Washington, D.C. Gun Laws: Complete Guide

Private Sales and Transfers

• The District's registration statute makes it unlawful to possess a firearm without a valid registration certificate, and that requirement effectively forecloses an informal, unregulated private sale between two D.C. residents the way it might work in a permissive state. A seller cannot simply hand a firearm to a buyer; the transfer has to route through a licensed dealer, and the buyer's own registration application must be approved by MPD before the dealer may release the firearm. [4][3][19]
• Section 7-2502.01 lists narrow exceptions to the registration requirement, including qualified law-enforcement and military personnel acting in an official capacity, a nonresident engaged in lawful recreational firearm activity in the District who can show lawful possession in their home state, temporary possession of another person's registered firearm inside the registrant's home or business to prevent imminent harm, and participation in a certified firearms safety class taught by a licensed instructor. None of these exceptions authorizes an ordinary unregulated sale between private individuals. [4]
• An interstate transfer involving a D.C. resident is also subject to the federal rule that a firearm generally must pass through a licensed dealer in the buyer's state of residence, in addition to the District's own registration-approval process. [19]

• Confirm the recipient can obtain MPD registration approval before agreeing to transfer a firearm. [4][6]
• Use a licensed dealer for the transfer; an informal handoff between private D.C. residents does not satisfy the registration statute. [4][19]
• Do not rely on the narrow statutory exceptions (law enforcement, certified training class, temporary in-home possession to prevent harm) to justify an ordinary private sale. [4]

Important notice: A private bill of sale cannot replace licensed-dealer processing, the background investigation, or MPD registration approval required before a covered transfer. [2][3]

Buying a Firearm

• The District does not use a separately named purchase permit or a fixed statutory waiting period, but in practice a buyer cannot take possession of a firearm until MPD approves a registration certificate for that specific firearm, which functions as a mandatory pre-possession screening step. Each firearm is registered individually, so a buyer with multiple firearms files a separate application for each one. [2][6]
• Section 7-2502.02 limits which pistols may be registered at all: outside of organizations that employ armed commissioned security officers, retired MPD officers, and licensed firearms instructors, an ordinary applicant may register a pistol only for self-defense within the applicant's home or place of business or in order to apply for a concealed carry license. Machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, short-barreled rifles, assault weapons, .50 BMG rifles, and unmarked or unserialized firearms cannot be registered by a private individual under any of these categories. [5]
• A registration applicant generally must be twenty-one, pass a background review, and complete a firearms training and safety class (or submit equivalent documentation of comparable out-of-state or military training). Applicants age eighteen through twenty may register a rifle or shotgun only with a notarized statement from a qualifying parent or guardian who assumes civil liability. Federal dealer-age minimums of eighteen for long guns and twenty-one for handguns apply on top of these District rules. [6][20]

• Expect to file a separate MPD registration application, including a background check, for every individual firearm. [2][6]
• Confirm the pistol qualifies for one of the District's limited registration purposes before purchasing it. [5]

Ownership and Prohibited Persons

• Although there is no separate person-only owner license, District and federal law prohibit possession by broad categories of people, and Section 7-2502.03 makes many of the same disqualifiers a basis to deny or revoke a firearm registration. Disqualifiers include any felony conviction, a pending indictment for a crime of violence or weapons offense, specified misdemeanor convictions (drug offenses, assault, threats, stalking, two or more DUI convictions, or intrafamily violence) within the preceding five years, an active civil protection order, and an extreme-risk protection order. [6]
• Mental-health and substance-related disqualifiers also apply: a voluntary or involuntary psychiatric hospitalization, an adjudication of mental incapacity, an insanity acquittal, or an adjudication of chronic alcoholism within the preceding five years can bar registration unless the applicant provides medical certification of recovery. A prior revocation of a District firearm license or registration is an independent disqualifier. [6]
• D.C. Superior Court may also issue an extreme risk protection order (ERPO) on petition by a family or household member, a sworn law-enforcement officer, or a qualifying mental-health professional. A temporary ex parte order can issue on the petitioner's initial showing pending a hearing, and a final order after notice and a hearing can require surrender of firearms and ammunition and bar new registration or purchase while it remains in effect. [13][14]

