shotgun
Under federal law, a “shotgun” has two statutory definitions. The Gun Control Act of 1968 (Gun Control Act) defines a shotgun as a longarm firearm that is “designed or redesigned, made or remade, and intended” to be fired from the shoulder, and “uses the energy of an explosive to fire through a smooth bore, either a number of ball shot or a single projectile for each single pull of the trigger.” See: 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(5). The National Firearms Act (NFA) definition is broadly the same as the Gun Control Act with two exceptions. 26 U.S.C. § 5845(d) specifies that the explosive is “in a fixed shotgun shell” and the definition goes on to “include any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire a fixed shotgun shell.” Under 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(6) the Gun Control Act also defines “short-barreled shotgun” as “a shotgun having one or more barrels less than eighteen inches in length and any weapon made from a shotgun” as long as the overall length of the barrel is less than twenty-six inches. The definition of a “short-barreled shotgun” under the Gun Control Act fits within the NFA’s definition of a firearm, thus subjecting shotguns to additional taxation and registration requirements of the NFA.
[Last reviewed in August of 2026 by the Wex Definitions Team]
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