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Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 7:23 am
by Kythas
Thanks for the great replies. The quote from BATFE sealed it for me - it's ok to purchase a gun with the intent of giving it away as a gift as long as the person to whom I'm giving it can legally possess it.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:29 pm
by magillapd
I'm about to buy a new revolver and after I put it through it's paces, I'm going to ship it to PA to my parents house to "store" for me. It's always going to be my gun, my dad is just going to keep it in his table by his chair for in home self defense. When he is gone, it's coming back to me. So.....it'll always be mine.
I will either ship it FFL or hold it until I take a trip up there again.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:45 pm
by SQLGeek
magillapd wrote:I'm about to buy a new revolver and after I put it through it's paces, I'm going to ship it to PA to my parents house to "store" for me. It's always going to be my gun, my dad is just going to keep it in his table by his chair for in home self defense. When he is gone, it's coming back to me. So.....it'll always be mine.
I will either ship it FFL or hold it until I take a trip up there again.
Even if you take a trip up there, I think you have to transfer it to him via an FFL in PA.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 4:53 pm
by magillapd
SQLGeek wrote:magillapd wrote:I'm about to buy a new revolver and after I put it through it's paces, I'm going to ship it to PA to my parents house to "store" for me. It's always going to be my gun, my dad is just going to keep it in his table by his chair for in home self defense. When he is gone, it's coming back to me. So.....it'll always be mine.
I will either ship it FFL or hold it until I take a trip up there again.
Even if you take a trip up there, I think you have to transfer it to him via an FFL in PA.
Again, the gun isn't going to be his. It's mine and will always be mine. Same thing as my old childhood shotgun that I left up their. They are free to use it, but at no time will it not belong to me.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 5:15 pm
by G.A. Heath
magillapd wrote:SQLGeek wrote:magillapd wrote:I'm about to buy a new revolver and after I put it through it's paces, I'm going to ship it to PA to my parents house to "store" for me. It's always going to be my gun, my dad is just going to keep it in his table by his chair for in home self defense. When he is gone, it's coming back to me. So.....it'll always be mine.
I will either ship it FFL or hold it until I take a trip up there again.
Even if you take a trip up there, I think you have to transfer it to him via an FFL in PA.
Again, the gun isn't going to be his. It's mine and will always be mine. Same thing as my old childhood shotgun that I left up their. They are free to use it, but at no time will it not belong to me.
We understand that, but the ATF will still consider it a transfer.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 6:42 pm
by magillapd
G.A. Heath wrote:magillapd wrote:SQLGeek wrote:magillapd wrote:I'm about to buy a new revolver and after I put it through it's paces, I'm going to ship it to PA to my parents house to "store" for me. It's always going to be my gun, my dad is just going to keep it in his table by his chair for in home self defense. When he is gone, it's coming back to me. So.....it'll always be mine.
I will either ship it FFL or hold it until I take a trip up there again.
Even if you take a trip up there, I think you have to transfer it to him via an FFL in PA.
Again, the gun isn't going to be his. It's mine and will always be mine. Same thing as my old childhood shotgun that I left up their. They are free to use it, but at no time will it not belong to me.
We understand that, but the ATF will still consider it a transfer.
I guess I don't see it that way. So I'm not allowed to keep and store guns at someone elses house? How is this different from me leaving a car up there and letting them drive it? I'd still be the owner but they would be the users.
I'm not trying to argue, I just don't understand. Since I'm not reqired to "register" a gun in either TX or PA why does it matter where I keep it? The truth is my dad isn't in very good health. When he's no longer with us, I'm bringing my gun back to my home in TX.
I don't see why the ATF needs to get involved in the storage/use of a gun when ownership isn't be transfered. My father will not be free to sell that gun to anyone because he'd not be the owner of it.
I know our Govt has some really screwed up laws, but I'm truly lost on this.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 6:57 pm
by seamusTX
I understand your situation and what you are trying to accomplish, but consider this scenario: What if a member of the Crips buys a firearm and "stores" it at the home of a relative in another state for the relative to perhaps use every once in a while—for gang business?