• A pending felony indictment or a civil protection order can block registration even before any conviction. [6]
• An ERPO respondent must surrender firearms, ammunition, and registration certificates while the order is in effect. [13]

Concealed and Open Carry

• MPD may issue a concealed carry license valid for two years to an applicant who is at least twenty-one, has (or is simultaneously obtaining) a D.C.-registered handgun, is not disqualified for the reasons listed in the Ownership section, and completes MPD-certified training that includes live-fire range instruction. D.C. residents, District business owners, and nonresidents who hold a valid carry license from their home state (or come from a state that does not license concealed carry) may all apply. [7][8]
• Section 22-4506 authorizes concealed carry only; it grants no open-carry privilege, and the Chief of Police may further limit a license by geographic area, circumstance, or time of day before issuing it and may later suspend or revoke it. Open carry is a separate offense in the District even for a valid concealed carry license holder, subject only to narrow statutory exceptions such as carrying while engaged in lawful activity at a firing range or within one's own home or place of business. [8][4]
• The District does not recognize a concealed carry license issued by any other state for a D.C. resident, and even a qualifying nonresident's home-state license only supports applying for a District license rather than carrying directly on the out-of-state credential. A license renewal application is recommended about forty-five days before expiration to avoid a lapse in authorization. [7][8]

• Complete MPD-certified classroom and live-fire range training before applying; online-only training does not satisfy the requirement. [7]
• Do not assume a valid out-of-state license lets a D.C. resident carry in the District; the resident needs a D.C.-issued license. [7][8]
• Do not carry openly, even with a valid concealed carry license, outside the narrow home, business, or range exceptions. [4]

Self-Defense and the Castle Doctrine in Washington, D.C.

• The District of Columbia is not a state and has no state constitution with its own right-to-bear-arms clause. The individual right to keep and bear arms recognized in the District instead rests on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008), which struck down the District's near-total handgun ban and recognized an individual right to possess an operable firearm for self-defense in the home. [16]
• D.C. has no comprehensive statutory justification chapter comparable to many states' penal codes; self-defense standards instead come primarily from case law and jury instructions applied by the D.C. Court of Appeals and Superior Court. A person may use force, including deadly force, when they actually and reasonably believe they are in imminent danger of death or serious bodily harm, but the District follows a 'middle ground' approach: there is no absolute duty to retreat, yet a jury may consider whether the person could have safely retreated when deciding whether the belief in imminent danger was reasonable. [17][18]
• District courts have not squarely adopted a castle doctrine that eliminates any consideration of retreat inside a person's own home. Case law has specifically held that this doctrine does not extend to a confrontation between co-occupants of the same dwelling, such as roommates, so a resident who uses deadly force against another lawful occupant of the same home cannot rely on an in-home no-retreat exception the way a person defending against an intruder might. [17]
• Available sources for this pass did not identify a District statute or reported case squarely addressing deadly force used solely in defense of property, as distinct from defense of a person. Treat any claim of a stand-alone defense-of-property justification for deadly force in D.C. with caution and confirm it with a criminal defense attorney before relying on it. [17][18]

Important notice: A self-defense justification in a criminal case does not automatically protect a person from civil liability for the same conduct. This session's research did not locate a District statute granting civil immunity to a person who used justified self-defense force, unlike some states that pair their self-defense statute with a parallel civil-immunity provision, so treat civil exposure as a live risk even after a successful criminal self-defense claim. 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][18]

Transportation and Vehicles

• A person without a District concealed carry license who transports a firearm by vehicle must keep it unloaded, and neither the firearm nor any ammunition may be readily or directly accessible from the passenger compartment. If the vehicle has no separate compartment (such as a trunk) apart from the driver's compartment, the firearm or ammunition must be secured in a locked container other than the glove compartment or console. [15]
• A valid D.C. concealed carry license holder is exempt from this unloaded, locked-container transport rule when carrying the firearm concealed on their person, but the license's other geographic, time, and restricted-location limits still apply while driving through or stopping in the District. [15][8]

