New Jersey bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons.
New Jersey bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons. There is no federal ban — the 1994 law expired in 2004 and was never renewed — so this is a state-level prohibition on part of your catalog. Federal law already routes every firearm sale through a licensed dealer, which is why the question in New Jersey is not how you ship but which of your products may be sold there at all. This page covers what that means for your orders, the control you need inside Shopify, and what an acquirer will ask.
New Jersey bans the sale of firearms it classifies as assault weapons. There is no federal ban — the 1994 law expired in 2004 and was never renewed — so this is a state-level prohibition on part of your catalog.
Federal law already routes every firearm sale through a licensed dealer, so the question in New Jersey is not how you ship but which of your products may be sold there at all.
Source: Gun Laws by State — assault weapons ban states (2026) · as of 2026-07. Rules in this area change, and this is not legal advice — verify the current position for every state you ship into before you rely on it.
What this means for your store
The immediate consequence is that you cannot accept any order to New Jersey for a product your legal team classifies as an assault weapon under state law. You cannot work around this by routing through a dealer, offering a special disclaimer, or restructuring the sale — the product itself is prohibited into that state. If you ship it anyway, you expose yourself to state enforcement action and you create a record of knowingly violating state law that payment processors and underwriters will discover. Existing customers in New Jersey who previously bought from you cannot reorder those models. You will need to either geo-block the product in New Jersey, or remove it from your catalog altogether. The cost of getting this wrong is processor termination, not a chargeback or a fine.
The control that actually enforces it
The control lives in Shopify's shipping profiles or product-level market restrictions. You block the affected product from being purchased in the New Jersey market, or you create a shipping profile that forbids shipment to that state and apply it to every assault weapon you carry. The alternative — a note in a spreadsheet that your warehouse staff should refuse New Jersey orders — breaks the moment you hire a second person or take a day off. An acquirer will ask to see the shipping rule itself, not a policy document. If it is only a procedure, you do not actually have control.
Why an underwriter cares
An underwriter flags any pattern of shipping into a state where the product is banned. It signals either that you do not know your own compliance obligations or that you are deliberately violating state law. Either reading is a reason to decline the account. The underwriter does not care whether you intended it; they care that you created a record of it. Evidence that the control is enforced at the platform level — that New Jersey customers literally cannot check out with that product — is what an acquirer wants to see. Without it, the application looks like a compliance risk.
Frequently asked
Can I sell firearms to New Jersey customers at all?
Yes, but only firearms that do not fall under New Jersey's assault weapon classification. Consult your legal team on which models in your catalog meet the state definition. Federal law still requires every firearm sale to go through a licensed dealer, regardless of state. The restriction is on product category, not on whether you can sell into the state.
What happens if I ship an assault weapon to New Jersey by mistake?
You expose yourself to state enforcement action and create evidence of knowingly violating state law. Payment processors and underwriters discover this during routine screening. The result is typically account termination, not a chargeback. This is not recoverable by moving to a new processor — MATCH records follow the person for five years.
Do I need to block the entire state or just certain products?
Just the products that fall under New Jersey's assault weapon definition. You block them at the product level using Shopify shipping profiles or market restrictions. Every other firearm in your catalog that complies with state law can still ship to New Jersey customers through a licensed dealer.
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Your existing store is only ever read from — we never write to it. Everything else about selling firearms: the payments position, the reserve to expect and who underwrites it →