Firearm law reference

Maine Gun Laws: Complete Guide

A practical overview of Maine firearm laws affecting private sales, purchases, carrying, transportation, storage, and ownership.

Maine combines broad permitless carry with transaction-specific background checks and waiting periods, child-access rules, an extreme risk order system, and a separate threat-based restriction process.

Maine Gun Law Quick Facts

Start with the three rules most people need. The full comparison table covers the remaining purchase, carry, ownership, and restriction topics.

Minimum purchase age: Depends on seller and firearm
Maine generally bars handgun transfers to people under eighteen outside exceptions; federal dealers require eighteen for long guns and twenty-one for handguns and other firearms. [5][26]
Permitless concealed carry: Generally age 21+
Eligible people age twenty-one or older may generally carry a concealed handgun without a permit; qualifying military members and veterans may do so at eighteen. [1]
Private sale background check: Required for advertised and gun-show sales
A private sale resulting from a broadly disseminated advertisement or occurring at a gun show must generally be facilitated by an FFL for NICS, subject to family, antique, and collector exceptions. [2][27]

Swipe horizontally to read the full table.

Law	Status	What it means
FFL required for private transfers	Some transfers	Covered advertised and gun-show sales require FFL facilitation; an unadvertised same-state private transfer may fall outside that rule, and interstate transfers ordinarily require an FFL. [2][25]
Purchase permit	No general requirement	Maine requires no general permit before purchasing a firearm. [2][3]
Waiting period	72 hours for covered sales	A seller generally may not deliver sooner than 72 hours after agreement when the sale requires a federal or state background check; statutory exceptions apply. [3][2]
Firearm registration	No general requirement	Maine prohibits a general government registry of ordinary firearms or firearm owners. [20]
Firearm owner license	No general requirement	Maine requires no general license merely to own a firearm. [4]
Concealed handgun permit	Optional; needed by most ages 18–20	Optional permits remain useful for reciprocity and certain locations; most nonmilitary people age eighteen through twenty need one to carry concealed. [1]
Open carry	Generally legal	Maine generally allows open carry without a permit by a person who may lawfully possess the firearm. [1][4]
Vehicle carry	Loaded handgun generally allowed at 21+	Eligible people age twenty-one or older may generally possess a loaded pistol or revolver in a vehicle; qualifying service members and veterans may do so at eighteen. [1][14]
Castle doctrine / duty to retreat	No retreat duty in the home; retreat required elsewhere if safe	Maine generally requires a person to retreat before using deadly force when they can do so with complete safety, except in their own dwelling if they were not the initial aggressor. [22]
Magazine capacity	No state limit	Maine has no general magazine-capacity restriction. [4][20]
Assault weapons	No state ban	Maine has no assault-weapon ban covering commonly owned semiautomatic firearms. [4][20]
NFA firearms	Federally regulated	Suppressors, short-barreled firearms, and machine guns are generally lawful when possessed in compliance with the federal NFA; Maine prohibits machine guns outside that exemption or narrow official-duty authority. [9][28]
Extreme risk protection orders	Yes	Maine provides an ERPO petition process for qualifying family or household members and law enforcement, alongside its threat-based yellow-flag process. [7][8]
Safe storage	Conditional child-access rule	Criminal liability can apply when a loaded firearm is negligently stored and a child under sixteen gains unauthorized access and uses, threatens with, or discharges it. [6]
Lost or stolen reporting	No general state deadline	Maine imposes no general statewide reporting deadline on ordinary firearm owners. [4]
State preemption	Broad	Maine broadly preempts local firearm regulation while allowing local discharge rules and exact state-law equivalents. [20]
Bill of sale	Not generally required	Maine generally requires no separate bill of sale, but covered sales must follow background-check and waiting-period procedures. [2][3]

Handgun and Rifle/Shotgun Rules in Maine

Maine law treats handguns differently from rifles and shotguns in a few specific places, mainly around age, vehicle carry, and concealed-carry licensing. Topics not listed here, such as private-sale background checks or felony-possession bans, apply the same way to both firearm types.

