Buying Online in Florida: The Dealer Transfer, the FDLE Check and the Waiting Period

Buying a firearm online in Florida is the same process as buying one off a shop wall, with one extra step: the gun ships to a licensed dealer you choose, and you complete the paperwork there. Parts, which are most of what this shop sells, skip all of it and ship to your door. This page walks through the firearm path step by step, with the Florida-specific pieces that trip people up: the age of 21 for everything, the FDLE check, the three-day wait and its exemptions, and the counties that stretch it to five.

Parts first, because they are simple

Triggers, barrels, slides, sights, grips, springs, uppers, magazines and tools are not firearms. They ship to any Florida address by ground carrier with no check, no wait and no age rule beyond the carrier's adult-signature policy on larger orders. Ammunition ships to your door too; you must be 18 for rifle and shotgun ammunition and 21 for handgun ammunition. If your order contains only parts, this is the whole guide.

Step one: choose a dealer

A complete rifle, pistol or shotgun, or a serialized frame or receiver, ships to a Federal Firearms Licensee. Any Florida gun shop is one; so are many pawn shops and home-based dealers. Call ahead and ask whether they accept firearms shipped from online sellers, what they charge, and whether they are in a county with a five-day wait. Fees run from about twenty to seventy-five dollars, paid to the dealer at pickup. Name the dealer at checkout; we confirm their licence against the ATF's public list and ship to their address only.

Step two: the shipment

Handguns travel by a carrier that accepts firearms, long guns by ordinary ground. You get a tracking number by email, and the dealer logs the gun when it arrives. Most orders reach a Florida dealer in three to six days.

Step three: the paperwork and the check

At the counter you complete ATF Form 4473 and show government photo identification with your current Florida address; if your licence shows an old address, bring a document with the current one. Florida requires every dealer buyer to be 21, for long guns as well as handguns. The dealer submits your details to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which runs the state and federal checks and charges a small fee. Most checks come back in minutes; a delay can hold the transfer until FDLE answers.

Step four: the waiting period

Section 790.0655 sets a waiting period of three days, not counting weekends and legal holidays, or until the background check is complete, whichever is later, on every firearm sold by a dealer. The clock starts when the dealer submits the check. Three exemptions cover most repeat buyers: holders of a Florida Concealed Weapon License, buyers trading in another firearm as part of the purchase, and buyers of a rifle or shotgun who hold a hunter safety certificate. Counties may lengthen the wait to five days by ordinance, and Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Alachua, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Orange and several others have; ask your dealer which applies. The wait is counted from the dealer's submission, so an order placed on a Thursday for pickup at a five-day county dealer may not be collectable until the following Friday.

Step five: pickup

Once the check clears and the wait ends, you pay the dealer's fee and take the gun home. Inspect it at the counter: serial number against the invoice, finish, action. Refuse the transfer if it is not as described; the dealer returns it to us, which is far simpler than shipping it back yourself.

Serialized frames and receivers

A bare frame or receiver, the part with the serial number, is a firearm even with nothing attached to it. A stripped AR lower, a serialized pistol frame and a barreled action all go to a dealer with the same check, age rule and waiting period as a complete gun. Dealers transfer a bare receiver to buyers of 21 and over because the federal form records it as an other firearm. Everything that bolts to the receiver, the upper, the barrel, the trigger, the slide, ships to your door. We do not sell unfinished frames or receivers of any kind.

Private sales and gun shows

Florida does not require a background check on a private sale between residents, though several counties require them at gun shows and other public venues under the constitution's county option. A private sale is not what this shop does; every firearm we sell is a dealer sale with the FDLE check, and a Floridian who buys from us and later sells privately should read their county's rule first.

Residency

A handgun may only be transferred by a dealer to a resident of the state where the dealer is, so a handgun ordered by a Florida resident goes to a Florida dealer. Winter residents with out-of-state licences should expect the dealer to ask for proof of Florida residency for a handgun; a rifle or shotgun may be transferred to a non-resident where legal in both states.

What can go wrong

The dealer refuses the box because they were not expecting it. Call ahead.
Your ID shows another state or an old address. Bring a supporting document.
You counted three calendar days. Business days, and the county may make it five.
You expected the licence to skip the FDLE check. It skips the wait, not the check.

After the transfer

Florida has no registration. Keep the serial number and the invoice somewhere other than the case, lock the gun where a minor cannot reach it as section 790.174 requires, and read the law guide for carry. Your county's zone and nearest FWC range are on the city pages; the parts that ship to your door are in the catalogue.

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