Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: In Kentucky, an ordinary heir does not need a state permit, licence or card to receive or possess the firearm, and the acquisition does not have to be reported to any state agency. Kentucky has no dealer-mediated background-check law for private transfers at all, so there is no such mandate for a bequest to be exempt from. The statute does not name inheritance, bequest or intestate succession anywhere in the sections that govern this. Every answer below is quoted from Kentucky’s own code with the section named and linked, because this is a subject where being roughly right is not a category that exists.
What Kentucky law settles, in four lines
| Question | What the code says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Does the heir need a state permit, licence or card? | No | KRS 237.020(1) |
| Does the acquisition have to be reported? | No | KRS 237.152(2) |
| Does it have to go through a licensed dealer? | No mandate exists | KRS 237.020(1)-(2) |
| Does the statute name inheritance at all? | Not named | KRS Chapter 237 (full) and Chapter 527 (full) |
What this covers. An ordinary estate transfer in Kentucky: the person who died and the person inheriting are in the same state, and the firearm is an ordinary rifle, shotgun, pistol or revolver. Machine guns, suppressors, short-barrelled rifles and anything else registered under the National Firearms Act run on a separate federal track that is not this page, and neither is moving a firearm across a state line. The federal layer is set out separately.
Does the heir need a permit, licence or card
No. Kentucky does not condition receiving or possessing an inherited firearm on a state permit, licence or card.
(1) Residents of the Commonwealth of Kentucky who are citizens of the United States shall have the right to purchase or otherwise acquire rifles, sh otguns, handguns, and any other firearms which they are permitted to purchase or otherwise acquire under federal law and the Kentucky Revised Statutes from properly licensed dealers, manufacturers, importers, or collectors, and unlicensed individual person s in Kentucky or in any other state or nation outside of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Source: KRS 237.020(1)
Does anyone have to be told, and by when
No. Nothing in Kentucky’s code requires the acquisition to be reported or registered with a state or local agency.
(2) No person, unit of government, or governmental organization shall , during a period of disaster or emergency as specified in KRS Chapter 39A or at any other time, knowingly and willfully keep or cause to be kept any list, record, or registry of privately owned firearms or any list, record, or registry of the owners of th e firearms, except for those records kept during the regular course of a criminal investigation and prosecution or as otherwise required by law.
Source: KRS 237.152(2)
Does it have to go through a licensed dealer
Kentucky has no dealer-mediated background-check law for private transfers at all, so there is no such mandate for a bequest to be exempt from. The claim that an inherited firearm always has to be transferred through a licensed dealer is not true as a flat statement in any state in this table.
The one dealer-related provision on the books does not reach an ordinary private transfer:
Residents of states other than the Commonwealth of Kentucky who are citizens of the United States shall have the right to purchase or otherwise acquire rifles, shotguns, handguns, and any other firearms which they are permitted to purchase or otherwise acquire under federal law and the Kentucky Revised Statutes from properly licensed dealers, manufacturers, importers, or collectors, and from unlicensed individual persons in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Source: KRS 237.020(1)-(2)
What the code says about inheritance itself
The statute does not name inheritance, bequest or intestate succession anywhere in the sections that govern this.
The nearest provision, quoted, does not name inheritance:
(1) A person is guilty of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon when he possesses, manufactures, or transports a firearm when he has been conv icted of a felony, as defined by the laws of the jurisdiction in which he was convicted, in any state or federal court and has not: (a) Been granted a full pardon by the Governor or by the President of the United States; or (b) Been granted relief by the U nited States Secretary of the Treasury pursuant to the Federal Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended.
What this page does not tell you
- This is what the statute says, not what a court or a police department has done with it. No case law and no agency guidance was read. Where a code is silent, this page reports silence rather than filling it in.
- City and county rules sit on top and are not here. A local rule can add a step the state code does not mention.
- Who may possess is a separate question from how it transfers. A federal or state bar on possession (a felony conviction, a protective order, an involuntary commitment) attaches to the person and reaches an inherited firearm exactly as it reaches a bought one.
- A gun trust is a different mechanism and is covered separately. What a gun trust does and does not do is its own question, and it is mostly a federal one.
- This is general information, not legal advice. On this subject a wrong step is not a paperwork problem, so the sections are linked for you to read and a probate lawyer in the state is the right next call if anything here is close.
Sources
Every answer on this page comes out of a 51-jurisdiction table built from statute text. Kentucky’s four cells are individually cited below.
| What it supports | Section | Tier | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does the heir need a state permit, licence or card? | KRS 237.020(1) | statute | 2026-08-17 |
| Does the acquisition have to be reported? | KRS 237.152(2) | statute | 2026-08-17 |
| Does it have to go through a licensed dealer? | KRS 237.020(1)-(2) | statute | 2026-08-17 |
| Does the statute name inheritance at all? | KRS Chapter 237 (full) and Chapter 527 (full) | statute | 2026-08-17 |
All 51 jurisdictions are in the by-state table, with the same four cells for every state side by side.
General consumer information, not legal advice. State codes are as published by the cited source and change without notice; the statute and a lawyer in the state govern.