• Without a District carry license, keep the firearm unloaded and inaccessible, and use a locked container if the vehicle lacks a separate trunk compartment. [15]
• Plan routes and stops carefully; the vehicle exception does not authorize carrying into a restricted location once you leave the vehicle. [15][9]

Restricted Firearms and Magazines

• The District defines a large-capacity ammunition feeding device as a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device with a capacity of more than ten rounds, or one that can readily be restored or converted to exceed ten rounds, and generally prohibits possessing one. The only explicit carve-out is a tubular magazine permanently attached to a firearm and designed to function only with .22 caliber rimfire ammunition. [10]
• Section 7-2502.02 bars registering an assault weapon as defined in the Code, along with machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, and short-barreled rifles; because unregistered possession of a firearm is itself unlawful in the District, these categories are effectively prohibited outright for private ownership rather than merely unregisterable on paper. [5][2]
• Federal NFA registration and tax-stamp compliance does not create a District-law exception. A suppressor may be lawfully possessed if it is not itself a prohibited firearm category, but a private individual cannot lawfully register or possess a machine gun, short-barreled rifle, or sawed-off shotgun in the District even after completing the full federal ATF process, because the District's registration bar applies independently of federal approval. [5][21]

• Do not bring a magazine holding more than ten rounds into the District, including one purchased lawfully in another state. [10]
• A federal NFA tax stamp for a machine gun, short-barreled rifle, or sawed-off shotgun does not make possession lawful in the District. [5][21]

Safe Storage and Reporting

• The Code states a general District policy favoring firearms kept unloaded and either disassembled or secured by a trigger lock, gun safe, locked box, or other secure device. A person who knows, or reasonably should know, that a minor is likely to gain access to a firearm without permission must store it in a securely locked box or container, or keep it on their person or within immediate reach, rather than leaving it accessible. [11]
• A basic child-access storage violation is punishable by up to a $1,000 fine and 180 days of imprisonment; if a minor obtains improperly stored access and is injured or killed, the penalty rises to up to $5,000 and five years of imprisonment. The storage duty does not apply where a minor obtains the firearm only through unlawful entry, such as a burglary. [11]
• A registrant must notify MPD in writing immediately upon discovering that a registered firearm or its registration certificate has been lost, stolen, or destroyed, and must return the affected certificate as directed. Separately, a registrant must notify MPD of a change of address or name within thirty days and, when selling or transferring a registered firearm, notify MPD within two business days with the recipient's identifying information. [12]
• Registrant-duty violations carry escalating civil penalties: a $100 fine for a first violation, a $500 fine plus certificate revocation and a five-year firearm-possession bar for a second violation, and a $1,000 fine plus permanent revocation and a permanent possession bar for a third violation. [12]

• Store a firearm locked or disassembled whenever a minor could reasonably gain unauthorized access to it. [11]
• Report a lost or stolen firearm to MPD in writing immediately upon discovery, not merely within a few days. [12]

Restricted Locations and Private Property

• A valid concealed carry license does not authorize carrying everywhere in the District. MPD guidance lists District government buildings and agency offices, schools, colleges, and childcare facilities (including adjacent parking), hospitals and mental-health facilities, correctional and juvenile detention facilities, active polling places, WMATA vehicles and stations, establishments where alcohol is served or sold for on-site consumption, stadiums and arenas, and public gatherings unless the person leaves upon an officer's request or the event is not posted against carry. [9]
• Federal areas add further restrictions layered on top of District law, including the U.S. Capitol grounds, National Mall memorials, the White House Complex, the Naval Observatory, and protected dignitary routes and demonstration areas, each governed by its own federal carry rules. [9]
• On private property, a residence or house of worship is treated as off-limits to a carrying licensee unless the owner affirmatively authorizes it; an ordinary non-residential business, by contrast, permits carry unless it is posted with signage or the owner personally tells the carrier not to bring a firearm in. [9]

