CoalTrain49 said:
I found this which basically makes it illegal to "gift" a ghost gun.
Actually, no.
This is a little hard to grasp but it works like this:
The operative function under federal law is a "transfer." ANY movement of a firearm from one person to another is a transfer. Selling a gun is a transfer. Giving a gun is a transfer. Loaning a gun is a transfer. It's all a matter of possession. Not anything to do with who's name is on paperwork somewhere, i.e. who "owns" it.
Under federal law you may sell a gun as a private person. You may give a gun away as a private person. You may loan one to someone. You may sell, give, or loan a gun that you bought, or one that you made yourself. The origin of the gun doesn't matter. Transferring a gun you made to someone else is quite legal (under federal law).
What you may not do is be "
in the business of" making guns for sale or distribution. You need a manufacturer's license (Type 7 FFL, most commonly) to do that. "Or distribution" in this case would cover any instance where someone might try to say they were making a guns for the purposes of giving them away (as sales incentives or whatever) and trying to make the case that they weren't acting as an unlicensed manufacturer because all those guns they made weren't sold for money, but given away as gifts or promotions.
The most important words in the quote you found is "
for". "...a license is require to manufacture firearms
FOR sale or distribution." Making a gun for yourself and then deciding to give it away (or sell it) later on is not against the law. Making guns FOR the purpose of selling or distributing them requires a license. In the end, it isn't all that complicated to understand the difference, though certainly there's grey area.*
Theoretically, if they had some reason to do so, a prosecutor could make the case that you were in the business of manufacturing guns for sale or distribution if you only sold or gave away one gun you'd made. But that's not what they're after. If they're trying to prosecute someone for being an unlicensed manufacturer, they're going to look for patterns of behavior, transaction receipts, correspondence establishing terms of trade or sale, etc.
* -- Grey area: It is perfectly legal to buy a firearm TO BE A GIFT. You can buy a firearm with the sole purpose for that purchase being that you will immediately give it to your pal Fred. That's 100% lawful. I believe, therefore, there is no reason you cannot build a firearm for the purpose of giving that firearm to you pal Fred as a personal gift. But I'm not 100% sure.
If you buy a lot of firearms and give them all away, you might end up in a situation where the ATF is looking through your affairs to see if a case can be made that you're violating laws on being a dealer. I imagine if you build a lot of guns and give them away you're going to run into the same issue, even faster.