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Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:55 pm
by Stupid
If I bought a gun, then turned around and sold to my friend who had a CHL, would that be a straw purchase?
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 7:26 pm
by Beiruty
I guess a straw purchase only the second buyer could not buy the firearm by himself. If he has a clean record he would be cleared anyway for any Background check.
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:44 pm
by dicion
Depends.
Were you intentionally buying it with the intent to sell it to your friend?
If so, yes, that is a straw purchase, and illegal.
If you, however, legitimately bought it for yourself, and for whatever reason, decided to sell it to him afterward, that is not a straw purchase.
It doesn't matter if he could legally obtain it or not. If you bought it with the intention of immediately selling it to Anyone, and are not a dealer, then it is a straw purchase, and a Felony.
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:52 pm
by joe817
dicion wrote:Depends.
Were you intentionally buying it with the intent to sell it to your friend?
If so, yes, that is a straw purchase, and illegal.
If you, however, legitimately bought it for yourself, and for whatever reason, decided to sell it to him afterward, that is not a straw purchase.
It doesn't matter if he could legally obtain it or not. If you bought it with the intention of immediately selling it to Anyone, and are not a dealer, then it is a straw purchase, and a Felony.

Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:57 pm
by Beiruty
So what if the friend ask you to buy him the firearm since he is so busy in his life.? Do you need a license to be a gun reseller? most likely the re-sale is for profit. Also, who in the world the prosecutor can proven the intent of the original buyer?
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 8:58 pm
by mr surveyor
hhhmmmmmmmm.......
and how much time must elapse before you decide you really didn't want the firearm and decided to take your friend's offer?
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:09 pm
by Stupid
http://www.atf.gov/firearms/ffrrg/theater/toon4.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
From this ATF cartoon, it shows one can only buy for him/herself regardless the actual recipient can or cannot legally purchase the firearm.
A transaction is legal as long as the person who fills out from 4473 does so truthfully and completes it as the actual purchaser. The crime committed is knowingly making a false statement on the Form 4473 indicating that the straw purchaser is the actual purchaser, when this is not the case.
OK, I don't pretend to know the law and everything, from what it sounds like, if a person buys a gun with the intent to resell, that's a straw purchase and a federal offense?
How can that even be proven?
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:12 pm
by Stupid
mr surveyor wrote:hhhmmmmmmmm.......
and how much time must elapse before you decide you really didn't want the firearm and decided to take your friend's offer?
You cannot, if ever, well, according the law. You can only purchase a firearm for yourself. If the idea of selling has ever crossed your mind, you would be committing federal crime.
That doesn't sound right, or does it?
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:19 pm
by Beiruty
It is well known that so many people are unlicensed dealers or let us say resellers. They browse Gun sites like gunbroker pick discounted firearms and then resell those items. They never had the intent to keep the firearms for themselves or for their own use. Simply, buy discounted and resell at 5-10% profit. They can claim that they are collectors and they buy firearms for their "beauty" and then sell them when they are bored with their looks. How the prosecutor will be able to make case of straw purchase or even of unlicensed firearm dealer is beyond my capability.
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:30 pm
by The Annoyed Man
Beiruty wrote:So what if the friend ask you to buy him the firearm since he is so busy in his life.?
Then he's too busy to learn and practice good gun safety, and to busy to learn what he can and can't do under the law. Tell him to buy his own and quit using other people.
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:47 pm
by mr surveyor
no offense to anyone here, but I think there a few folks getting their panties in a wad over nothing. Are you guys going to tell me that I can not legally sell a firearm in a face to face transaction to another person that I know can legally purchase, own and possess a firearm? That's exactly what I'm hearing (figuratively...actually reading) here! I have a circle of friends that attend church together, hunt together, shoot together, and share most every other life experience with. We trade/swap/sell guns back and forth between us as often as some folks change their underwear. It's NOT uncommon for one of our group to pick up a sweetheart deal F2F at a gun show, or from another friend outside of our group, and a couple of weeks later that one ends up in "the circle".
Sure, I believe that there is such a thing as a "straw purchase", but I believe the definition has been grossly exaggerated in this thread.
just my uneducated opinion
surv
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2009 11:54 pm
by ghostrider
> So what if the friend ask you to buy him the firearm since he is so busy in his life.
I wouldn't do it.
However, I will not only admit that in this case the law is not only stupid, its more restrictive than in countries that are generally thought to have much worse gun laws (Canada). Mind you, every firearm in Canada is supposed to registered and that includes FTF transactions that don't involve a licensed dealer.
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 12:00 am
by ghostrider
>Are you guys going to tell me that I can not legally sell a firearm in a face to face
> transaction to another person that I know can legally purchase, own and possess a firearm?
No. What the law says is that you cannot buy a firearm with the intent of selling to another, regardless of whether they can legally purchase/possess the firearm. As others have asked, how do you prove that intent? How long must you own the firearm before you can legally decide you want to sell it? 1 hr, 1 day? 2 months? And if the firearm was originally purchased privately, how can it be proven how long you owned.
Even more ridiculous is that its perfectly legal to purchase a firearm with the intent of giving it as a gift. Why is that ok?
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 1:29 am
by 03Lightningrocks
The spirit of the law is to prevent home boys who cannot legally purchase a "gat" from getting their girlfriends to purchase gats for them. Getting caught up in this breach of the law could send a perfectly respectable, church going hunter, straight to prison. The law is real clear and straight up simple. You cannot purchase any firearm with the intention to sell it to someone else. Again, the point of the law is to keep persons who cannot legally purchase a firearm from simply having someone do it for them. Does it work??? Probably not. I am not sure how they would even catch someone doing this. Short of being a retard and taking some strangers offer to buy them a gun for a fee, the gubbermint would have a real hard time ever proving your intentions were to buy the gun to sell to your hunting buddy. Unless your buddy cracked under the threat of prison and snitched you out...which is quite common for folks looking at 15 year prison sentences.
Re: Straw purchase
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:59 am
by Beiruty
Straw Purchases are meant to put criminals and their gun buying agents in prison. Why in the world a 2 honest squeak clean record guys have to go to prison for just a gun reseale?