Can I Buy a Gun In Another State? In-Person Interstate Firearm Transfers and Purchases.

2 years ago
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Today’s question: How can you legally buy a gun when you’re in another state? How do out of state gun purchases work? The Armed Attorneys break down the law regarding legally purchasing a firearm while out of your home state.

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PARTIAL AUTO-TRANSCRIPT
today we're going to talk about how to legally purchase firearms when you are in another state so you're not in your home state you decided there's a gun you found that you really want to buy and i think we'll start off just by saying the general rule is you're not going to be able to buy that gun however there is a very narrow exception for buying a firearm when you are in another state so richard do you want to kick us off on this yes and so as emily said this is the exception of the rule the exception of the rule and we're talking about long guns only this does not apply to handguns so you could potentially buy a long gun in another state so long as you meet certain qualifications and the the important ones are that you are buying it from a federal firearms license dealer an ffl you are qualified to purchase and possess firearms and ammunition so they're going to run you know do a ATF 4473 and kind of another important consideration to think about is that the firearm is legal you know the firearm has to be legal at the end of the day in the state that you live in okay so this is where the hang up is and why we see it kind of at the discretion of ffls ... let's say you're in a gun store in texas but you're a resident of california or new york or new jersey you might find that that texas ffl dealer is really unlikely to go ahead and make the sale of you know let's say this ar platform rifle to you even though they have this exemption under federal law why are they unwilling well it's generally going to be because they don't know they don't know if it's a legal gun in california in new york in new jersey they don't want to risk their license to make one sale ... there are lots of stores who are just not going to risk it yeah and i get that question a lot hey this store won't sell me a gun well they have discretion under federal law it's 100 within the discretion of the ffl if they choose to sell someone a firearm or not sell someone a firearm um and they gave them this discretion because sometimes you can't articulate exactly why or you know have a objective criteria that would knock somebody out but you just kind of get a weird feeling uh well one they want ffls to say okay if you're if you've got a weird feeling in your stomach we don't want you selling this person a gun but as a practical matter they may just say hey as a store policy we're not going to sell guns to residents of other states ... what you'll see as a practical matter you know you might see mom and pop shops sell you know guns to residents of other states you know following the law of course but our big stores our big stores will just you know kind of make these blanket prohibitions ... we've actually had a very recent court ruling say that's okay academy did not break the law the firearm itself was legal the magazine is not the firearm so that was in fact a legal transaction under federal law but you can see how i think lots of stores particularly ones with really involved lawyers and in-house counsel are going to say as a practical matter we don't make enough money on this to take the risk and to sell to people out of state because it really i mean this is some of the first times we're litigating these issues it's too much of a gray area yeah so to to summarize you know in person got to be qualified to possess firearms or ammunition long guns only and it's at the discretion of the federal firearms license dealer it's so it's a gun store it's not going to be a private individual that would not be lawful so so long as you meet all those qualifications and they want to engage in the private sale they in the in the sale through the ffl they absolutely can ...

attorneys you

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