Questions About Private Gun Sales
Rob PincusPrivate gun sales: good or bad? Should you be worried about buying a gun privately from someone you don’t know, or selling a gun privately to someone you don’t know? These are reasonable questions for a responsible gun owner.
Anti-Gun Propaganda
The idea that private gun sales are somehow automatically bad has been perpetuated by those with an anti-gun agenda. Many people who don’t understand how firearms ownership works may think you’re doing something wrong if you buy or sell a firearm without going through a licensed dealer.
Legal Private Gun Sales
In some areas there are laws against private gun sales, but in the majority of the United States, there are circumstances under which it is legal for you to transfer a firearm to someone else, either as a gift or a sale. They don’t have to do a background check or be registered with a dealer. You don’t have to let anyone know except that person. It’s like buying any other personally owned property, whether it’s defensive gear or not.
You do have a moral and ethical obligation to know where that firearm ends up or where it came from. This is not always a legal issue. (And if it is illegal where you live to do private gun sales, don’t do it.)
Precautions
What if you are considering legally selling a firearm to — or buying one from — someone you don’t know? What reasonable precautions should you take?
Private gun sales, good or bad? Is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do? Should you be worried about buying a gun privately from someone you don't know or selling a gun privately to someone you don't know? These are all reasonable questions for a responsible gun owner. The fact is that private gun sales, gun show loopholes, these ideas that off record gun sales are somehow automatically bad has certainly been perpetuated by those with the anti-gun agenda.
And that information sort of gets passed around in the mass media and then the middle ground of America that doesn't really understand how firearms ownership works might think, wow, if you are selling a gun privately and you are not using a licensed dealer, you are doing something wrong. The fact is that in some places there are actual laws against private transfers of firearms. But if you live in the vast majority of the United States there are circumstances under which it is perfectly legal for you to transfer a firearm to someone else, either as a gift or selling it to them. You don't have to do a background check, they don't have to be registered with a local dealer, you don't have to let anyone know except that person. If you feel like they are giving you a reasonable price for the gun or you feel like they are asking a reasonable price for the gun, there ends the transaction.
And it's very much like buying or selling any other piece of personally owned property. But there are certainly comes a moral, ethical, integrity issue with the obligation you have to where that firearm ends up or where that firearm came from. It's gonna in your personal interest to have some idea of what's gonna happen in both cases. Now, again, this isn't always a legal issue. If there is a legal issue then it should be pretty black and white either there are legal private sales in your area or there aren't.
If there aren't, it's not a good idea to do any private sale. You don't wanna get involved in that obviously, it's a violation of law. No responsible firearms owner would enter into that situation. So you go to the dealer, your buddy wants to sell you a gun, cool. You go to a gun shop, you do the appropriate transfer, you do the appropriate paperwork, you pay the appropriate fee to have that dealer take care of that transaction.
But in the case that you are legally allowed to buy gun from someone or sell a gun to someone that you don't know, what are the reasonable precautions that someone might take? Well, on the few occasions that I've done this and in recent history I really haven't done it very much except maybe to give a gift to someone or to receive a gift from someone. When it comes to the actual transfer where maybe you've made an arrangement on the internet or you've met someone at a gun range or at a gun shop that you don't know very well and they have a firearm you wanna buy or they wanna buy a firearm from you. And you are just gonna go ahead and do that cash transaction. A couple of things I'd suggest you do.
First, you wanna make sure that you get some kind of idea who this person is. Get a photocopy of their ID, maybe you pull out your smartphone, your cell phone, you take a picture of their driver's license. If the person isn't comfortable with you taking the picture of their driver's license, with letting you have a photocopy of their driver's license. Well, that's a red flag. You are selling them a potentially lethal tool, you are selling them something that your name may be attached to on some federal paperwork.
There is a responsibility here, there is a trust factor here. And if they don't trust you with the information of who they are and where that gun went, there is a problem. If they don't trust you with the information about where the gun you are purchasing came from I consider that a red flag. So there is one thing that you might wanna do, you could also take that a step further if you are selling the gun to the person, maybe you are gonna ask for a concealed carry permit. If you are in a state which requires ID for firearms ownership, then private sales are also probably pretty tightly controlled.
But if you end up in a situation where the state requires an ID or a permit to own a firearm, or maybe a city does and they don't require any special restrictions on private sales, then you probably wanna make sure that you understand it's in your best interest to make sure that person had the legal permit to own the gun or to own the gun you are about to sell them before you go ahead with that transaction. The other thing you're gonna wanna get obviously is a bill of sale. That bill of sale is going to be signed by both parties is just gonna maybe have the information about the price. That way you can say, okay, no, I didn't just give this gun to this person, I didn't just take this gun from this person but there was an actual business transaction here. That'll probably be something you wanna be able to say.
Also if for any reason that transaction, that sale, that transfer of one firearm from one person to another gets asked about by any authorities in the future. So, couple of simple precautions if you are going to do a private sale, first make sure it's legal, second make sure you know who you are getting the gun from, who you are giving it to and you have some way to track that information or share that information with the authorities if it becomes important in the future. That also will establish that trust between you and that person that not only is the firearm exchange happening but there is an information exchange happening as well. And in that last part is making sure that you understand that they can legally own the firearm as far as you know or that they did legally own the firearm they are transferring to you as far as you know in the jurisdiction that you are actually doing that transfer in. You wanna be careful about things like crossing state lines and you wanna be careful about anytime somebody says, hey, let's make sure that no dealers know about this or I don't want so and so or anyone else to know this transaction is happening, probably another red flag.
Private sales when they are legal, nothing wrong with them whatsoever. I've engaged with them, I'm sure I'll engage with them again. But when I do, I'm gonna take reasonable precautions to have the information at hand that I need to know that I'm not making a mistake or that I'm at least acting with appropriate responsible precautions in place when I do a private transfer.
Saying that it is a "red flag" if a buyer doesn't want the seller to take a picture of their ID is misguided. With identity theft at an all-time high, it is irresponsible to let your ID (ID = identification after all) out of your personal control. What assurances do you have that the person taking the picture of your ID will safeguard it appropriately? Especially if this requirement is sprung on the buyer at the time of sale, this would be a deal killer for me and the vast majority of security and privacy conscious people I know.
Keep a written record of every gun you buy or sell, including photocopies of buyer or seller's ID, store receipts, even written notes based on memory (I've bought shotguns at yard sales). You can do a spreadsheet or just a list on your computer, but print out a hard copy periodically, and store the hard copy somewhere -- NOT the gun safe. If your guns are stolen or damaged by fire or flood, this copy can help you report the serial numbers to the police or make the insurance claim. I know a retired LE officer who was contacted twice by the FBI over a 30 year period because he was the original purchaser of guns they had recovered. In both cases, it was only because he had the written records that he was able to tell them who he sold the guns to (he didn't actually remember either gun). I also urge my students to have the paperwork for private sales handled by a FFL dealer -- Most will do the sale for $20-30, and you're off the hook if the Feds OK the purchase. Here in Minnesota it is a gross misdemeanor to sell a pistol or 'assault weapon' to someone who you know is prohibited from owning or possessing, and it becomes a felony if they use the gun to commit an crime of violence within one year after the purchase.