Michigan Gun Laws/Restrictions

Code Sections

MI Penal Code Chapter 750, sections 222 through 239 and Michigan Complied Laws Chapter 28, section 422.

Types of Illegal Firearms

Possession, sale, transfer, or manufacture of the below firearms is illegal:

• Machine guns
• Automatic weapons
• Silencers
• Mufflers
• Short-barreled shot guns (except as permitted by federal law).
• Short-barreled rifles (except as permitted by federal law).
• Armor-piercing ammunition.

A person who possesses an illegal firearm may face felony prosecution resulting in imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to $2,500 or both.

Waiting Period Before Purchase

• None

Who May Not Own Guns

Michigan prohibits several different categories of individuals from owning or possessing pistols:

• Persons must be at least 18 years old to purchase a rifle or shotgun; and at least 21 years old to purchase a handgun/pistol.
• Convicted felons (individuals may have their gun ownership rights restored after certain conditions are met).
• Individuals who have been declared insane and their sanity has not been restored by court order.
• Individuals under order for commitment due to mental illness.

Laws Prohibiting Firearms On or Near School Grounds

• Misdemeanor - MI Penal Code Chapter 750, section 237a

Other Prohibited Activities Related to Firearms

• Purchasing, carrying, possessing, or transporting a pistol without a license.

No permit is required for the purchase of a rifle or shotgun.

No rifle or shotgun may be sold to a minor under 18 years of age; or handgun to a someone under 21 years of age.

No rifle, shotgun or handgun may be sold to a convicted felon, or a person under indictment.

To purchase a handgun from a private individual, the buyer must obtain a license to purchase from the chief of police if the buyer lives in a city or the county sheriff if he lives in an area without an organized police department. The buyer must be 18 years of age, a U.S. citizen, a resident of Michigan, have no felony conviction, have never been adjudged insane (unless later restored by court order). If a individual purchases a pistol from a Federal Firearms Dealer, a License to Purchase is not required. However, a pistol sales record must be completed and the seller's FFL number must be recorded on that form.

The license to purchase must be filled out in triplicate at the time of purchase. The license shall include a description of the handgun sold and the signatures of both the buyer and seller. The seller may retain one copy and the buyer retains a copy, and the last copy is reserved for the Michigan State Police. After purchase and delivery of the handgun is completed, the buyer must return the license to purchase along with the purchased handgun, unloaded and encased or trigger locked, to the local licensing (law enforcement) authority within 30 days.

One copy of the license will be held by the local authority for six years and the remaining copy shall be forwarded to the Commissioner of State Police. The license, once issued, becomes void if not used within 30 days. A valid Michigan CCW holder is exempt from license to purchase requirement, however is still subject to the registration requirements and a criminal background (NICS) check.

• Machine guns
• Automatic weapons
• Short-barreled shot guns (except as permitted by federal law).
• Short-barreled rifles (except as permitted by federal law).

A person who possesses an illegal firearm may face felony prosecution resulting in imprisonment for up to five years or a fine of up to $2,500 or both.

State Statute or Definition: (750.224a Definition: Portable device/weapon directing electrical current.)

• Device capable of electro-muscular disruption must contain identification and tracking system that is traceable to the purchaser through the manufacturer.
• Concealed pistol license and Michigan training certificate required. Must be purchased from, and trained by an authorized Michigan Taser dealer.

• Devices made or adapted to muffle the report of firearm (firearm silencers).
• Armor-piercing ammunition.

•  Defense Sprays are restricted to 1.2oz (35 gram) container size.

No state permit is required to possess a rifle or shotgun (see the "Carrying" section below for regulations as to where you can and cannot carry a concealed firearm).

It is unlawful to carry a handgun concealed on or about one’s person or concealed or openly in a vehicle without a license to carry a concealed pistol.

Michigan only honors Resident Permits from states they honor.

A Michigan license is not required:

• To transport a pistol unloaded and in a container in a trunk of a vehicle or, if the vehicle has no trunk, the pistol is in a container and is not readily accessible to the occupants of the vehicle, provided that the pistol is being transported for a "lawful purpose"¹.
• To carry in one’s dwelling house or place of business or on one’s own land.
• Carrying an antique firearm, unloaded and in a container in the trunk of a vehicle.
• When a person who is licensed to carry a concealed pistol in the state of his residence, except where the pistol is carried in nonconformance with a restriction appearing on the license.
• When a person is a law enforcement officer.

