Texas gun laws: what applies when you buy in 2026

Texas keeps its firearm law short. There is no purchase permit, no registry of owners, no state waiting period and no state licence for ordinary ownership. What stands between you and a firearm bought from a dealer is federal paperwork and a federal background check, both handled at the counter when you collect it. This page sets out how that works for a buyer in San Antonio, Bexar County or anywhere in the Hill Country, and what changed in the 2025 legislative session.

Buying from a licensed dealer

Every firearm sold through this store ships to a licensed dealer, never to a doorstep. At the dealer you show government photo identification, complete ATF Form 4473 and wait while the dealer runs your details through the federal NICS system. If the answer comes back as a proceed, the dealer can hand the firearm over the same day. The federal floor at a dealer is 18 for a long gun and 21 for a handgun, and Texas adds no age rule of its own on top of it.

The Department of Public Safety points out one shortcut on its licence pages: a current Texas License to Carry can be accepted in place of the NICS check on a handgun purchase, because the licence check already covers the same ground. Dealers are not obliged to use it, and many still run NICS anyway, so ask before you assume it will save time.

Nothing in Texas law caps how many firearms you may buy in a day, a month or a year, and nothing requires you to register what you own. Federal law does require the dealer to file a multiple-sale report if you buy two or more handguns from the same dealer within five business days.

Private sales between Texans

A sale between two Texas residents who may each lawfully own a firearm needs no dealer, no form and no state background check. That freedom has a hard edge: it remains a criminal offence to sell or give a firearm to someone you know is legally barred from having one, and federal law separately bars you from selling across state lines without a dealer. If you have any doubt about a buyer, ask a dealer to run the transfer for you. The fee is small compared with the alternative.

Age rules

Texas does not set its own minimum age to possess a rifle or shotgun. The practical floor is the federal dealer age already described. For handguns, Penal Code chapter 46 barred carry below 21 for years; a federal court decision then required the Department of Public Safety to stop refusing licences to applicants aged 18 to 20, and the department states it no longer denies applications on age grounds alone. Buying a handgun from a dealer still requires 21 under federal law, which the state cannot change.

What the 2025 session changed

Four measures signed in June 2025 took effect on September 1 of that year and are worth knowing.

Senate Bill 706 rewrote the recognition rule so that a valid handgun licence issued by any other state is recognised in Texas. The governor still negotiates agreements with states that need one before they will honour a Texas licence in return.
Senate Bill 1362 bars Texas courts and officers from recognising, serving or enforcing an extreme risk protective order and creates an offence for doing so.
House Bill 3053 restricts firearm buyback programmes run by cities and counties.
Senate Bill 1596 removed short-barrel rifles and shotguns from the state list of prohibited weapons. Federal law is unchanged, so anything covered by the National Firearms Act still needs its federal registration and tax stamp; the change only removes the separate state offence.

Magazines, semi-automatic rifles and ammunition

Texas sets no limit on magazine capacity and no state restriction on semi-automatic rifles, so standard-capacity magazines and AR-pattern rifles ship here normally. Ammunition has no state permit or logbook requirement and can be delivered to your address. If you are sending anything to a friend or family member in another state, check that state's rules first, because several limit magazines or require a permit that Texas does not.

Cities, counties and where local rules stop

Texas preempts almost all local firearm regulation, which is why San Antonio, New Braunfels and Laredo do not have their own purchase rules. What a city can still do is regulate the discharge of a firearm inside its limits and control its own buildings and parks within the limits state law allows. Private property owners keep their own rights: a business can post the notices described in Penal Code sections 30.06 and 30.07 and ask armed customers to leave.

Storage and transport

Texas does not mandate a safe or a lock for firearms kept at home, though it is an offence to leave a readily accessible firearm where a child gains access and causes harm. In a vehicle, a handgun must be concealed or carried in a holster. Long guns travel without special rules, but a cased firearm in the bed or the back attracts less attention than one on a rack.

Before you order

Pick the dealer first, confirm they accept transfers and what they charge, then place the order. Our San Antonio buying guide walks through that step by step, and the carry guide covers licences and the places that stay closed to carry. When you are ready to compare, the full catalog is priced live, and the city pages cover local rules across South and Central Texas.

General information, not legal advice. Current as of September 2026. Laws change; check the official source before you act.