Topic	Handguns	Rifles & shotguns
Minimum age to buy from a licensed dealer	21	18 [5][26]
Selling or gifting to a minor (private transfer)	Generally prohibited under eighteen outside specific statutory exceptions (Title 17-A Section 554-B)	No comparable state-law minimum age specific to long guns; general age-of-majority and parental-consent norms applyMaine's minor-transfer statute is written specifically around handguns. [5]
Carrying a loaded firearm in a vehicle	Allowed without a permit for an eligible person twenty-one or older, or eighteen for qualifying military members and veterans	Not covered by the loaded-handgun vehicle exception; a loaded rifle or shotgun in a vehicle is generally prohibited subject to hunting, target-shooting, and disability exceptions [14]
Carrying concealed without a permit	Allowed for an eligible person twenty-one or older (eighteen for qualifying military members and veterans) under Title 25 Section 2001-A	Maine's concealed-carry licensing scheme is written around handguns; open carry of any firearm type by a lawful possessor is generally allowed regardless of firearm type [10][1]

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Private Sales and Transfers

Quick answer

A gun-show sale or a sale resulting from a broadly disseminated advertisement generally must go through an FFL for NICS; other qualifying same-state private transfers may remain exempt. [2][27]

The rule covers a sale at a public gun show away from an FFL's permanent premises and a sale resulting from a television, radio, broadly disseminated Internet, newspaper, magazine, handbill, poster, sign, or placard advertisement. The facilitating dealer runs NICS as though the dealer were the seller, must stop the transaction if the buyer is prohibited, and may charge a reasonable fee. [2][27]
The covered-sale rule excludes sales between spouses, domestic partners, parents, stepparents, foster parents, children, stepchildren, foster children, and relatives within the second degree. It also excludes antiques and qualifying curio-or-relic sales between federally licensed collectors. Because the statute defines a sale as a transfer for monetary or other consideration, a true gift is not a covered sale, but state and federal prohibited-person rules still apply. [2][4]
An occasional unadvertised sale between eligible Maine residents may therefore occur without dealer facilitation. Federal law ordinarily requires an interstate transfer to pass through an FFL in the recipient's state, and an unlicensed seller may not transfer a firearm while knowing or having reasonable cause to believe the recipient is prohibited. [25][4]

Determine whether an advertisement or gun-show setting makes the sale covered. [2]
Confirm residency, identity, age, and eligibility and use an FFL when uncertain. [4][25]

Important notice: For a covered sale, the background check and applicable 72-hour delay are separate requirements. [2][3]

Buying a Firearm

Maine requires no permit to purchase and no general owner license. An FFL must complete the federal transaction record and NICS process before transfer, and a covered advertised or gun-show private sale must be routed through an FFL that conducts the same check. [2][3][27]
For a sale that requires a federal or state background check, delivery generally may not occur until 72 hours after buyer and seller reach their agreement. The delay runs at the same time as the background-check process. Sales for which no background check is required are exempt, as are sales to dealers and qualifying sales to law enforcement, corrections, and security personnel; the statute also repeats the family, antique, and licensed-collector exceptions. [3][2]
Maine generally prohibits knowingly selling, giving, lending, or otherwise providing a handgun to someone under eighteen. Exceptions include specified temporary transfers with parental consent or for employment, target practice, hunting, or safety instruction, inheritance of title without possession, military duty, and emergency defensive use. Federal dealers generally may transfer rifles and shotguns at eighteen but handguns and other firearms only at twenty-one. [5][26]

