Handing Over a Firearm
ORC 2923.20 — the person passing it can be the one charged
Most of what is written about firearms is about carrying one. This is about the moment a firearm moves from one person to another, and the thing worth knowing first is that the offenses here land on the person handing it over rather than on the person receiving it.
Who handles this in Ohio: Ohio State Bar Association lawyer referral; and legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
The Ohio offense is written with a mental state lower than people assume. It reaches recklessly selling or furnishing a firearm or dangerous ordnance to somebody prohibited from having it, either because they are intoxicated at that moment or because they fall in a class the law disables. Recklessly, not knowingly, is the whole of the difference between this being a rare charge and a real one.
| What was done | Section | Degree |
|---|---|---|
| What was doneRecklessly selling or furnishing to a prohibited or intoxicated person, or possessing with purpose to do so | SectionORC 2923.20 | DegreeF-4 |
| What was doneFurnishing a firearm to a person under eighteen, or a handgun to a person under twenty one, outside lawful hunting, sporting or educational purposes | SectionORC 2923.21 | DegreeF-5 |
| What was doneFailing to require authorization from a transferee of dangerous ordnance, failing to report such a transaction, or failing to report a loss or theft | SectionORC 2923.20 | DegreeM-4 |
Intoxicated at that moment is in the statute, and it is not about a record. The disability categories are about who a person is. Intoxication is about who they are right now. Handing a firearm to somebody who is drinking is inside the same section as handing one to a person under indictment, and the site already carries the separate offense of carrying while intoxicated, which is the other side of the same evening.
Federal law reaches a different act with the same feel to it. Since 2022 straw purchasing is its own federal offense: knowingly buying, or conspiring to buy, a firearm for or on behalf of or at the request of another person, where the buyer knows or has reasonable cause to believe that person is prohibited, or intends to use it in furtherance of a felony, terrorism or drug trafficking, or intends to pass it on to somebody who is. It carries up to fifteen years, and up to twenty five where the firearm is then used in terrorism or drug trafficking.
Reasonable cause to believe is the phrase that decides most of these. Both the Ohio section and the federal one turn on what the person handing it over had reason to think rather than on what they later say they knew. Recklessly in one and reasonable cause to believe in the other are doing the same job, and neither of them requires anybody to have said anything out loud.
- Buying a firearm as a genuine gift for somebody who could lawfully buy it themselves is a different act from buying one at their request while knowing they are prohibited.
- The federal offense is about the purchase. The Ohio one reaches selling or furnishing, which includes handing over something already owned.
- Who cannot lawfully have a firearm in Ohio is its own section, and it is the list this one runs on.
Nothing here describes the licensed dealer side, the federal form, or the background check system, which are a separate body of rules that apply to the dealer rather than to a private person. What a specific transfer required is a question for a licensed Ohio attorney.
Sources for this section (5)
- ORC 2923.20 — Unlawful transactions in weapons
- ORC 2923.21 — Improperly furnishing firearms to a minor
- ORC 2923.13 — Having weapons while under disability
- ORC 2923.15 — Using weapons while intoxicated
- 18 U.S.C. 932 — Straw purchasing of firearms, added by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.