Last checked 7 October 2026. Memphis is a straightforward place to buy a handgun: no permit, no waiting period, no registration, one ten-dollar state check at the dealer, and the pistol is yours the same day. The parts that trip buyers up are the age rule, the carry rules that changed in 2025, and the state line, because a large share of Memphis buyers live in Mississippi or Arkansas. This guide covers all of it for a purchase made online and collected at a Memphis dealer, or made across the counter.
The purchase: Form 4473 and the TICS check
Every dealer sale in Tennessee, in a shop or an online order collected at a dealer, runs the same federal process: you complete ATF Form 4473 and the dealer runs a background check. Tennessee is a point-of-contact state, so the dealer submits the check to the Tennessee Instant Check System run by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, which also queries the federal NICS databases. The TBI charges ten dollars per transaction, and several firearms on one form still cost one fee. A bill to repeal the fee failed in the 2026 session, so it stands. Most checks return a proceed in minutes; a delay gives the TBI up to three business days before the dealer may release, and the dealer will call you.
Age: twenty-one for handguns, eighteen for long guns
Federal law bars a dealer from selling a handgun to anyone under twenty-one. Court rulings elsewhere and a 2026 federal enforcement memo have put the rule in flux nationally, but it has not been struck down in the circuit that covers Tennessee, and dealers here, including us, still require twenty-one for a handgun. Rifles and shotguns go to buyers of eighteen and over; a long-gun buyer under twenty-one gets an enhanced check that can take up to ten business days to clear.
No permit, no wait, no registry
Tennessee has no purchase permit of any kind, no waiting period and no state registration of firearms; state law prohibits a registry. Once the check clears you take the handgun home. Private sales between Tennessee residents are legal without a background check, although knowingly selling to a prohibited person is a crime and transferring a handgun to a resident of another state must go through a dealer.
Carrying it: the 2025 rule
Tennessee adopted permitless carry in 2021. After the Beeler v. Long litigation, 2025 Public Chapter 513, effective 1 July 2025, codified the current rule: any person eighteen or older who lawfully possesses a handgun and is lawfully present may carry it, openly or concealed, without a permit. The statute covers handguns only. A loaded handgun in your own vehicle is legal for any non-prohibited adult. Carry is still prohibited in schools and at school events, in courthouses and government buildings where posted, and on private property posted against it, so read the signs at Memphis businesses, because many post.
Why Memphis buyers still get the enhanced permit
Two reasons. Reciprocity: many states honour a Tennessee permit but not permitless carry by a visitor, which matters if you drive to Mississippi, Arkansas or beyond. And school zones: the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act exception applies to holders of a state-issued licence, not to permitless carriers, so driving armed within a thousand feet of a school can technically violate federal law without a permit. The enhanced permit is issued by the Tennessee Department of Safety, requires a training course with live fire, and is valid for eight years. What it does not do is replace the purchase background check; the TBI is explicit that Tennessee permits are not a federal Brady alternative, so you pay the ten dollars and run the check every time.
Mississippi and Arkansas residents
A handgun can only be transferred by a dealer in the buyer’s state of residence. If you live in Southaven, Olive Branch, Horn Lake or West Memphis, order here and name a dealer at home; the handgun ships there and you complete the check under your own state’s rules. Rifles and shotguns are different: a Mississippi or Arkansas resident can buy a long gun from a Tennessee dealer in person if the sale is legal in both states, which it normally is. Military personnel stationed in Tennessee buy as residents with their orders.
Memphis ordinances and the 2024 ballot
Tennessee preempts local firearm regulation, so Memphis cannot add its own purchase, carry or storage rules. The three firearm measures Memphis voters approved in November 2024 were advisory and are not enforceable under state law, and the city has not attempted to enforce them. What applies in Memphis is state and federal law and whatever a private business posts at its door.
What to bring to the dealer
- A current government photo ID with your residence address; a Tennessee licence or ID is standard. If the address is out of date, bring a second government document with the current address.
- Ten dollars for the TICS fee, plus the dealer’s transfer fee if the handgun was ordered online and shipped in.
- Patience if the check returns a delay; the dealer cannot release until the TBI proceeds or three business days pass.
Choosing a first handgun in Memphis
Most first handguns here are 9mm compacts, the Glock 19 and 43X, the Sig P365 and P320, the Smith and Wesson M&P Shield and Compact, and the Taurus G3 series for buyers on a budget. The honest advice is to hold three before you order one and to buy a box of defensive ammunition and five boxes of practice ammunition with it. If the handgun is for carry under the 2025 rule, a holster that covers the trigger guard is not optional. If it is for the house, a quick-access safe keeps it away from children and visitors; Tennessee makes it a crime to leave a loaded firearm where a child can reach it and use it.
After the purchase
Keep the receipt; it is the only record of the sale besides the dealer’s own book. Tennessee has no registration, so there is nothing to file. If you later move out of state, the handgun goes with you under the laws of the new state. If you sell it privately to another Tennessean, write a bill of sale with both names and the serial number, even though the law does not require one.