Ownership and Prohibited Persons

Maine bars possession or control by people with specified felony-level convictions, qualifying violent juvenile adjudications, certain domestic-violence convictions, qualifying protective orders, and specified mental-health adjudications. The statute also incorporates several federal categories, including certain unlawful controlled-substance users, people unlawfully present or covered by the nonimmigrant-visa prohibition, dishonorably discharged former service members, and former citizens who renounced citizenship. Maine law says state-law-compliant cannabis use alone may not establish its controlled-substance prohibition, but that does not alter federal law. Bail, probation, and deferred-disposition conditions can impose additional restrictions. [4][7][8]
The duration and route to relief depend on the source of the disability. Maine's listed domestic-violence prohibition generally expires five years after final discharge if there is no new conviction during that period. For certain conviction or juvenile-adjudication disabilities, a person may apply to the Governor after five years for a four-year permit covering a specified firearm, but the statute excludes firearms within the federal definition; the State Police describes this as the prohibited-person black-powder or muzzleloader permit. It is not a concealed-handgun permit or general restoration of ordinary firearm rights. A separate application process addresses qualifying federal mental-health disabilities after five years from final discharge. [4][13]
A family or household member or law enforcement may petition directly for an ERPO based on a significant danger of physical injury; after notice and hearing, an order may prohibit purchase, possession, receipt, custody, or control of dangerous weapons for up to one year. Maine also retains its threat-based process, which begins with protective custody and a medical assessment, creates an initial restriction after judicial endorsement, and permits extended restrictions after a hearing. [7][8]

Concealed and Open Carry

Eligible Maine residents and nonresidents age twenty-one or older may generally carry a handgun concealed without a permit. The minimum is eighteen for active-duty Armed Forces or National Guard members and honorably discharged veterans; other eligible people ages eighteen through twenty need a permit to carry concealed. Maine generally permits open carry by a lawful possessor, but threatening display remains prohibited. [1][10]
A person carrying concealed without a valid permit must immediately tell a law enforcement officer about the handgun at the first contact during an arrest, detention, or routine traffic stop. That statutory notification duty is tied to unlicensed concealed carry; a permit holder should still follow officer instructions and keep the permit available where a location-specific rule requires it. [1][10]
Maine issues resident and nonresident permits to qualified applicants age eighteen or older; permits are valid for four years and generally require a recent handgun-safety course or another accepted demonstration. Maine recognizes only resident permits from states that recognize Maine resident permits. A permit remains useful for travel and for state parks, Acadia National Park, regular archery deer hunting, and the employee-vehicle protection that permitless carry alone does not cover. [1][11][12][17][18]

Self-Defense and the Castle Doctrine in Maine

Quick answer

Maine's constitution protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, and its self-defense statute allows deadly force in defense of a person when reasonably necessary, but generally requires a person to retreat first if they can do so with complete safety -- except when they are in their own dwelling and did not start the confrontation. A criminal-law justification does not by itself protect against a civil lawsuit for the same conduct. [21][22][24]

The Maine Constitution, Article I, Section 16, provides that every citizen has a right to keep and bear arms and that right shall never be questioned. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court has held the provision creates an individual right, subject to the state's reasonable exercise of its police powers. [21]
Title 17-A, Section 108 justifies nondeadly force to defend against imminent unlawful force, and deadly force when the actor reasonably believes it necessary to defend against deadly force, serious bodily injury, kidnapping, or specified sexual assaults. Before using deadly force outside the home, a person generally must retreat, surrender contested property, or comply with a demand if that can be done with complete safety. That retreat requirement does not apply when the person is in their own dwelling place and was not the initial aggressor -- Maine's version of the castle doctrine. [22]
Title 17-A, Section 104 separately addresses defense of premises. Nondeadly force is justified to prevent or end a criminal trespass. Deadly force to defend premises is justified to prevent an arson attempt, or, for a dwelling specifically, either under the Section 108 conditions above or when someone has entered, is entering, or has surreptitiously remained in the dwelling without a claim of right and the occupant reasonably believes the intruder will commit a further crime inside -- generally only after the occupant has demanded the intruder leave, unless making that demand would itself be dangerous. [23]

