Vermont - VT Gun Laws

Vermont's Act 94 (2018) raised the minimum age to buy any firearm to 21, with exceptions for active/veteran military, law enforcement, and — for long guns bought from a non-dealer — 16-year-olds who present a hunter safety course completion certificate. A 2023 law (Act 14) added a 72-hour waiting period on firearm purchases, longer than the instant federal check most states rely on alone. Every dealer purchase still runs through the standard federal background check (NICS via Form 4473) on top of these state-added requirements.

Unlike most permissive states, Vermont requires a background check for most private firearm transfers — buyer and seller generally need to go through a licensed dealer to run it. The one real exemption: transfers between immediate family members don't require a dealer or background check, and transfers to or from law enforcement officers are also exempted. Outside those categories, plan on involving a dealer.

Vermont follows the standard federal prohibited-persons categories: felony conviction, certain domestic violence convictions or active protective orders, unlawful drug users, individuals adjudicated mentally defective or committed to a mental institution, fugitives from justice, dishonorable military discharge, undocumented immigration status, and renunciation of U.S. citizenship. Vermont adds its own extreme risk protection order (red flag) process, created by Act 94 in 2018, letting a court temporarily bar someone from purchasing or possessing firearms if they're shown to pose a danger to themselves or others.

Legal without a permit for anyone who can otherwise legally possess a firearm, subject to the same restricted-location rules that apply to concealed carry (see Restricted Locations).

Permitless — Vermont has never required a license to carry a concealed firearm, a tradition dating to Article 16 of the 1777 Vermont Constitution and predating the modern "constitutional carry" movement by more than two centuries. Vermont doesn't set its own separate carry age; the practical floor is the federal minimum purchase age (18 for long guns, 21 for handguns) needed to lawfully possess the firearm being carried. Vermont does not issue its own optional carry permit at all — unlike most other permitless-carry states, there's no state-issued permit available here for out-of-state reciprocity purposes.

No permit is required to carry a firearm, loaded or unloaded, concealed or openly, in a vehicle in Vermont — the state's permitless carry framework covers vehicle transport the same as carrying on foot. The main restrictions are the same sensitive-location rules that apply anywhere else (see Restricted Locations) and the standard prohibition on possession by someone legally disqualified.

Vermont's baseline restricted-location list is relatively short — courthouses and certain state buildings are the clearest statewide examples. The bigger thing to know: Vermont's legislature has recently begun carving out city-specific exceptions to its usual preemption rule. In 2025, a change to Burlington's city charter (S.131) gave Vermont's largest city specific authority to ban firearms in establishments that serve alcohol — something most Vermont municipalities still can't do on their own. Always check local signage in Burlington specifically, and expect more cities to seek similar charter changes going forward.

Vermont does not set a single statewide minimum age for possessing a firearm, but the purchase-age rules set the practical floor: 21 to buy any firearm from a dealer (18 for military/law enforcement), or 16 to buy a long gun from a private, non-dealer seller with a completed hunter safety course. Supervised possession and use by minors below these ages — for hunting or firearms safety instruction under direct adult supervision — is common practice and not separately restricted by its own dedicated statute.

Vermont bans magazines holding more than 10 rounds for a long gun or more than 15 rounds for a handgun (13 V.S.A. § 4021, effective April 11, 2018) — a real, currently-enforced restriction, not a proposal or a law tied up in court. Magazines manufactured and legally possessed before that date are grandfathered. There is no separate assault weapons ban beyond the magazine rule.

Vermont has no formal stand-your-ground or castle doctrine statute on the books, which is unusual for a state this permissive on carry. In practice, the Vermont Supreme Court has consistently held there's no duty to retreat before using force in self-defense, whether that's inside your home or in public — so the practical result tracks a stand-your-ground state even without a codified law. Because it rests on case law rather than statute, the exact contours can shift more with future court rulings than they would under a fixed law.

Vermont has a general state preemption statute (24 V.S.A. § 2295) barring towns, cities, and incorporated villages from directly regulating the possession, ownership, transportation, transfer, sale, purchase, carrying, licensing, or registration of firearms, ammunition, or components. That said, Vermont's legislature has shown it's willing to carve out city-specific exceptions through charter changes — Burlington's 2025 charter amendment (S.131) is the clearest example, giving that one city authority the rest of the state's municipalities don't have. Worth watching even outside Burlington, since it may not be the last carve-out.

Vermont Department of Public Safety, firearms-related resources: dps.vermont.gov
Vermont Statutes Annotated, Title 13, Chapter 85 (full text): legislature.vermont.gov
Office of the Vermont Attorney General, gun law summary: ago.vermont.gov
ATF: for federal NFA questions — Vermont allows suppressor ownership and, since 2022, suppressor use for all lawful hunting, provided the device is properly registered under the NFA