Vermont Gun Laws: Complete Guide

Private Sales and Transfers

• Both the transferor and the proposed transferee must physically appear together before a Vermont licensed dealer who agrees to facilitate the transfer. The dealer must handle it like an ordinary sale from its own inventory, may charge a reasonable fee for the service, and must return the firearm to the transferor if the check shows the recipient is disqualified. Knowingly giving the dealer false information to get around this process is a separate offense. [2]
• The law exempts a defined set of transfers: between law-enforcement officers acting in their duties, to or from active-duty or veteran military members, between immediate family members, and transfers made to prevent imminent bodily harm. "Immediate family member" is defined broadly and includes a spouse, parent, stepparent, child, stepchild, sibling, stepsibling, grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild, step-grandchild, great-grandparent, step-great-grandparent, great-grandchild, and step-great-grandchild — but it does not extend to cousins, in-laws, or friends. Even an exempt transfer remains unlawful if the transferor knows or reasonably believes the recipient is prohibited from possessing firearms. [2][19]
• A dealer who facilitates a transfer in good-faith reliance on the statute receives civil and criminal immunity for the transaction, except for reckless or intentional misconduct. That protection is one reason dealers generally decline to process a transfer that does not clearly fit an exception rather than take on the risk themselves. [2]

• Confirm the recipient's eligibility before relying on the immediate-family or emergency exceptions; the exception does not excuse a transfer to someone the transferor knows is prohibited. [2]
• When in doubt about whether an exception applies, use a licensed dealer rather than risk a transfer that later turns out to require one. [2][19]
• A previously available gun-show carve-out from the companion waiting-period statute expired July 1, 2024, so gun-show sales are now treated like other dealer-facilitated transfers for timing purposes. [3]

Important notice: A bill of sale or other private paperwork does not substitute for the dealer-facilitated background check when the transaction does not fall within a statutory exception. [2]

Buying a Firearm

• Vermont requires no general purchase permit or firearm registry. A transfer that requires a background check under state or federal law cannot be completed until seventy-two hours after NICS supplies the dealer a unique identification number, or seven business days after the dealer initiated the check, whichever happens first. The waiting period applies only to transfers that actually require a check in the first place, so it tracks the same exceptions that apply to the background-check requirement itself. [3][1]
• Vermont generally bars selling or transferring a firearm to anyone under twenty-one. The exceptions are narrow: active or retired law-enforcement officers, active-duty or veteran members of the Vermont National Guard, another state's National Guard, or the U.S. Armed Forces, and people who hold a certificate of completion from a Vermont hunter-safety course or a Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife-approved equivalent course, including out-of-state and Canadian courses. Federal dealer minimums layer on top of the state rule — generally eighteen for rifles and shotguns and twenty-one for handguns and other firearms from a licensed dealer. [4][20]

• A hunter-safety certificate is a narrow age exception tied to §4020, not a general purchase permit for adults twenty-one and older. [4]
• A delayed NICS response is not the same thing as the state's separate seventy-two-hour or seven-business-day waiting period; both can apply to the same transaction. [3]

Ownership and Prohibited Persons

• Vermont has no general owner license. Its core firearm-possession disability is narrower than a blanket felon-possession ban: §4017 bars possession only by a person convicted of a defined "violent crime," which includes a specific list of Vermont offenses (with some carve-outs, such as certain DUI, negligent-operation, and hit-and-run convictions), sexual-exploitation-of-children offenses, specified drug-trafficking offenses, and comparable out-of-state or federal convictions that independently trigger a federal firearms disability. Antique firearms, as statutorily defined, fall outside the prohibition. Federal law is broader — it bars possession by any person convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, not just a defined list of violent offenses — so someone who is not disqualified under Vermont's narrower rule can still be federally prohibited. [5]
• Section 4017 contains no built-in procedure for restoring firearm rights after a qualifying conviction. Anyone seeking relief needs to independently confirm whether a pardon or another lawful basis under Vermont law removes the state disability, and separately confirm whether federal law still applies based on the underlying conviction — completing a sentence or probation does not, by itself, restore firearm rights under either system. [5]