Important notice: Title 17-A, Section 3 states that Maine's criminal code does not bar, suspend, or otherwise affect any civil right, liability, or remedy, regardless of whether the same conduct is also a crime under the code. Being legally justified in a criminal case does not guarantee protection from a civil lawsuit, and every self-defense situation is fact-specific and high-stakes. Get individualized legal advice before relying on any of this content in an actual confrontation. [24]

Transportation and Vehicles

A person who meets Maine's permitless-carry eligibility and age rules may have a loaded pistol or revolver in or on a motor vehicle. The vehicle exception does not extend to loaded rifles or shotguns. Under the hunting statute, a firearm is loaded when a cartridge or shell is in the chamber or in an attached magazine, clip, or cylinder. [1][14]
A person outside the loaded-handgun exception should transport the firearm unloaded and secured, taking account of school, park, employer, and hunting rules. Maine separately prohibits shooting from a vehicle and generally prohibits a loaded firearm in or on a vehicle, subject to listed hunting, target-shooting, disability, and loaded-handgun exceptions. [14][15][18]
For qualifying interstate travel, federal safe passage protects transportation between places where possession is lawful if the firearm is unloaded and neither it nor ammunition is readily accessible from the passenger compartment; in a vehicle without a separate trunk, they must be in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console. That protection does not authorize carry at the destination or override every stop-related issue. [29]

Restricted Firearms and Magazines

Maine has no general magazine-capacity limit and no state assault-weapon ban covering commonly owned semiautomatic firearms. A separate hunting rule generally bars hunting with an autoloading firearm holding more than five cartridges, with exceptions for .22-caliber rimfire or smaller firearms and autoloading pistols with barrels under eight inches. Migratory-game-bird shotguns are generally limited to three shells in the magazine and chamber combined. [19][20]
Suppressors, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and other NFA firearms are subject to federal registration, transfer, taxation, and approval requirements as applicable. Maine criminalizes machine-gun possession without authority, but expressly exempts machine guns manufactured, acquired, transferred, or possessed in accordance with the federal National Firearms Act; official-duty possession is separately authorized for specified law enforcement and military personnel. [9][20][28]
Federal approval is not a carry permit and does not displace Maine's location, prohibited-person, hunting, or transportation rules. Confirm both the federal classification and the state-law use restrictions before acquiring or transporting an NFA item. [9][4][19][28]

Safe Storage and Reporting

Maine does not impose a universal locked-storage mandate. A person can nevertheless commit child endangerment by criminally negligent storage of a loaded firearm on premises under the person's control when a child under sixteen gains unauthorized access and then uses it recklessly or threateningly, uses it in a crime, or discharges it. The offense is a Class D crime. [6]
The statute provides affirmative defenses when the loaded firearm was in a locked box, gun safe, or other secure locked space; was in a location a reasonable person would consider secure; had a trigger lock or similar device; or was carried on the person or close enough for ready use. Defenses also address defensive access by the child, no reasonable expectation that a child would be present, criminal trespass, and theft. [6]
Maine does not set a general statewide deadline for an ordinary owner to report a firearm lost or stolen. Prompt reporting is still practical because it creates a record and allows law enforcement to enter identifying information; owners should keep the make, model, caliber, and serial number somewhere separate from the firearm. [4]

Restricted Locations and Private Property

A permit does not authorize possession in a courthouse or in a correctional facility or jail, subject to narrow statutory exceptions. Maine also prohibits firearms on public-school and approved-private-school property and discharge within 500 feet of that property, except for law enforcement and limited school-board-authorized educational, range, and hunter-event activities. Federal facilities and the State Capitol area have separate restrictions. [16][15][1]
At an establishment licensed for on-premises alcohol consumption, a conspicuous firearm-prohibition sign has criminal effect. Whether posted or not, possessing a firearm there while under the influence or at an alcohol level of 0.08 or more is prohibited, and holding a concealed-handgun permit is not a defense. [16]
Private property owners may prohibit firearms. State parks generally require a recognized concealed-handgun permit and do not allow open carry under the park rule; Acadia National Park and some wildlife, Baxter State Park, and Allagash locations have additional rules. An employer generally must allow an employee with a valid Maine concealed-handgun permit to keep a firearm out of sight in a locked vehicle, but that protection does not authorize carry where another law prohibits it. [1][17][18]

