Who Should Apply and/or Renew?
Criminal Law § 4-403(c) states that any person who acquires a machine gun shall register the machine gun with the Secretary of State Police within 24 hours after acquiring the machine gun; and in each succeeding year during the month of May.
Possession or use of a machine gun is presumed to be for an offensive or aggressive purpose when the machine gun is not registered as required under § 4-403, Criminal Law Article. A person who violates this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction is subject to imprisonment not exceeding 10 years. Pursuant to Maryland statute registration data provided under this section is not open to public inspection.
Application Process Changes/Updates
There have been no registration process changes since 2021 when the registration process was moved into the Licensing Portal.
How to Apply and/or Renew
Machine Gun owners will register all machine guns in the Licensing Portal. Machine Gun owners who do not have a Licensing Portal account will be required to create one in order to complete their initial or annual machine gun registration. Once a machine gun is registered in the Licensing Portal, the machine gun owner will receive email notifications of annual registration periods and status updates of their submitted machine gun registration application.
The Licensing Portal can be accessed by clicking below:
Registration Fees
Original/Initial - $10.00
Annual - $10.00
Registration fees are not refundable and will be collected electronically during the registration process.
How Long Is the Registration Process?
Original/Initial - The machine gun registration process will vary on how many machine guns you are registering. The original application with one machine gun should take 10-20 minutes to complete. Add 2-4 minutes for each additional machine gun being registered.
Annual - The annual machine gun registration should take approximately 5-15 minutes and includes the verification of the applicant's demographic information and verification of previously registered machine guns.
Processing Time - Once the machine gun registration has been submitted, the applicant will receive a notification of receipt from the Licensing Division, followed by a notification of completion of the machine gun registration processing. The Licensing Division will complete the processing of a machine gun registration 5-90 days after receiving it.