• Vermont and federal law prohibit firearm possession by specified people, including people convicted of qualifying violent offenses or subject to applicable court orders. [5]
• An extreme risk protection order (ERPO) can independently require temporary relinquishment even for someone with no disqualifying conviction. [12][13]

Concealed and Open Carry

• Vermont has carried permitless open and concealed carry longer than almost any other state and never adopted a licensing system for it. A person who may lawfully possess a firearm may generally carry it openly or concealed anywhere carry is not otherwise restricted, without applying for any state credential. Because there is no Vermont-issued license, Vermont has no reciprocity agreements to offer other states, and a Vermont resident traveling elsewhere must rely on that other state's own permitless-carry rule, if any, or obtain a nonresident license from a state that issues one. [1]
• Carry itself is not criminalized by manner; §4003 instead criminalizes carrying a dangerous or deadly weapon with intent to injure another, which is a felony carrying up to ten years if the intent extends to multiple people. This means Vermont's carry framework is built around unlawful intent and location restrictions rather than a licensing requirement — a person carrying for ordinary lawful self-defense purposes is not violating §4003, but the same firearm carried with intent to injure is a serious crime regardless of whether it is open or concealed. [7]

• There is no minimum carry age set by a Vermont license, since no license exists; general prohibited-person, minor-possession, and parental-consent rules still govern who may lawfully carry. [1]
• Some hunting seasons and wildlife-management-area rules add their own carry and loaded-firearm restrictions that are separate from the general carry statute. [1]

Self-Defense and the Castle Doctrine in Vermont

• Chapter I, Article 16 of the Vermont Constitution states "that the people have a right to bear arms for the defence of themselves and the State," while also cautioning against standing armies and affirming civilian control of the military. [16]
• 13 V.S.A. Section 2305 provides that a person is guiltless for killing or wounding another in the just and necessary defense of the person's own life or the life of any other person, or if the person reasonably believed deadly force was necessary to repel imminent peril in the forceful suppression of a person attempting murder, sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, burglary, or robbery. The statute expressly preserves any additional defenses available at common law rather than replacing them. [17]
• Vermont has no codified stand-your-ground statute and no statutory presumption tied to an occupied home, vehicle, or workplace like Texas's. Instead, the state's courts have held as a matter of case law that a person who is otherwise justified in using force has no duty to retreat before doing so. Because that rule comes from judicial decisions rather than a specific statute, its exact contours (for example, whether it is qualified inside versus outside the home) are less fixed in text than in a state with a codified castle-doctrine statute. [17]

• Vermont's justifiable-homicide statute is written narrowly around imminent peril to life or serious bodily harm; it is not a general license to use deadly force to protect property alone. [17]
• 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. [17]

Important notice: Unlike some states, Vermont has no statute located this pass that expressly states a criminal-law self-defense justification does not affect civil liability for the same conduct. That silence cuts the other way from Texas's Penal Code Section 9.06: general tort principles govern instead, so a person found justified (or never charged) in a criminal case can still face a civil lawsuit over the same incident and would need to raise self-defense as a defense in that separate case. [17]

Transportation and Vehicles

• A handgun may generally be carried in a vehicle, loaded or unloaded, by a person who may lawfully possess it, subject to the same unlawful-intent and location rules that apply to carry generally. Long guns are treated differently: it is generally unlawful to carry or possess a rifle, air rifle, or shotgun with a loaded cartridge, shell, or other projectile in the chamber, mechanism, or an attached magazine or clip while in or on a mechanically propelled vehicle on the right-of-way of a public highway, and the same rule extends to a charged and primed muzzleloader. [10]
• A person carrying a rifle, crossbow, or shotgun in a vehicle on a public highway right-of-way must exhibit it for examination on demand of an enforcement officer so compliance can be checked. A narrow disability exception allows a licensed hunter who is paraplegic or physician-certified as disabled, and who holds a permit from the Commissioner of Fish and Wildlife, to keep a loaded long gun in a vehicle for hunting purposes. [10]