State Preemption and Local Rules

Title 25, section 2011 occupies the entire field of legislation concerning firearms, components, ammunition, and supplies. Political subdivisions may not independently regulate matters including sale, purchase delays, transfer, ownership, use, possession, carrying, transportation, licensing, registration, or taxation, and conflicting existing or future local rules are void. [20]
A municipality or other political subdivision may regulate firearm discharge within its jurisdiction and may adopt a rule that conforms exactly to applicable state law, apart from appropriate civil penalties. Law enforcement agencies may also regulate the type and use of firearms they issue or authorize for employees. [20]
During a declared state of emergency, state and local actors generally may not restrict otherwise lawful possession, carrying, transfer, transportation, storage, or display; confiscate lawfully possessed firearms except in listed enforcement or defensive circumstances; or create emergency-only registration. The statute preserves a limited exception for commercial sales when an authorized person orders an evacuation or general business closure. [20]

Before Completing a Private Firearm Sale in Maine

Determine whether an advertisement or gun-show setting requires FFL facilitation. [2]
Observe the 72-hour delay when the transaction requires a background check. [3]
Confirm residency, identity, age, and eligibility before every private transfer. [4][5]
Check age, permit, officer-notification, vehicle, and restricted-location rules before carrying. [1]
Complete every applicable federal NFA step before acquiring or transferring an NFA firearm. [9][28]
Secure loaded firearms against child access and retain identifying records separately. [6]

Official Maine Firearm Law Resources

Concealed Carry in Maine

Official permitless-carry ages, officer-notification duty, permits, and vehicle guidance.

Maine State Police

Concealed Handgun Reciprocity

Current list of reciprocal resident permits and state-specific conditions.

Maine State Police

Maine Constitution, Article I, Section 16

State constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

State of Maine

Physical Force in Defense of a Person

Self-defense and deadly-force justification statute, including the dwelling retreat exception.

Maine Legislature

Use of Force in Defense of Premises

Defense-of-premises statute governing nondeadly and deadly force against trespass and arson.

Maine Legislature

Civil Actions Not Barred by the Criminal Code

Confirms criminal-law justification does not bar a separate civil remedy for the same conduct.

Maine Legislature

Private-Sale Background Checks

Covered advertised and gun-show sales and statutory exceptions.

Maine Legislature

72-Hour Waiting Period

Delivery delay, scope, penalties, and exceptions.

Maine Legislature

Extreme Risk Protection Orders

Petitioners, standards, orders, surrender, and return procedures.

Maine Legislature

Child-Access Storage Rule

Loaded-firearm access offense and statutory defenses.

Maine Legislature

Firearm Preemption

State occupation of the field and local exceptions.

Maine Legislature

Maine Gun Law FAQ

Can you carry a concealed gun without a permit in Maine?

Generally yes at age twenty-one if otherwise eligible. Qualifying active-duty, National Guard, and honorably discharged people may do so at eighteen; most other people age eighteen through twenty need a permit.

[1]

Are background checks required for private gun sales in Maine?

They are generally required for sales at gun shows and sales resulting from broadly disseminated advertisements, subject to family, antique, and collector exceptions. Other qualifying intrastate private transfers may be exempt.

[2]

Does Maine have a 72-hour gun waiting period?

Yes for sales that require a background check under federal or state law, with statutory exceptions. The delay runs concurrently with the background-check process.

[3]

Is open carry legal in Maine?

Generally yes for a person who may lawfully possess the firearm, subject to restricted places and conduct rules.

[1][4]

Can you carry a loaded handgun in a vehicle in Maine?

