. Stat. §§ 29-33 and 29-37a (every handgun and long gun transfer needs a state authorization number, issued after a NICS check; buyers need a permit or eligibility certificate)
• Hawaii, HRS § 134-2 (a police permit to acquire before any acquisition, including gifts and inheritance)
• Illinois, 430 ILCS 65/3 (buyers need a FOID card; the seller uses a dealer or has the Illinois State Police validate the FOID; dealer fee capped at $25 per firearm)
• Massachusetts, M.G.L. c. 140 § 128A (licensed sellers and buyers only, every sale through the state electronic registration portal, no more than 4 private transfers a year)
• Michigan, MCL 28.422 (a license to purchase for any firearm since February 13, 2024; the seller fills out and signs the license forms)
• Rhode Island, R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 11-47-35 and 11-47-35.2 (a police application and background check with a 7-day wait, for handguns, rifles and shotguns)

Sales Only

• Virginia, Va. Code § 18.2-308.2:5 (sales for money or anything else of value need a dealer’s verification, fee capped at $15; gifts are not covered)
• New Mexico, NMSA § 30-7-7.1 (sales need a federal instant check arranged through a licensed dealer, fee capped at $35; immediate family exempt)

Handguns, or Handguns Plus Listed Rifles

• Pennsylvania, 18 Pa.C.S. § 6111 (handguns and other short guns; private sales take place at a dealer or county sheriff’s office; spouse, parent-child and grandparent-grandchild transfers exempt)
• Maryland, Md. Code, Pub. Safety § 5-124 (handguns and listed assault weapons, through a licensee or a designated law enforcement agency, with a 7-day wait)
• Minnesota, Minn. Stat. § 624.7134 (pistols and semiautomatic military-style assault weapons, through a dealer or with a transferee permit)
• Nebraska, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 69-2403 (handgun buyers need a handgun certificate or concealed handgun permit; close family exempt)

Gun-Show and Advertised Sales Only

• Maine, 15 M.R.S. § 395 (sales at gun shows and sales from an advertisement, including one broadly disseminated online, go through a licensed dealer; separately, 25 M.R.S. § 2016 requires a 72-hour wait after any sale agreement)

The 28 states without a private-sale background check law: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming. In these states, dealer sales run NICS under the federal Brady Act, but private sales between residents do not require a background check. Iowa’s permit to acquire now applies only to handguns bought from a licensed dealer, and North Carolina repealed its pistol purchase permit effective March 29, 2023.

Federal Brady Act and NICS: The Foundation

TL;DR: The federal Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993 established NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System), administered by the FBI, that all federally licensed dealers (FFLs) must use to check prospective buyers. NICS checks the buyer against federal disqualifying criteria under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g): felony convictions, domestic violence misdemeanors, fugitive status, controlled substance use, mental adjudication, dishonorable discharge, illegal alien status, citizenship renouncement. The federal Brady Act does NOT require background checks at private sales between non-FFL parties. The 22 states with private-sale check laws extend the requirement to some or all private transfers; the other 28 leave private sales exempt.

Federal disqualifying criteria under 18 U.S.C. § 922(g) prohibit firearm possession by:

• Persons convicted of a crime punishable by more than one year imprisonment (felony equivalent)
• Fugitives from justice
• Unlawful users of controlled substances
• Persons adjudicated mentally defective or committed to a mental institution
• Aliens (illegal aliens, and certain non-immigrant visa holders)
• Persons dishonorably discharged from the armed forces
• Persons who have renounced U.S. citizenship
• Persons subject to specific domestic-violence restraining orders (post-Rahimi 2024)
• Persons convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence (Lautenberg Amendment, 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9))

NICS returns one of three results: Proceed (no disqualifying record), Denied (disqualifying record found), or Delayed (incomplete record requiring further research). Under the federal default, an FFL may transfer the firearm if NICS does not return a definitive result within three business days; some UBC states override this default and require a definitive Proceed before any transfer.

How Universal Background Check Laws Work

TL;DR: Most of these laws route a private sale through a licensed dealer, who runs the buyer through NICS as if the dealer were selling the gun. Others run the check through a state system: Connecticut’s authorization number, Illinois FOID validation, the Massachusetts registration portal, Michigan’s license to purchase, Rhode Island’s police application and Hawaii’s permit to acquire. Some states cap what a dealer can charge for a private-sale check: Colorado and New York at $10, Virginia at $15, Illinois at $25 and New Mexico at $35.

