Can You Sell Body Armor Online? What the Law and Processors Allow

Body armor is legal for most adults in most of the United States, and plenty of retailers sell vests, plate carriers and armor plates online. That surprises some first-time sellers when they apply for a payment account and find the application treated like a firearms or knife business. The product is defensive, but the law around who may buy it, and how it may be sold, is stricter in some places than many sellers expect.

This guide covers what federal law says, the two states whose rules most change how an online store has to work, the export rules that apply as soon as an order leaves the country, and what an underwriter will want to see before approving a body armor retailer. Card network rules are cited from the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules of 24 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice.

What federal law says about body armor

Federal law defines body armor in 18 U.S.C. 921(a)(35) as any product sold or offered for sale, in interstate or foreign commerce, as personal protective body covering intended to protect against gunfire, whether it is worn alone or sold as a complement to another product or garment. That covers soft vests, hard plates and garments with ballistic panels built in.

The main federal restriction is on the buyer, not the seller. Under 18 U.S.C. 931, added in 2002, it is unlawful for a person to purchase, own or possess body armor if they have been convicted of a felony that is a crime of violence, as defined in 18 U.S.C. 16, or of a state offense that would be one if committed within federal jurisdiction. There is an affirmative defense for a person whose employer gave prior written certification that the armor was necessary for the safe performance of lawful business activity, as long as they used and possessed it only in the course of that work.

Section 931 does not itself require a retailer to screen buyers. That is where the federal picture ends and state law starts.

New York: eligible professions only, and in person

New York restricted civilian body armor sales in 2022, and its rules are the strictest a national online store is likely to meet. The state's definition of body armor, in Penal Law 270.20, matches the federal one: any product that is a personal protective body covering intended to protect against gunfire.

• Buyers. Under Penal Law 270.21, a person who is not engaged or employed in an eligible profession commits unlawful purchase of body armor by knowingly buying or taking possession of it. Eligible professions include police officers, peace officers, people in military service in New York or for the United States, and other professions the Department of State designates.
• Sellers. Under Penal Law 270.22, selling, exchanging, giving or disposing of body armor to someone the seller knows or reasonably should have known is not in an eligible profession is unlawful sale of body armor. Both the purchase and sale offenses are class A misdemeanors for a first offense and class E felonies for any subsequent offense.
• Delivery. General Business Law 396-eee bars sale or delivery to anyone outside an eligible profession and, except for purchases by federal, state or local government agencies, does not permit a sale or delivery unless the buyer meets the seller in person. A violation carries a fine of up to $5,000 for a first offense and up to $10,000 after that.

In practice, a consumer website cannot ship body armor to an ordinary New York customer at all, and even a sale to an eligible professional requires an in-person meeting unless the buyer is a government agency. The "reasonably should have known" standard in the sale offense means a checkbox asking the buyer to confirm eligibility is weak protection.

Connecticut: in person, and only to permit holders

Connecticut's rule is older and often summarized as "no online sales", which understates it. Under General Statutes 53-341b, no person, firm or corporation may sell or deliver body armor to another person unless the buyer both meets the seller in person to complete the sale or delivery and holds a permit or certificate issued under sections 29-28, 29-36f, 29-37p or 29-38n. Those sections cover the state's permits for carrying a pistol or revolver and for selling firearms at retail, its eligibility certificates for pistols and for long guns, and its ammunition certificate.

The statute exempts sales to sworn members and authorized officials of listed police and corrections agencies and of the Department of Motor Vehicles, judicial marshals and probation officers, members of the National Guard or armed forces reserve, federal firearms licensees and employees of emergency medical service organizations. A violation is a class B misdemeanor. Connecticut defines body armor as any item designed to provide bullet penetration resistance and to be worn on or under clothing on the body, like a vest or other article of clothing.

Other states and the card network rule

Many other states do not restrict who may buy body armor, but they are not uniform, and some, New York among them, add penalties for wearing armor while committing certain crimes. Summaries published by armor retailers disagree with each other on several states, so treat any 50-state chart as a starting point and confirm each state's current statute before relying on it.

This matters to your processor because of one line in Visa's rules: a transaction must be legal in both the cardholder's jurisdiction and the merchant outlet's jurisdiction (ID# 0000385). A store in Texas that ships a vest to an ordinary consumer in New York has put a sale through Visa that is unlawful where the buyer is, wherever the store is based. An acquirer will expect your checkout to stop that order, not a disclaimer that leaves it to the buyer.