Generally yes at age twenty-one if otherwise eligible, or at eighteen for qualifying active-duty, National Guard, and honorably discharged people. The current vehicle statute does not create a separate loaded-handgun exception merely for holding a concealed-handgun permit, and other transport and hunting rules may apply.

[1][14]

Are suppressors legal in Maine?

Suppressors are generally lawful when federal requirements are satisfied. Maine also exempts machine guns manufactured, acquired, transferred, or possessed in accordance with the federal NFA from its state machine-gun chapter.

[9][28]

Does Maine limit magazine capacity or ban assault weapons?

Maine has no general magazine-capacity limit or assault-weapon ban for commonly owned semiautomatic firearms.

[4][20]

Does Maine have a red flag law?

Yes. Maine provides a direct extreme risk protection order process and also retains its law-enforcement-initiated threat-based restriction, often called the yellow-flag law.

[7][8]

Must firearms be locked up in Maine?

There is no universal lock mandate, but criminal liability can apply when negligent storage lets a child under sixteen access a loaded firearm and use, threaten with, or discharge it. The law lists secure-storage and other defenses.

[6]

Is a bill of sale required for a private gun sale in Maine?

No separate bill of sale is generally required, but covered advertised and gun-show sales must use an FFL, and applicable transactions must observe the waiting period.

[2][3]

Does Maine recognize concealed-carry permits from every state?

No. Maine recognizes a permit issued to a resident of another state only when that state recognizes Maine resident permits. Many adults may carry permitlessly in Maine, but a recognized permit can matter in locations such as state parks and Acadia National Park.

[12][1][17]

Can firearm rights be restored after a Maine conviction?

Only in limited ways under this statute. For certain disabilities, a person may apply to the Governor after five years for a four-year permit covering a specified firearm, but federally defined firearms are excluded; Maine describes this as its prohibited-person black-powder or muzzleloader permit. It is not a concealed-carry permit or general restoration, and separate federal prohibitions may remain.

[4][13]

Does Maine have a stand-your-ground or castle doctrine law?

Maine generally requires a person to retreat before using deadly force in self-defense if that can be done with complete safety, but that duty does not apply inside the person's own dwelling if they were not the initial aggressor. Deadly force to defend a dwelling against an intruder has its own separate rule under the defense-of-premises statute.

[22][23]

Who is prohibited from possessing a firearm in Maine?

Maine bars possession by people with specified felony-level convictions, qualifying violent juvenile adjudications, certain domestic-violence convictions, qualifying protective orders, and specified mental-health adjudications, and it incorporates several federal prohibited-person categories as well. An active ERPO or yellow-flag restriction adds a separate, order-specific prohibition.

[4][7][8]

Can an out-of-state resident buy a gun from a Maine dealer?

Federal law lets a Maine dealer sell a rifle or shotgun directly to an out-of-state resident when the sale is lawful in both Maine and the buyer's home state; a handgun sale to a nonresident generally must instead be completed through an FFL in the buyer's home state. Either way, the same background-check and, for a covered sale, waiting-period rules that apply to a Maine resident's purchase still apply.

[30][3][2]

Do you need to renew a Maine concealed handgun permit?

Yes. A Maine concealed-handgun permit is valid for four years, and a renewal application must be filed with the Maine State Police before it can continue.

[11][1]

Sources

Educational information only, not legal advice.

GunList does not provide legal advice and does not guarantee that this guide covers every law, exception, court ruling, or local ordinance. Laws and court orders can change quickly. Verify current requirements through official government sources or consult a qualified attorney before possessing, carrying, buying, selling, or transporting a firearm, or before relying on any self-defense or castle-doctrine provision.

Reading or using this guide does not create an attorney-client relationship with GunList, and GunList disclaims liability for any loss or harm arising from reliance on this content. A criminal-law justification for using force does not guarantee protection from civil liability; use-of-force outcomes are fact-specific and high-stakes, so consult a qualified attorney before acting.