Can my wife ship to me?

[Sam1911]

You can play the husband/wife/joint ownership/Mr&Mrs game all you want, but the fact remains that Federal law prohibits the interstate shipment of a firearm to a nonlicensee with just a couple of exceptions:
1. The return of a repaired or replaced firearm from gunsmith/manufacturer to customer.
2. Shipping a firearm to yourself at an address in another state.

Three! The whole bequest possibility. Equally non-applicable here, though.

 

[Frank Ettin]

So why can't the wife take HER gun out to WA the next time she travels there and STORE it in her husband's apartment?...

She can; but if she's going to just store it has her husband's apartment, she will need to secure it in a locked case or safe to which he does not have a key or combination. He he has access to the gun it's likely that a judge will find that leaving the gun was effectively a transfer.

...The up side to this is that it will be impossible to prove an illegal transfer occurred after the fact unless the firearm is declared on the manifest of an airline. If she is found in possession of it on the trip out then she is simply in possession of her own gun while traveling. If he is found in possession of it after he leaves the there is no way to prove he didn't bring it with him when he first came there months ago.

And all of that garbage is about getting away with committing a federal crime, not about being legal. We do not encourage violations of the law here, nor to we help folks figure out how to get away with criminal acts.

And you can never be all that sure what a prosecutor might be able to prove to the satisfaction of a jury. There are probably a lot of folks in prison right now who thought they wouldn't get caught or convicted. Among other things, posts on Internet discussion boards can be very useful to a prosecutor.

...The whole bequest possibility. Equally non-applicable here, though.

Yup, dying is a pretty tough and extreme way to do an interstate transfer without benefit of an FFL.

 

[michaelbsc]

Well, all the legal mumbo jumbo aside, I've made my decision. I said it a few posts ago.

The "gun control" morons have made it so difficult that I'm going to *BUY ANOTHER GUN!!! so there's yet another gun on the street.

That's right. Rather than just use a gun I already own, and give the money to the poor, I'm going to buy another gun and put that money into the coffers of evil gun manufacturers who probably abuse their employees and feed them bad food in the company cafeteria.

 

[michaelbsc]

Just to follow up on this, I have purchased one handgun, and have another on layaway. (I can only spend so much money at once.)

So because of the inane rules to makes us all safer, there will now be *TWO MORE HANDGUNS* in the world.

Take that! Brady campaign.

 

[Jim K]

"As has been repeated often on THR and in this thread, ownership has NOTHING to do with the transfer of possession."

Yep. The exception of allowing a person to ship to himself or herself was to allow a person travelling to another state (usually for hunting), to ship the gun to a third party (like a hunting guide) marked "to be opened only by (shipper's name)". The person could then travel to the hunting camp without the bother of carrying the gun and pick it up from the guide.

But you didn't ship the gun to yourself before you left, and you didn't ship it to a third party. And your wife is not you, even in NC. And who owns the gun is irrelevant.

Jim

 

[michaelbsc]

I just think it's so crazy that the rules are designed to encourage us to have fewer guns, but have in fact unintentionally resulted in more gun sales because my already legally owned guns are in limbo.

It's perfectly true that I could have waited until my next trip back east and shipped to myself. But as someone else mentioned, never waste a good excuse to buy a gun. And boy was this a great one.

 

[Frank Ettin]

I just think it's so crazy that the rules are designed to encourage us to have fewer guns,...

Actually no, that's not the purpose of the law. The law is to regulate interstate dealing in guns and to assure that as many transfers as possible go through an FFL with all the associated formalities.

 

[mgkdrgn]

But it does sound like, since I've been here for months, and I do have an address that I use, I now "qualify" as a Washington resident at least for the remaining months I'm here.

Ergo, while I could not purchase a handgun when I first got here, I can make the justification that I'm here now, and then use my WA address on the 4473.

Do I have this right?

Of course, there ain't much on the shelf these days, and it's all at a premium price. Not sure I'm willing to do this.

IF you have some sort of Washington State Government issued ID, with your photo and Washington State address on it, you can do that, yes. Or, you could have your wife ship to a Washington State FFL.

 

[Krusty783]

Why not trade one federal crime for another???

Have your wife ship the firearm to herself at your house in WA. If you happen to open it before she gets there, you've just stolen mail instead of illegally transfered a firearm...

This is a very tricky and less than forthright section of our laws. I believe I've read cases on here before of someone, say a man, owning firearms and their wife is charged/convicted of a crime. Legally, the woman can't possess firearms, but the man doesn't want to sell his collection.

Can the firearms be stored in the couple's home in a gun safe if the wife doesn't know the combination? Do they have to be stored at another location? The laws about communal property and firearm possession don't really jive or make sense in regards to firearms.
-----------
If you had the firearms as properties of a trust, you could legally transfer possession between you two without a 4473. However, shipment restrictions would still apply; namely that the private carriers require common folk to ship handguns via next day air and only to manufacturers or dealers. I suppose you could try to find a knowledgeable and friendly LGS in WA to accept your shipments for you, without requiring a 4473 before you leave.

 

[leeggen]

gun shipment

MY HEAD HURTS! why not just be safe and use a lic. dealer to ship it. in the time it took to read all this I could have found a dealer at both ins. Don't smack the hornets nest just to see what will happen.

 

[Art Eatman]

E. Nuf.