In order to transport or possess rifles and shotguns in a motor vehicle, Michigan law requires that they be unloaded and be one or more of the following: broken down, enclosed in a case, carried in the trunk of the vehicle, or inaccessible from the interior of the vehicle.

An application for a license to carry a concealed pistol must be made under oath, in the presence of the clerk of the county of the applicant’s residence. The applicant must submit a passport quality photograph. In addition, the applicant must have two sets of fingerprints made by the county sheriff, and submit these with the application. The sheriff may charge up to fifteen ($15.00) dollars for the fingerprints. The application fee is one hundred five ($105.00) dollars. If the applicant is not a prohibited person, the county concealed weapon licensing board shall issue the license within forty-five (45) days after the receipt of the fingerprint analysis. The license is valid until the applicant’s date of birth that falls not less than 4 years or more than 5 years after the license is issued or renewed.

A person who is not a Michigan resident, but who is licensed in the state of his residence, may carry in Michigan under the same conditions as one licensed in Michigan. A licensed person may not carry while under the influence of alcohol. It is important to understand that this means, for all practical purposes, any detectable alcohol at all. That is, it applies a standard far stricter than that for driving under the influence. A person who has consumed any alcoholic beverage, however small the amount, should not carry.

Where Can I Carry a Concealed Firearm in Michigan?

• Carry in restaurants that serve alcohol? Yes, unless posted and provided you're not under the influence.
• Carry in my vehicle without a permit/license? No.
• Carry in roadside rest areas? Yes.
• Carry in state/national parks, state/national forests, and WMAs? Yes.

Where Can't I Carry a Concealed Firearm in Michigan? (Places off-limits even with a permit/license)

• A “weapon free school zone,” defined to include any public or private, K-12 school, as well as in vehicles used by a school to transport students to or from school property (although a parent or legal guardian of a student of the school may carry a concealed pistol while in a vehicle on school property, if he or she is dropping the student off at the school or picking the student up from the school);
• A public or private child care center or day care center, public or private child-caring institution or public or private child-placing agency;
• A dormitory or classroom of a community college, college or university;
• A sports arena or stadium;
• A bar or tavern where the primary source of income of the business is the sale of alcoholic liquor by the glass and consumed on the premises;
• Any property or facility owned or operated by a church, synagogue, mosque, temple or other place of worship, unless the presiding official permits the carrying of concealed pistols on that property or facility;
• An entertainment facility with a seating capacity of 2,500 or more individuals;
• A hospital;

[Mich. Comp. Laws § 28.425o(1)]

• The University of Michigan, Michigan State University (although visitors with valid permits may carry on campus) and Wayne State University [U-M Standard Practice Guide 201.94];
• Secured areas of commercial airports [Mich. Comp. Laws § 259.80f];
• A casino [Mich. Gaming Control R 432.1212];
• Any courtroom, office or other space used for official court business or by judicial employees, unless the chief judge or other person designated by the chief judge has given prior approval consistent with the court's written policy [Mich. Supreme Court Admin. Order 2001-1]; and
• Any place where the carrying of firearms is [prohibited by federal law].

State law includes a long list of disqualifying factors that will exclude a person from obtaining the concealed pistol license. Concealed Pistol License Requirements can be found at the Michigan State Police website: http://www.michigan.gov/msp/0,4643,7-123-1878_1591_3503_4654-10926--,00.html

National Firearms Act

Unless you are in complete compliance with Federal and State Law, it is unlawful to sell, offer for sale, possess or manufacture any machine gun “which shoots or is designed to shoot automatically more than one shot without manual reloading by a single function of the trigger.” Similarly, a "short-barreled rifle" or "short-barreled shotgun" are unlawful to make, sell or possess, unless all provisions of Federal Law and state law have been complied with.

Exceptions are for manufacturers with government contracts and any person duly licensed to manufacture, sell, or possess any machine gun by federal law.