• Unload a rifle or shotgun's chamber and detach or empty its magazine before driving with it on a public road unless the disability-permit exception applies. [10]
• A loaded handgun carried in a vehicle is governed by the general carry rules, not the long-gun vehicle statute. [10][1]

Restricted Firearms and Magazines

• Vermont bans manufacturing, importing, purchasing, receiving, and most transfers of a "large capacity ammunition feeding device" — a magazine, belt, drum, or similar device holding more than ten rounds for a long gun or more than fifteen rounds for a handgun. Continued possession of a device lawfully acquired before the law's effective date is grandfathered, and a licensed dealer could transfer pre-existing inventory acquired before April 11, 2018 through October 1, 2018 under a now-expired transition window. Statutory exceptions also cover government and law-enforcement use, security use at nuclear facilities, dealer manufacture or import for testing, repair, or out-of-state commerce, out-of-state residents transporting a device for an organized shooting competition, and devices designed for .22 rimfire ammunition or for lever-action, bolt-action, antique, or curio-and-relic firearms. [6]
• Vermont has no assault-weapon ban and adds no state licensing or registration burden on top of federal law for suppressors, short-barreled rifles or shotguns, or machine guns; §4010 addresses suppressors directly and does not impose restrictions beyond the federal framework. Federal National Firearms Act registration, tax-stamp, and transfer requirements still control for every NFA-regulated item, and Vermont's magazine-capacity limit applies independently of whether a firearm is otherwise NFA-regulated. [9][21]

• A magazine's exemption for .22 rimfire or lever/bolt-action, antique, or curio-and-relic use is narrow — check the device's actual design and caliber before assuming it qualifies. [6]
• Federal approval of an NFA item does not authorize carrying it in a restricted location or possessing it while otherwise prohibited under Vermont law. [21][5]

Safe Storage and Reporting

• Vermont's negligent-storage law does not require every firearm to be locked at all times. It instead creates criminal exposure when a person stores or leaves a firearm in a place they knew or should have known a child under eighteen or another prohibited person was likely to gain access, and that person then gains access and uses the firearm to commit a crime or displays it in a threatening manner (a misdemeanor), or uses it to cause death or serious bodily injury (a felony carrying up to five years). Storing the firearm in a locked container or with a tamper-resistant lock or comparable safety device is the way to avoid liability under the statute. [11]
• Vermont sets no general statewide deadline for an ordinary owner to report a firearm as lost or stolen. A prompt report to law enforcement is still worthwhile — it places the serial number in law-enforcement systems, can help law enforcement recover the firearm, and documents that the owner was not the one who transferred it if it later turns up in someone else's possession. [1]

• Use a locked container or an attached tamper-resistant lock whenever a child or a person known to be prohibited could reasonably access the firearm. [11]
• Keep serial numbers, photographs, and purchase records separate from the firearm so they survive a theft. [11]

Restricted Locations and Private Property

• Schools carry the most detailed statutory restriction outside the general carry rules. It is generally unlawful to knowingly possess a firearm or a dangerous or deadly weapon inside a school building or on a school bus, and separately unlawful to knowingly possess one anywhere on school property with intent to injure another person — the two offenses carry different, and increasingly severe, penalties for a first versus a later offense. Law-enforcement officers acting in their official duties are exempt, and a school board (or a superintendent or principal it delegates authority to) may authorize possession or use of a weapon on a specific occasion or for instructional purposes, such as a hunter-safety class or ceremonial event. [8]
• Courthouses, federal facilities, correctional facilities, and other government buildings can impose their own possession restrictions independent of the general carry statute; check the specific facility's posted rules or governing law before bringing a firearm inside. Posted private property may exclude firearms as a matter of trespass law, and a person who continues to carry after being told to leave, or who otherwise carries with unlawful intent, is subject to the state's carrying-with-intent-to-injure statute regardless of whether the location is otherwise open to carry. [7][1]

• A school board's authorization for a specific occasion is not blanket permission to carry on school property generally — it is limited to what the board, superintendent, or principal actually approved. [8]
• Hunting on posted or restricted land has its own separate access and season rules layered on top of general carry and trespass law. [1]