• Assume carry is prohibited in any government, school, medical, transit, or alcohol-serving location unless a specific exception applies. [9]
• At a private residence or place of worship, get the owner's affirmative permission before carrying, rather than relying on the absence of a posted sign. [9]

State Preemption and Local Rules

• Washington, D.C. is a single consolidated municipal jurisdiction rather than a state with independently governed cities and counties, so the usual state-versus-local firearm preemption analysis used in most states does not apply here. Firearm law in the District is set by the D.C. Council through Title 7, Chapter 25 and Title 22, Chapter 45 of the D.C. Code, subject to Congressional review and any applicable federal law. [3]
• Because there is no subordinate local government layer, MPD's registration, licensing, and enforcement rules apply uniformly across every District neighborhood; there is no possibility of a more or less permissive rule in one part of the District than another. [3]

• Check the D.C. Code and MPD guidance directly rather than looking for city- or ward-level firearm ordinances, since none exist independent of District-wide law. [3]

Before Completing a Private Firearm Sale in Washington, D.C.

• Confirm your firearm qualifies for registration and file a separate MPD registration application for each one before taking possession. [2][6][5]
• Use a licensed dealer for any private transfer; an informal sale between D.C. residents does not satisfy the registration statute. [4][19]
• Apply for and carry only under an MPD concealed carry license; do not attempt to open carry or rely on an out-of-state license as a D.C. resident. [7][8]
• Without a carry license, keep a vehicle firearm unloaded, inaccessible, and in a locked container if there is no separate trunk compartment. [15]
• Store firearms locked or disassembled whenever a minor could access them, and report any loss or theft to MPD in writing immediately. [11][12]
• Check restricted-location and posted-property rules, including federal areas, before carrying anywhere in the District. [9]

Official Washington, D.C. Firearm Law Resources

Washington, D.C. Gun Law FAQ

Sources

1. 1. Legal FirearmsMetropolitan Police Department. State agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
2. 2. General Requirements for Firearms RegistrationMetropolitan Police Department. State agency. Accessed August 9, 2026.
3. 3. D.C. Code Title 7, Chapter 25, Firearms ControlCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
4. 4. D.C. Code Section 7-2502.01, Registration RequirementsCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
5. 5. D.C. Code Section 7-2502.02, Registration of Certain Firearms ProhibitedCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
6. 6. D.C. Code Section 7-2502.03, Qualifications for RegistrationCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
7. 7. Eligibility Requirements for a Concealed Carry LicenseMetropolitan Police Department. State agency. Accessed August 8, 2026.
8. 8. D.C. Code Section 22-4506, License to Carry a PistolCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
9. 9. Concealed Carry License RestrictionsMetropolitan Police Department. State legal FAQ. Accessed August 8, 2026.
10. 10. D.C. Code Section 7-2506.01, Possession of Unregistered Firearms and AmmunitionCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
11. 11. D.C. Code Section 7-2507.02, Responsibilities Regarding StorageCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
12. 12. D.C. Code Section 7-2502.08, Duties of RegistrantsCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
13. 13. D.C. Code Chapter 25, Subchapter X, Extreme Risk Protection OrdersCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
14. 14. D.C. Code Section 7-2510.01, Extreme Risk Protection Order Definitions and PetitionersCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 9, 2026.
15. 15. D.C. Code Section 22-4504.02, Lawful Transportation of FirearmsCouncil of the District of Columbia. State statute. Accessed August 8, 2026.
16. 16. District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008)Supreme Court of the United States. Federal agency. Accessed August 14, 2026.
17. 17. Self-Defense and Deadly Force in the District of ColumbiaMarkham Legal. State legal FAQ. Accessed August 14, 2026.
18. 18. District of Columbia Self-Defense LawsFindLaw. State legal FAQ. 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.