• Dealer-routed. The most common framework. Seller and buyer meet at a licensed dealer, who processes the transfer, runs NICS on the buyer and hands over the gun if the check clears. Used for all firearms in California, Colorado, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Vermont, Washington and DC, for sales in Virginia and New Mexico, for gun-show and advertised sales in Maine, and as one route for handguns in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Minnesota.
• State check or permit. Connecticut requires a state authorization number for every handgun and long gun transfer, and the state runs the NICS check before issuing it. Illinois lets the seller use a dealer or have the Illinois State Police validate the buyer’s FOID card. Massachusetts runs every private sale through its electronic registration portal, Michigan requires a license to purchase, and Rhode Island uses a police application with a 7-day wait.
• Handgun-only states. Pennsylvania covers handguns and other short guns, sold at a dealer or county sheriff’s office. Maryland covers handguns and listed assault weapons, through a licensee or a designated police agency, with a 7-day wait. Minnesota covers pistols and semiautomatic military-style assault weapons. Nebraska requires a handgun certificate or concealed handgun permit.
• Hawaii permit to acquire. Hawaii requires a police permit before any acquisition, including gifts and inheritance.

Dealer fees are a real practical cost. A dealer facilitating a private sale charges for the service, and only some states cap the fee. That friction is one reason these laws are hard to enforce, because the underlying private transfer is hard to detect.

Common Exemptions to Universal Background Checks

TL;DR: Most of these statutes include narrow exemptions for transfers that don’t require a background check. The most common are: (1) transfers between close family members; (2) transfers to or from law enforcement officers; (3) antique firearms, which federal law defines as made in or before 1898, plus certain replicas; (4) temporary transfers at a gun range or while hunting; (5) inheritance. The exemption scope varies meaningfully, so read your own state’s statute before relying on one.

• Immediate family. Most of these states exempt transfers between parent and child, spouses, siblings, and grandparent and grandchild. Some go further: Colorado and Washington include nieces, nephews, first cousins, aunts and uncles. Washington exempts family gifts and loans, but not family sales.
• Law enforcement. Transfers to or from law enforcement officers are often exempt.
• Antique firearms. The federal definition, 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(16), covers firearms made in or before 1898 and certain replicas. Check your state’s own definition before relying on it.
• Temporary transfers. Many states permit short temporary transfers at a shooting range, while hunting or at a competition. Some require both parties to stay together.
• Inheritance. Estate transfers are often exempt. Hawaii is a notable exception: heirs need a permit to acquire, though they can sell an inherited gun straight to a licensed dealer.

Practical implication for private sellers in these states: if your prospective buyer doesn’t fit a clear exemption, the transfer has to go through the state’s required process. Penalties for skipping it vary by state. Sellers should request photo ID and verify the buyer’s eligibility regardless, because a private seller can be charged if they knew or had reasonable cause to believe the buyer was a prohibited person.

UBC Effectiveness and Empirical Evidence

TL;DR: The most thorough current review is RAND’s Gun Policy in America, updated January 29, 2026. It rates the evidence as moderate that background checks decrease total homicides and firearm homicides, and as inconclusive for suicide, mass shootings and police shootings. RAND also flags a compliance problem: in several states that passed universal background checks, the number of checks barely rose. And a federal survey of prison inmates found that most guns used in crimes came off the street, not from a store.

What the research says:

• Homicide. RAND found 20 studies of universal background check laws and homicides or assaults. Of the eight methodologically stronger ones, all found significant reductions in homicides or uncertain associations.
• Suicide. Of 14 studies on background checks and suicide, the two that found reductions had serious methodological limitations, and the stronger studies found uncertain relationships. RAND calls the evidence inconclusive.
• Compliance. RAND estimates that 57 percent of firearm transfers may be private, yet studies of several states that adopted universal checks, including work by Castillo-Carniglia, Webster and Wintemute, often found little evidence that the number of background checks went up.
• Limits. RAND notes that background checks can at best stop prohibited people from getting new guns. They do nothing about guns a prohibited person already owns, and the NICS database fails to correctly identify every prohibited person.
• Where crime guns come from. In the Bureau of Justice Statistics 2016 Survey of Prison Inmates, prisoners who had a gun during their offense got it off the street or from the underground market in 43% of cases, from family or friends or as a gift in 25%, and found it at the crime scene in 7%. Six percent had stolen it, 7% bought it under their own name from a licensed dealer, and 0.8% got it at a gun show.