The legal intent of the Gun Control Act of 1968, which is where this particular hangup in the law comes from, was to make that a criminal act.
I'm not defending the law. I think it is practically useless except for occasionally prosecuting gun-runners who have committed no other crime that can be proved in court. But we're stuck with it.
I think you could accomplish your goal by buying a gift certificate (I guess they're cards nowadays) at a sporting goods store and taking your father there to purchase his own weapon. That would be completely copacetic.
Again, I think this law is useless, but it is the law and can be prosecuted while all kinds of other criminal activity goes under the radar.
- Jim
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 8:33 pm
by magillapd
Well thank you for letting me know this. There is no way that he can go to a store to buy it or sign any paperwork. He's totally disabled and pretty much confined to his chair (unable to defend himself using any physical force hence the reason for the gun in the first place). My sister or mother will have to buy it I suppose.
I'm glad that I didn't become a Felon by doing what I wanted to do.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2011 10:41 pm
by G.A. Heath
magillapd wrote:G.A. Heath wrote:magillapd wrote:SQLGeek wrote:magillapd wrote:I'm about to buy a new revolver and after I put it through it's paces, I'm going to ship it to PA to my parents house to "store" for me. It's always going to be my gun, my dad is just going to keep it in his table by his chair for in home self defense. When he is gone, it's coming back to me. So.....it'll always be mine.
I will either ship it FFL or hold it until I take a trip up there again.
Even if you take a trip up there, I think you have to transfer it to him via an FFL in PA.
Again, the gun isn't going to be his. It's mine and will always be mine. Same thing as my old childhood shotgun that I left up their. They are free to use it, but at no time will it not belong to me.
We understand that, but the ATF will still consider it a transfer.
I guess I don't see it that way. So I'm not allowed to keep and store guns at someone elses house? How is this different from me leaving a car up there and letting them drive it? I'd still be the owner but they would be the users.
I'm not trying to argue, I just don't understand. Since I'm not reqired to "register" a gun in either TX or PA why does it matter where I keep it? The truth is my dad isn't in very good health. When he's no longer with us, I'm bringing my gun back to my home in TX.
I don't see why the ATF needs to get involved in the storage/use of a gun when ownership isn't be transfered. My father will not be free to sell that gun to anyone because he'd not be the owner of it.
I know our Govt has some really screwed up laws, but I'm truly lost on this.
If it were a simple matter of storage then it would be legal, the thing that gets you into trouble is allowing the person who you "store" it with to use it. Because they will use/handle the firearm they have control of it, and since they have control of the firearm you have "transferred" it to them.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 1:49 pm
by Heartland Patriot
This sort of thing highlights my full and abiding disgust with the NFA of 1934, the GCA of 1968, the FOPA of 1986 and the thankfully departed AWB of 1994. They are all fairly useless against REAL badguys (and gals)...but plenty good to send regular folks up the river with...for things like you described among a host of other offenses that folks didn't even know they were committing. I'm all for prosecuting the daylights out of someone for using a firearm in the commission of a crime such as murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc...but all of these laws are simply onerous regulation that do NOTHING for the protection of citizens or their rights.
Re: Gun as a Gift
Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2011 2:56 pm
by 74novaman
Heartland Patriot wrote:This sort of thing highlights my full and abiding disgust with the NFA of 1934, the GCA of 1968, the FOPA of 1986 and the thankfully departed AWB of 1994. They are all fairly useless against REAL badguys (and gals)...but plenty good to send regular folks up the river with...for things like you described among a host of other offenses that folks didn't even know they were committing. I'm all for prosecuting the daylights out of someone for using a firearm in the commission of a crime such as murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, etc...but all of these laws are simply onerous regulation that do NOTHING for the protection of citizens or their rights.
Wait, so you're saying that having a shotgun barrel under the arbitrarily decided upon length by our supreme overlords SHOULDN'T be grounds for murdering your family? What a novel concept! (Ruby Ridge).