Firearm Bill of Sale | 18 U.S.C. 922(d) Compliant Form

A firearm bill of sale is a private contract recording the sale or trade of a gun between two people who are not federally licensed dealers. It names seller and buyer, describes the weapon by manufacturer, model, caliber or gauge, and serial number, states the consideration exchanged, and fixes the date of delivery. Most versions also carry a signed declaration by the buyer that no category in 18 U.S.C. §922(d) applies to him, plus an as-is disclaimer cutting off implied warranties under UCC §2-316.

Separate it from three things people confuse it with. An ATF Form 4473 is a federal record created by a licensed dealer, kept on the dealer's premises and never handed to the buyer; the bill of sale belongs to the parties, not the government. A gun trust is an estate-planning instrument for items regulated under the National Firearms Act, not a transfer receipt. And an ordinary general bill of sale for vehicles, boats, and household property carries no prohibited-person attestation and no acknowledgment of state transfer rules, which leaves the seller exposed on the only points that matter.

Federal law is built around a knowledge standard, not a paperwork standard. 18 U.S.C. §922(d) makes it an offense to sell or dispose of a firearm to any person the seller knows or has reasonable cause to believe is prohibited: felony conviction or pending indictment, fugitive status, unlawful use of a controlled substance, adjudication as a mental defective, unlawful presence in the country, dishonorable discharge, renounced citizenship, a qualifying domestic violence restraining order, or a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives publishes the statutory list of persons prohibited from receiving firearms, worth reading before you agree to meet a stranger.

Three further provisions bite in a private sale. §922(a)(5) bars an unlicensed person from transferring a firearm to anyone the seller knows or has reasonable cause to believe resides in a different state, with narrow carve-outs for bequests and temporary loans during lawful sporting use. §922(x) prohibits handgun transfers to anyone under 18. And §922(a)(1)(A) requires a license from anyone engaged in the business of dealing, a phrase Congress rewrote in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to reach sellers whose purpose is predominantly to earn a profit. The 2024 ATF rule interpreting that phrase was vacated in full by a federal court, so the statutory text governs alone, but the statute itself was never struck down. Repeated sales for profit still require a federal firearms license.

Nothing in federal law obliges a private seller to keep a record. The retention duties in §923(g) bind licensees only, which leaves the bill of sale as the only documentary proof most sellers will ever hold.

The core case is still the face-to-face sale between two residents of the same state, in the roughly half of the country where no dealer involvement is required. Nothing else in that transaction generates a paper trail, so the document is all that stands between the seller and an open question about who had the gun last. Estate transfers come second. When a shotgun passes to a son under a will, §922(a)(5) permits the interstate move as a bequest, but the executor still wants a dated instrument showing what left the estate and when, particularly where a last will and testament names the firearm as a specific gift.

Trades belong here too: two collectors swapping rifles at a club are each simultaneously seller and buyer, and one document signed both ways records both directions. Divorce is the fourth situation. Property settlements routinely assign firearms to one spouse, and judges handling divorce and marital property disputes want the handover documented. Never hand a firearm to a spouse subject to an active protective order, whatever the settlement says, because that transfer is a federal offense under §922(d)(8).

One edge case earns its own line. A Nevada seller dealing with a California buyer cannot close in person; the gun moves through a California dealer, and the bill of sale documents the seller-to-dealer leg that no dealer file describes.

• Full identification of both parties, with legal names as printed on a government photo ID, residential street addresses, and dates of birth. Post office boxes are excluded, since residency under §922(a)(5) turns on where each party actually lives.
• A firearm description block covering manufacturer, importer where one appears, model, type, caliber or gauge, barrel length, and the serial number transcribed exactly as it reads on the receiver. Transposition errors are the commonest defect in homemade versions, and a wrong serial makes the document useless for tracing.
• The buyer's prohibited-person certification, tracking the categories of §922(d) one by one rather than a blanket sentence saying the buyer may lawfully own a gun. Itemized denials are harder to retract later.
• A residency and identification acknowledgment in which the buyer states the issuing state of the ID presented and the seller records that it was examined and matched. This answers the reasonable-cause question if a prosecutor asks what the seller knew.
• An as-is, no-warranty disclaimer drafted to UCC §2-316, disclaiming merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose, with the buyer's acknowledgment of inspection and acceptance.
• A dealer transfer block recording whether the transaction ran through a licensed dealer and, if so, the dealer's name, license number, and the date the check cleared. In dealer-transfer states this is the compliance record.

California routes essentially every private-party transfer through a licensed dealer under Cal. Penal Code §27545, using the Dealer's Record of Sale system run by the Department of Justice. The buyer needs a Firearm Safety Certificate, waits out the ten days imposed by §26815, and in most cases may acquire one handgun per 30-day period under §27535. A bill of sale substitutes for none of that; it sits alongside the DROS paperwork as the parties' own record of condition and date. A private California sale completed outside a dealer is a criminal offense for both parties, whatever the paperwork says.

Washington subjects every sale or transfer to a background check under RCW 9.41.113, sales between unlicensed persons included, with exemptions for gifts within the immediate family and short loans that stay in the transferor's presence. Ten days must pass before delivery. The permit-to-purchase system created by House Bill 1163 takes effect May 1, 2027, making a State Patrol permit a precondition to any dealer delivery.

Colorado requires the unlicensed seller to arrange a background check through a licensed dealer under C.R.S. §18-12-112, with exemptions for certain family transfers and loans under 72 hours, and imposes a three-day wait under C.R.S. §18-12-115. Senate Bill 25-003 now conditions the purchase or transfer of a specified semiautomatic firearm on a sheriff-issued eligibility card and a state-recognized safety course.

New York channels private sales through a dealer background check under General Business Law §898, exempting only spouses, domestic partners, children, and step-children. Handguns require a pistol license under Penal Law §400.00, which must then be amended to list the weapon, and since the Concealed Carry Improvement Act a license is also needed to take possession of a semiautomatic rifle.

The form opens with the state where the transfer physically takes place, and that one answer reshapes everything after it. Choose California, Washington, Colorado, or New York and the template inserts the dealer transfer block, the waiting period, and the local citation; choose a state with no private-transfer statute and those fields drop away. Next come the parties, each side's state of residence asked separately so the interstate problem surfaces before anyone reaches a signature line.

The firearm description follows, one screen per gun, so a package sale of three rifles produces three blocks instead of a cramped single line. Serial entry is confirmed twice. You then pick the consideration: cash, straight trade, trade plus difference, or gift, and the as-is language adjusts to match. The last screen handles execution, with an optional notary jurat and a witness block for states where either adds evidentiary weight. Output arrives in Word and PDF, filed beside any other personal legal documents prepared for use in the United States.

The most frequent error is treating the bill of sale as a background check. It is a record, not a screen, and in a dealer-transfer state, signing one and walking away is a crime however thorough the paperwork looks. Willful blindness comes second. Sellers who notice a buyer acting strangely, mentioning a recent arrest, or pushing hard for a fast cash deal sometimes decide not to ask, but §922(d) runs on reasonable cause, and a jury can find it in facts the seller ignored. Walking away from a sale that feels wrong costs nothing; completing it can cost ten years.

Serial number errors come third, and they are nearly always transcription problems: a zero read as the letter O, a five as an S. Photograph the serial, then type it. Fourth is the casual interstate sale at a gun show near a state line, where both parties assume the show's location settles residency. It does not. Businesses holding firearms as company property need a corporate resolution alongside the bill of sale, which is where company formation and corporate governance templates earn their place.