State Preemption and Local Rules

• Vermont's local-preemption structure is narrower than the broad, single-statute preemption found in many states. 24 V.S.A. §2295 bars a town, city, or incorporated village from directly regulating hunting, fishing, and trapping, or the possession, ownership, transportation, transfer, sale, purchase, carrying, licensing, or registration of traps, firearms, ammunition, or their components — and that rule overrides any conflicting municipal charter. That preemption, however, is expressly subject to one carve-out. [15]
• 24 V.S.A. §2291(8) preserves a municipality's power to regulate or prohibit the use or discharge — not possession — of firearms within the municipality or specified areas of it. A discharge ordinance adopted under that power must be consistent with §2295 and cannot prohibit, reduce, or limit discharge at an existing sport shooting range. In practice, this means a Vermont town can pass a local discharge ordinance (for example, restricting shooting within a village center) without violating state preemption, but it cannot pass its own purchase, carry, or registration rule. [14][15]

• Check for a local discharge ordinance before assuming state law is the only rule that applies to shooting on a given property. [14]
• A municipal charter provision that conflicts with §2295 does not survive it — the state statute controls. [15]

Before Completing a Private Firearm Sale in Vermont

• Confirm whether a private transfer falls within a statutory exception before skipping the dealer-facilitated background check. [2]
• Build the seventy-two-hour or seven-business-day waiting period into the timing of any covered transfer. [3]
• Verify the recipient's age and any hunter-safety exception before transferring a firearm to someone under twenty-one. [4]
• Unload the chamber and magazine of a rifle or shotgun before carrying it in a vehicle on a public highway. [10]
• Check magazine capacity and grandfathering status before acquiring or transferring a magazine. [6]
• Store firearms securely wherever a child or prohibited person could reasonably gain access. [11]

Official Vermont Firearm Law Resources

Vermont Gun Law FAQ

Sources

1. 1. Vermont Statutes Title 13, Chapter 85, WeaponsVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
2. 2. 13 V.S.A. Section 4019, Firearms Transfers; Background ChecksVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
3. 3. 13 V.S.A. Section 4019a, Firearms Transfers; Waiting PeriodVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
4. 4. 13 V.S.A. Section 4020, Sale of Firearms to Persons Under 21Vermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
5. 5. 13 V.S.A. Section 4017, Persons Prohibited from Possessing Firearms; Conviction of Violent CrimeVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
6. 6. 13 V.S.A. Section 4021, Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding DevicesVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
7. 7. 13 V.S.A. Section 4003, Carrying Dangerous WeaponsVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
8. 8. 13 V.S.A. Section 4004, Possession of Dangerous or Deadly Weapon in a School Bus or School Building or on School PropertyVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
9. 9. 13 V.S.A. Section 4010, Gun SuppressorsVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
10. 10. 10 V.S.A. Section 4705, Loaded Rifles or Shotguns in Vehicles on Public HighwaysVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
11. 11. 13 V.S.A. Section 4024, Negligent Firearms StorageVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
12. 12. Extreme Risk Protection OrdersVermont Judiciary. State agency. Accessed August 9, 2026.
13. 13. 13 V.S.A. Section 4053, Extreme Risk Protection OrdersVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
14. 14. 24 V.S.A. Section 2291, Enumeration of PowersVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
15. 15. 24 V.S.A. Section 2295, Regulation of Hunting, Fishing, Trapping, and FirearmsVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
16. 16. Vermont Constitution, Chapter I, Article 16Vermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 14, 2026.
17. 17. 13 V.S.A. Section 2305, Justifiable HomicideVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 14, 2026.
18. 18. 13 V.S.A. Section 4008, Possession of Firearms by ChildrenVermont General Assembly. State statute. Accessed August 14, 2026.
19. 19. Firearms Questions and Answers: Unlicensed PersonsBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
20. 20. Minimum Age for Gun Sales and TransfersBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
21. 21. National Firearms ActBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.