What the big platforms allow for firearms
If you are setting up gun business payment processing, the first wall most sellers hit is the policy page of whatever app they already use for everything else. Square, PayPal, Shopify Payments and Stripe each publish an acceptable-use or restricted-business policy, and each one treats firearms differently. The wording matters, because the difference between “prohibited” and “restricted, case by case” is the difference between a flat no and an approval that can be withdrawn later. This guide lays out what each platform’s own policy says, as of October 2026, with links so you can read the source yourself.
Policies change — Stripe’s did in late 2025 — so treat the table below as a dated snapshot and click through to each platform’s current terms before you rely on it. For how this interacts with your merchant category code, see our MCC 5723 state guide.
Approved for firearms
A dedicated account is underwritten for guns, parts and ammo up front — not reviewed after the fact.
Coded for your state
Your merchant category code is confirmed with the processor for the state where you operate.
A person on the line
If a review ever comes up, you reach our team and we work it with the processor directly.
| Platform | Firearms policy (as of October 2026) | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Square | Prohibited: “sale of firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, weapons” | Not an option for guns, parts or ammo |
| PayPal / Venmo / Braintree | Prohibited: ammunition, firearms, and certain firearm parts or accessories | Not an option; the user agreement lists penalties per violation |
| Shopify Payments | Prohibited: “firearms, holsters, ammunition, or weapons” | You can keep Shopify with an outside gateway, though Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee |
| Stripe | Restricted, “limited availability” (changed from prohibited around November 2025): firearms, regulated parts such as suppressors, other weapons. Requires extra due diligence and contacting sales. Stripe says approval “may be modified or revoked … at any time.” | Possible, case by case; approval can be revoked |
| Clover (Fiserv), Apple Pay on the web, Google Pay | Reported as prohibited in compiled policy quotes dated 2022–2025 [verify against current terms] | Check current terms before relying on these |
Square: prohibited
Square’s general terms list the sale of firearms, firearm parts, ammunition and weapons among its prohibited activities. That makes Square a non-starter for a gun store, an ammo seller or a parts-and-accessories shop that carries regulated items. You can read the language in the Square General Terms. A compiled set of platform quotes, useful for comparison, is maintained at GunTab’s payment-platform policy page.
PayPal, Venmo and Braintree: prohibited
PayPal’s acceptable-use policy prohibits transactions involving ammunition, firearms, and certain firearm parts or accessories, and the same policy governs Venmo and Braintree. The user agreement also describes penalties the company may apply per violation. The current text is on the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy page. For sellers moving off PayPal, our switching from PayPal page lays out what changes.
Shopify Payments: prohibited, but you can keep Shopify
Shopify Payments — the built-in processor — prohibits “firearms, holsters, ammunition, or weapons.” That does not mean you have to leave Shopify. Shopify lets you connect a third-party payment gateway, so you can keep your store, your theme and your catalog and route card payments through a firearms-friendly merchant account instead. The trade-off is that Shopify charges a third-party transaction fee on top of your processing cost when you use an outside gateway. The policy and the gateway option are documented on Shopify’s Shopify Payments eligibility page and its third-party providers page. We cover the setup in switching from Shopify Payments.
Stripe: restricted, case by case, revocable
Stripe is the one that is easy to describe incorrectly, so here is the careful version: Stripe does not flatly prohibit firearms. Around November 2025 it moved firearms from prohibited to restricted, under a “limited availability” category that also covers regulated parts such as suppressors and other weapons. Being restricted means Stripe may approve a firearms business after extra due diligence, and the policy asks you to contact its sales team. It also states that approval “may be modified or revoked … at any time.” So the honest framing is: possible, case by case, and revocable — not a ban, and not a guarantee either.
You can read Stripe’s own language on its Prohibited & Restricted Businesses page (updated 2026-09-22), and the industry context in the NSSF write-up from November 2025. If you are weighing Stripe against a dedicated merchant account, see switching from Stripe.
Why dedicated gun business payment processing is different
The common thread across all four platforms is that they are aggregators — you share a large pooled account, your business is reviewed mostly after money starts moving, and the relationship can change on the platform’s terms. A dedicated merchant account works the other way around. The business is underwritten up front for its actual products and ticket sizes, so a firearms seller is approved for firearms rather than approved-until-noticed. At Moneybox, firearms deals go onto a dedicated merchant account, built for how you actually sell before it goes live.
- Underwritten once, up front, for firearms — not reviewed after the fact
- Your real products, average ticket and largest ticket on file before approval
- Merchant category coding confirmed for your state
- A person who works a review with the processor if one comes up
No processor can promise your money will never be reviewed — that is true of any account, including ours. What up-front underwriting changes is the odds. To understand how holds happen and why clean setup lowers the risk, read why processors freeze funds, and when you are ready to start, see getting approved the first time.