Sources: RAND, The Effects of Background Checks, updated January 29, 2026, and Source and Use of Firearms Involved in Crimes: Survey of Prison Inmates, 2016, Bureau of Justice Statistics, NCJ 251776, January 2019. Both read October 4, 2026.

Recent UBC Legislation (2023-2026)

TL;DR: Several states have changed their private-sale rules since 2023. Michigan extended its license to purchase to all firearms, effective February 13, 2024. Minnesota added its private-transfer check for pistols and semiautomatic military-style assault weapons in 2023. Maine added dealer checks for gun-show and advertised sales and a 72-hour waiting period. North Carolina went the other way and repealed its pistol purchase permit in 2023.

• Michigan. 2023 Public Act 19 extended the license to purchase from pistols to all firearms, effective February 13, 2024.
• Minnesota. Minn. Stat. § 624.7134, new in 2023, requires a dealer transfer or a transferee permit for private transfers of pistols and semiautomatic military-style assault weapons.
• Maine. Public Law 2023, chapter 675 added 15 M.R.S. § 395, which routes gun-show and advertised sales through a licensed dealer. Maine also requires a 72-hour wait after any sale agreement under 25 M.R.S. § 2016.
• Nebraska. The handgun certificate requirement in Neb. Rev. Stat. § 69-2403 was amended in 2025 and remains in force.
• Oregon. Measure 114’s permit-to-purchase language, written to apply to transfers from March 15, 2026, is tied up in litigation; the 2025 statute notes record it as enjoined with an appeal pending. Private transfers still go through a gun dealer.
• Virginia. Va. Code § 18.2-308.2:5 now also bars selling an assault firearm as defined in § 18.2-308.2:2.
• North Carolina and Iowa. North Carolina repealed its pistol purchase permit effective March 29, 2023, and Iowa’s permit to acquire now applies only to handguns bought from a licensed dealer.

Practical Implications for Private Sellers

TL;DR: For private sellers in these states, the practical steps are: (1) Know whether your transfer fits an exemption. If yes, document it clearly. If no, use your state’s required process. (2) Even for exempt transfers, request the buyer’s photo ID and verify eligibility, because a private seller can be charged if they knew or had reasonable cause to believe the buyer was prohibited. (3) Keep documentation of every transfer, including a bill of sale. (4) Expect a dealer fee for a dealer-routed transfer, capped by law in some states.

• Document everything. A bill of sale, a copy of the buyer’s ID and the dealer’s paperwork reference if the sale was dealer-routed. Our how to sell a gun guide covers the rest of the paperwork, and our firearm bill of sale page has a free form to fill in and print.
• Verify buyer eligibility. Even for exempt transfers, ask the buyer if they’re prohibited. A private seller can be liable if they should have known.
• Dealer fees. Expect a fee for a dealer-routed private sale. Colorado and New York cap it at $10, Virginia at $15, Illinois at $25 and New Mexico at $35.
• Cross-state transfers. Federal law requires interstate firearm transfers to go through a licensed dealer in the buyer’s state regardless of state law. The federal rule is the floor.
• Online sales. Online sales, through Armslist, GunBroker or anywhere else, go through a licensed dealer when the buyer and seller are in different states. In these 22 states the state process applies even within the state, for the transfers each law covers.

Our Take on Universal Background Checks

For practical everyday purposes, private-sale check laws now cover 22 states plus DC, but no two work quite the same way. A dealer-routed transfer in California operates differently from Connecticut’s state authorization number, which operates differently from Pennsylvania’s handgun-only rule. Each framework has different practical implications for buyers and sellers.

The strongest practical advice for private sellers in UBC states: if you’re uncertain whether a transfer fits an exemption, route through an FFL. The transfer fee is modest, the documentation is clean, and you eliminate any ambiguity about your legal exposure. For private buyers, the same advice holds in reverse: an FFL-routed transfer protects you from any “stolen firearm” claim and provides clean record of your lawful acquisition.

The hardest part of UBC laws in 2026 is the cross-state friction. A buyer who lives in Vermont (UBC state) and finds a private seller in New Hampshire (no UBC) faces federal interstate-transfer rules that override state UBC framework. The federal rule requires FFL processing in the buyer’s state regardless. Two-state UBC complications often surface unexpectedly. For our complete state-by-state breakdown, see the state gun law index.

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Frequently Asked Questions: Universal Background Checks

For context on national ownership rates and trends, see our US gun statistics page.