Inherited Guns in Georgia: What to Do and Who to Call

If someone in your family has died and left guns behind, there is usually less to do right away than people fear. Ordinary rifles, shotguns and handguns are not registered with the federal government, and most of them can pass to family in Georgia without going through a dealer. The two things that change that are suppressors and other NFA items, and anyone in the family who is not allowed to have a gun.

This guide covers what federal and Georgia law say about each step, with a link to the law itself. It is general information, not legal advice. An estate attorney can advise on your family’s situation, and should be your first call if anything below does not fit it.

What to do with inherited guns in the first few weeks

Nothing in the laws below sets a deadline for ordinary guns, so there is time to do this calmly.

1. Keep them where they are, locked up. A safe that has held them for years is still the best place for them while the estate is sorted out.
2. Write down what is there. Make, model, serial number and a rough description of each one. A phone photo of each gun next to its serial number is enough. The list makes every conversation after this one shorter.
3. Set aside anything that looks different. A suppressor, a rifle or shotgun with a very short barrel, or anything that fires more than one shot per trigger pull falls under separate federal rules, covered below. Leave those where they are until you have read that section.
4. Find out who the executor is. If there is a will, it may name one. The executor is the person the rules below talk about.

Is an inherited gun registered anywhere?

Usually not. ATF, the federal agency that regulates guns, says only firearms covered by the National Firearms Act must be registered with ATF, and that registration may otherwise come from state or local law. Georgia law bars counties and cities from regulating the possession, ownership, transfer, sale or registration of firearms. In the Georgia firearms and probate laws we checked, we found no step an heir takes to register or report an inherited gun.

So for a family with ordinary guns, there is no gun registration form to file because a gun changed hands in a will.

Passing guns to family in Georgia

Federal law lets a person transfer a firearm to an unlicensed resident of their own state, as long as they do not know or have reasonable cause to believe that person is prohibited from having guns. When both people live in the same state, ATF says the federal law does not require any record keeping and a dealer does not have to be involved.

In practice, that means an executor in Georgia can hand a father’s deer rifle to his daughter in Georgia without a dealer, if she is allowed to have it.

If the heir lives in another state

Normally, federal law does not let an unlicensed person give a gun to someone who lives in another state. Inheritance is a named exception. The rule does not apply to a transfer made to carry out a bequest, or an inheritance without a will, to someone who is allowed to have that gun under the laws of the state they live in (18 U.S.C. 922(a)(5)(A)). A second part of the same law lets an heir bring the gun home to their own state, if it is lawful for them to buy or have it there (18 U.S.C. 922(a)(3)(A)). ATF describes the same exception in its answers for unlicensed people.

The heir’s home state may have its own rules on top of that, and state gun laws differ a lot, so the heir’s own state law is worth checking before the gun travels.

If someone in the family cannot legally have a gun

The inheritance rules above only help an heir who is allowed to have a gun. Federal law makes it unlawful for anyone, an executor included, to sell or otherwise dispose of a firearm to someone they know or have reasonable cause to believe is prohibited (18 U.S.C. 922(d)). The prohibited groups in 18 U.S.C. 922(g) include people convicted of a crime punishable by more than a year in prison, people convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, people under certain protective orders, and unlawful users of controlled substances, among others.

Georgia adds its own rules. A person convicted of a felony who receives, possesses or transports a firearm commits a felony (O.C.G.A. 16-11-131), and so does anyone who knowingly and intentionally provides a firearm to a convicted felon or a felony first offender on probation (O.C.G.A. 16-11-113).

Children and grandchildren under 18 are a separate case. In Georgia, a person under 18 generally may not possess a handgun, with listed exceptions such as a hunter education course, licensed hunting, and property controlled by a parent, guardian or grandparent with a parent’s or guardian’s permission (O.C.G.A. 16-11-132). Federal law allows a transfer by inheritance of title, but not possession, of a handgun to a juvenile (18 U.S.C. 922(x)(3)(C)). What that means for your family, and who holds the gun until then, is a question for the estate’s attorney.

