Minnesota requires a background check to purchase a stun gun or Taser.
If you sell stun guns or Tasers, you cannot ship directly to a Minnesota customer. Minnesota requires a background check to purchase a stun gun or Taser, which means the order must route through a licensed dealer in the state instead. This is a dealer-routing rule, not an outright ban—the sale is lawful, but the fulfilment path changes fundamentally. Your checkout cannot treat Minnesota the same as other states. This page explains what that routing looks like, how you control it inside Shopify, why payment processors care, and what happens when the control breaks.
Minnesota requires a background check to purchase a stun gun or Taser.
Both of the outright state bans on stun guns — Hawaii's and Rhode Island's — have been overturned, so Minnesota is a checkpoint rather than a closed market.
Source: TBOTECH — stun gun laws by state (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
When a customer in Minnesota orders a stun gun or Taser from you, you cannot drop-ship or forward the order to them. Instead, you must route the order to a licensed Minnesota dealer who will conduct the background check and complete the sale locally. This reshapes your entire fulfilment chain: you may need to stock inventory in Minnesota, contract with a dealer network, or refuse Minnesota orders altogether. If you ship direct to Minnesota without routing through a dealer, you are violating state law and exposing yourself to liability. Refunds also change—if a customer wants their money back, the dealer they dealt with is the fulfilment point, not you. Your margins compress because the dealer takes a cut, and your customer experience suffers because you cannot control the end-to-end experience. Existing customers in Minnesota may have received orders before you knew about the rule; you cannot retroactively make them legal, but you can stop future shipments today.
The control that actually enforces it
Inside Shopify, you must block checkout for Minnesota addresses or route orders manually to your dealer network. A shipping profile cannot enforce this alone—you need a markets restriction or a checkout rule that flags Minnesota orders for manual dealer routing. Some merchants use product metafields to mark stun guns and Tasers, then add a checkout script or Shopify Flow rule that intercepts Minnesota orders and routes them to a fulfillment form. Alternatively, you can disable sales to Minnesota entirely at the markets level and accept that you cannot sell there. If the control lives only in a spreadsheet or a team member's head, orders will slip through: a customer will receive a stun gun in Minnesota without a background check, and you will have broken the law. The technical answer must be permanent and automatic.
Why an underwriter cares
A payment processor views shipping self-defence products into a state with dealer requirements as a high-risk fulfilment pattern. An acquirer wants evidence that you know the rule and have built a technical control to enforce it—not a promise, but a working system. If your store ships stun guns or Tasers to Minnesota without routing through a licensed dealer, a processor may flag the account as evidence of poor compliance. When you reapply for processing, you will need to show that the control is in place: screenshots of your Shopify markets settings, a copy of your dealer agreement, or a working checkout rule that prevents Minnesota direct sales. This is not the processor enforcing state law—it is the processor managing its own underwriting risk. A store that knows the rule and has built the control is lower-risk than one that does not.
Frequently asked
Can I sell stun guns and Tasers to customers in Minnesota?
Yes, but not directly. Minnesota law requires a background check to purchase a stun gun or Taser, so you must route the order through a licensed Minnesota dealer instead of shipping to the customer yourself. If you do not have a dealer network in place, you cannot fulfill Minnesota orders, and you should disable checkout for Minnesota addresses.
What happens if I ship a stun gun or Taser directly to Minnesota?
You violate Minnesota state law. The customer receives the product without a background check, which is the entire point of the rule. You expose yourself to civil and criminal liability, and a payment processor will view it as non-compliance when they review your account.
Do I need a license to sell stun guns and Tasers in Minnesota?
You need to route the order through a licensed dealer in Minnesota—that dealer conducts the background check and completes the sale. You do not need a license yourself, but you must have a dealer partner or stop selling to Minnesota. Check with your dealer network about the contracts and fees involved.
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