Updated September 3, 2026. Quick answer: In Louisiana, 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. Louisiana 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 Louisiana’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 Louisiana law settles, in four lines
| Question | What the code says | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Does the heir need a state permit, licence or card? | No | La. R.S. 14:95 et seq. (full weapons subpart) |
| Does the acquisition have to be reported? | No | La. R.S. 14:95.1.4 and full weapons subpart |
| Does it have to go through a licensed dealer? | No mandate exists | La. R.S. 14:95.1.4 and full weapons subpart |
| Does the statute name inheritance at all? | Not named | La. R.S. 14:94 through 14:95.10 (full) |
What this covers. An ordinary estate transfer in Louisiana: 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. Louisiana does not condition receiving or possessing an inherited firearm on a state permit, licence or card.
A.(1) It is unlawful for any person who has been convicted of, or has been found not guilty by reason of insanity for, a crime of violence as defined in R.S. 14:2(B) which is a felony or simple burglary, burglary of an inhabited dwelling, unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling, felony illegal use of weapons or dangerous instrumentalities, manufacture or possession of a delayed action incendiary device, manufacture or possession of a bomb, or possession of a firearm while in the possession of or during the sale or distribution of a controlled dangerous substance, or any violation of the Uniform Controlled Dangerous Substances Law which is a felony, or any crime which is defined as a sex offense in R.S. 15:541, or any crime defined as an attempt to commit one of the above-enumerated offenses under the laws of this state, or who has been convicted under the laws of any other state or of the United States or of any foreign government or country of a crime which, if committed in this state, would be one of the above-enumerated crimes, to possess a firearm or carry a concealed weapon.
Does anyone have to be told, and by when
No. Nothing in Louisiana’s code requires the acquisition to be reported or registered with a state or local agency.
A. Illegal transfer of a firearm to a prohibited possessor is the intentional giving, selling, donating, lending, delivering, or otherwise transferring a firearm to any person known to the offender to be a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.
Does it have to go through a licensed dealer
Louisiana 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:
A. Illegal transfer of a firearm to a prohibited possessor is the intentional giving, selling, donating, lending, delivering, or otherwise transferring a firearm to any person known to the offender to be a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.
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:
A. Illegal transfer of a firearm to a prohibited possessor is the intentional giving, selling, donating, lending, delivering, or otherwise transferring a firearm to any person known to the offender to be a person prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.
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. Louisiana’s four cells are individually cited below.
| What it supports | Section | Tier | Read on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Does the heir need a state permit, licence or card? | La. R.S. 14:95 et seq. (full weapons subpart) | statute | 2026-08-17 |
| Does the acquisition have to be reported? | La. R.S. 14:95.1.4 and full weapons subpart | statute | 2026-08-17 |
| Does it have to go through a licensed dealer? | La. R.S. 14:95.1.4 and full weapons subpart | statute | 2026-08-17 |
| Does the statute name inheritance at all? | La. R.S. 14:94 through 14:95.10 (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.