Shipping outside the United States is an export

Body armor is export-controlled. On the Commerce Department's Commerce Control List, ECCN 1A005 covers soft body armor not made to military standards and hard plates giving less than NIJ level III protection, and it is controlled for national security, United Nations and anti-terrorism reasons. Whether an order needs a license depends on the destination, and the entry lists a limited license exception for some countries. Armor made to military standards falls under ECCN 1A613, and vests giving NIJ Type IV protection or greater are subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations under U.S. Munitions List Category X(a).

A store that ships abroad needs to classify its products and check the destination before shipping, or block international shipping on armor entirely. Expect an underwriter to ask which you do.

Describe protection ratings accurately

Protection levels are a product claim, and a wrong one is a dispute waiting to happen. The National Institute of Justice published NIJ Standard 0101.07 in November 2023. It uses new protection levels set out in NIJ Standard 0123.00: HG1 and HG2 replace the former Level II and IIIA, RF1 and RF3 replace the former Level III and Level IV, and RF2 is a new intermediate rifle level.

NIJ's Compliance Testing Program publishes Compliant Products Lists of models that have been tested and found compliant, and listed products may display NIJ's seal. NIJ has published a list for 0101.07 and expects to keep the 0101.06 list running through at least the end of 2029, so both sets of level names will be on the market for years. Product pages should say which standard a rating refers to and whether the model is on an NIJ list, and should not imply testing that has not happened.

How payment platforms treat body armor

General-purpose platforms tend not to name body armor at all, which leaves it to their discretion:

• Stripe's prohibited and restricted businesses list, last updated September 22, 2026, prohibits illegal weapons and accessories and treats legal firearms and other weapons as restricted, with limited availability through its sales team. It does not mention body armor.
• Square's General Terms, dated October 27, 2026 and applying to all Square sellers from November 12, 2026, prohibit using its services to sell firearms, firearm parts, ammunition, weapons or other devices designed to cause physical harm. Body armor is not named.

A store selling only armor may never trip those clauses. A store that sells armor alongside holsters, magazine pouches, ammunition or firearm parts, as many tactical retailers do, is the kind of account a platform may review and close after it has started processing, with funds held while it does. A dedicated merchant account with an acquirer that has approved the category in advance avoids finding out after the fact.

What an underwriter will ask a body armor retailer

Expect an acquirer to want evidence that you know what you sell, who may buy it and where it may go:

• A catalog sorted by type, such as soft armor, hard plates, plate carriers sold without plates and armored garments, with the protection level, the standard it refers to and NIJ list status for each rated product.
• Your state restriction table and how checkout enforces it, including blocks on New York and Connecticut shipping addresses for consumer orders and how you handle a billing address in one state and a shipping address in another.
• How you handle sales to eligible professionals and agencies, if you make them, including what documentation you collect and how in-person requirements are met.
• Your export policy: whether you ship abroad, and if so how products are classified and destinations checked.
• Any other product lines, especially firearms, ammunition or parts, which may need to be underwritten separately.
• Refund, return and shipping policies as customers see them at checkout, plus monthly volume, average order value and the share of sales made online.

If you also sell firearms, our guide to MCC 5723, the firearms merchant category code, explains how that product line is classified.

Keeping disputes winnable

Online armor sales draw the same disputes as any card-not-present retailer, plus one that rating claims make more likely. Fraud claims come under Visa Dispute Condition 10.4, Other Fraud – Card-Absent Environment, missing deliveries under 13.1, Merchandise/Services Not Received, and buyers who say the product is not what was described under 13.3, Not as Described or Defective Merchandise/Services. Our guide to Visa chargeback reason codes covers each one. For each order, keep:

• The order record, the policies the customer accepted and the product page, including the stated protection level, as it appeared at the time of sale
• The shipping address and the record that it passed your state restriction check
• Carrier tracking and delivery confirmation, with an adult signature where you require one
• The AVS and card security code results, and device or IP data for the order
• Any customer contact about the order and your response

A body armor retailer that blocks the states it cannot ship to, describes its ratings accurately and has a clear answer on exports is a reasonable file for a high-risk acquirer. If that describes your business, talk to a PayKings specialist about an account built for it.