Suppressors and other NFA items are different

Suppressors, short-barreled rifles and shotguns, and machine guns fall under the National Firearms Act, and each one is registered to its owner with ATF. They follow their own rules when the owner dies.

• The executor holds them during probate. Federal rules let the executor possess a firearm registered to a decedent during the term of probate without that counting as a transfer. No later than the close of probate, the executor must apply to transfer it (27 CFR 479.90a).
• To an heir, on ATF Form 5. When the item goes to a beneficiary of the estate, the executor files ATF Form 5, the tax-exempt transfer form, with proof of their appointment as executor, a copy of the death certificate and a copy of the will if there is one.
• Outside the family, on ATF Form 4. If no one in the family wants it, the executor disposes of it outside the estate on ATF Form 4.
• Nothing moves until ATF approves. The NFA rules say no firearm may be transferred until the application is filed and approved (27 CFR 479.84). Until then, the item stays with the executor.

Georgia’s own law is written around the registered owner. It generally prohibits possessing a silencer, and makes an exception for a person who has registered it under the National Firearms Act (O.C.G.A. 16-11-122 and 16-11-124). We found no Georgia text on an executor holding one during probate, so that is a good question for the estate’s attorney.

Lakeside is a suppressor dealer and handles NFA paperwork at our counter. If a suppressor shows up in the safe, call us before it goes anywhere, and we will talk through what the executor is looking at.

Selling some or all of the guns

A family may keep a gun or two and sell the rest. Federal law gives two ways to sell.

To a licensed dealer. ATF says a person may transfer a firearm to a licensee in any state. The dealer is the buyer, and when the dealer sells the gun on, Georgia law makes every transfer by a licensed dealer subject to the federal background check system (O.C.G.A. 16-11-172).

To another Georgia resident, privately. Federal law allows it with no federal record keeping between two residents of the same state. The rule that matters is the one above: the seller may not sell to someone they know or have reasonable cause to believe is prohibited. With a private sale, that judgment is on the family.

	To a licensed dealer	To another Georgia resident, privately
Where it works	In any state	Between two residents of the same state
Paperwork	Georgia law puts the dealer’s later sale of the gun through the federal background check	No federal record keeping
Who judges the buyer	The background check	The family
What it takes	One visit and one agreed number	Finding each buyer yourself

That is the honest trade-off. A private sale puts the family in charge of finding each buyer and judging them. A dealer means one visit and one agreed number, and a stranger’s eligibility is never your call.

Getting the guns to the shop

In Georgia, anyone who is not prohibited from having a gun may have a handgun or long gun inside their own motor vehicle (O.C.G.A. 16-11-126). Unloaded and cased or wrapped, in the trunk or the back of the car, is the simplest way to bring a collection in.

If a safe full of guns is more than you want to load up yourself, you do not have to. You can bring the firearms to our store, or we can travel to locations in the Southeast.

How Lakeside helps a family with a collection

Our shop is at 211 Atlanta Rd in Cumming. When a family reaches out about an estate, this is what we do:

• You email us the list first. Send info@lakesidemunitions.com a list of the firearms, with serial numbers, details and accessories, and a price if you have one in mind.

• We appraise the whole collection. We use a national average calculation, then agree the number with you before anything else happens.

• We make an offer on the guns we can buy. We may not buy every gun in a collection, and we will tell you which ones we can.

• We pay cash on site. For the guns we buy, you are paid in cash on site. For any guns the family keeps, we help you understand what they are worth.

• Every firearm is handled by the book. Every gun that comes through the shop is handled legally and logged the way federal law requires of a licensed dealer.

We also work with several local estate sale companies, so tell us if one is already helping your family.

What to put in the email

None of this is required, but it makes the first conversation shorter:

• A rough count, and whether they are mostly rifles, shotguns or handguns
• Your written list: make, model and serial number for each gun, plus any details and accessories
• Whether anything looks like a suppressor or another NFA item
• Who the executor is
• Which guns, if any, the family wants to keep, so we can help you understand their value
• A price, if you have one in mind

Nobody expects you to know what the guns are, or what they are worth. Working that out is our job.