Handguns kept solely for the purpose of display, as relics, curios, or antiques not made for modern ammunition or permanently deactivated are exempt from the registration and sale provisions.

An antique firearm is defined as:

• A firearm not designed or redesigned for using rimfire or conventional center fire ignition with fixed ammunition and manufactured in or before 1898, including a matchlock, flintlock, percussion cap, or similar type of ignition system or replica thereof, whether actually manufactured before or after the year 1898.
• A firearm using fixed ammunition manufactured in or before 1898, for which ammunition is no longer manufactured in the United States and is not readily available in the ordinary channels of commercial trade.

Michigan provides a two-year mandatory prison term for any felony committed by a person carrying or possessing a firearm. This sentence is in addition to the sentence imposed for committing the felony and must be served consecutively. The person subject to this provision “shall not be eligible for parole or probation during the mandatory term.”

It is unlawful to willfully alter, remove, or obliterate the serial number, maker’s name, or “other mark of identity” on any firearm.

It is unlawful to intentionally point, even without malice, any firearm at another person.

It is unlawful to set any spring gun or other device operating by the firing of gunpowder or any other explosive.

It is unlawful to possess or use any firearm while under the influence of liquor or any exhilarating or stupefying drug.

It is unlawful to recklessly or heedlessly or willfully or wantonly use, carry, handle or discharge any firearm without due caution and circumspection for the rights, safety or property of others.

Michigan law requires that concealed BB handguns are subject to the same firearm license requirements, safety inspection certificate, and concealed pistol license requirements as other firearms. You cannot buy a concealed pellet/air handgun in Michigan unless you have a permit. These types of pellet guns are considered firearms in Michigan and thus are regulated by the above provisions. A pellet handgun must be registered and requires a license to purchase. In addition, a license to carry must be obtained to carry concealed or in a vehicle; if it has no serial number, the gun must be taken to the State Police who will stamp a number on the weapon. No person under 18 years of age may possess or use a BB gun beyond the yard of his home unless accompanied by a person over 18.

Units of local government are prohibited from imposing certain restrictions on firearms and ammunition.

Theft of a firearm must be reported to police within 5 days after discovery.

A municipal government may not limit the noise of a range that occurs on a regular basis. An expansion of a range may be subject to noise regulation.

§ 3011. Regulation of sport shooting ranges

1. Definition. As used in this section, “sport shooting range” means an area designed and used for archery, skeet and trap shooting or other similar shooting sports and the shooting of rifles, shotguns and pistols.
2. Limitation. A municipal noise control ordinance may not require or be applied so as to require a sport shooting range to limit or eliminate shooting activities that have occurred on a regular basis at the range prior to the enactment date of the ordinance.
3. Expansion of activity. Nothing in this section limits the ability of a municipality to regulate noise produced by the expansion of activity at a sport shooting range.

All regulation of firearms and ammunition is reserved to the state legislature. No local unit of government may regulate firearms or ammunition unless it is expressly declared in state law.

MICH. COMP. LAWS ANN. § 123.1102. Local government firearm regulation prohibited.

Sec. 2. A local unit of government shall not impose special taxation on, enact or enforce any ordinance or regulation pertaining to, or regulate in any other manner the ownership, registration, purchase, sale, transfer, transportation, or possession of pistols or other firearms, ammunition for pistols or other firearms, or components of pistols or other firearms, except as otherwise provided by federal law or a law of this state.

MI Penal Code Chapter 750, sections 222 through 239 and Michigan Complied Laws Chapter 28, section 422.

1. The term “lawful purpose” is defined to include the following:

• While en route to or from a hunting or target shooting area.
• While transporting a pistol en route to or from his or her home or place of business and place of repair.
• While moving goods from a place of abode or business to another place of abode or business.
• While transporting a licensed pistol en route to or from a law enforcement agency for the purpose of having a safety inspection performed on the pistol, or for the purpose of having a law enforcement official take possession of the pistol.
• While en route to or from his or her place of abode or place of business and a gun show or places of purchase or sale.
• While en route to or from his or her abode to a public shooting facility or public land where discharge of firearms is permitted.
• While en route to or from his or her abode to a private property location where the pistol is to be used as is permitted by law.