Transfering/Buying a rifle from a friend question!

[bodul67]

Thank you for the time to answer my question.

I live in NJ and a friend of mine lives in upstate NY. He had purchased a rifle a few years ago up there. When he bought it, all he did was show his driver's license and walked out the door with the rifle. He is now going to buy a new rifle and I would like to transfer/buy the first rifle from him. I have my NJ Firearms ID Card. Someone told me that there is a form to fill out. My question is what kind of form do we have to fill out and do I have to submit it to any kind of agency.(Local Police Dept or NJ State)

Once again, Thank you for your Time.

 

[dk148]

If your friend is a resident of NY and you are a resident of NJ, the only way you can legally get the rifle is to transfer it through an FFL in NJ. There is another legal way but that involves a will and the owner dying, you don't want to go that route.

 

[bodul67]

Thank you for the response. I'm new to this, I have my FFL card. I'm just not sure what the next step is.

 

[kingpin008]

The next step is him sending it to a FFL that will transfer it to you. He can do that through another FFL on his end, or if your dealer will accept shipments from non-FFL holders, he can ship it directly to him. As mentioned earlier, this is the only way to do this and stay legal - since you are resident of different states, it must go through a licensed dealer.

And to be clear, what you have is not an FFL card. What you have is a New Jersey FID card, and hopefully a purchase permit. A FFL is an actual dealer.

 

[Sam1911]

FFL = Federal Firearms Licensee. That's a professional dealer. You need to find a gun shop local to you and go ask them if they'll do this transfer for you.

It is possible that they will accept shipment of a rifle from your friend. It is also possible that they will only accept shipment from another dealer, which would require your friend to take the rifle to a dealer in his town and have them ship it to your dealer who will then transfer it to you.

This is going to cost you something between $50 and $150 (at a guess) by the time you pay one or two dealers' fees and shipping.

-Sam

 

[TehK1w1]

Eh, being optimistic (1 dealer fee of $35+ shipping) gives a figure of $50-$65.
How do you end up paying $150? High dealer fees?

 

[kingpin008]

It's NY & NJ. I can see cheap transfer fees being hard to come by.

 

[Sam1911]

Well, yes. Kingpin hit it on the head.

I've been quoted as high as $75 to transfer a RIFLE in MD (no, I didn't pay that, but it is what it is) and I've been quoted shipping costs that were all over the place.

If the O.P. shops around and gets a bit lucky, maybe he'll find an FFL that will accept a transfer from a non-licensed individual, and will do the transfer for $25, and they find the cheapest legal shipping method and maybe they can get it done for $50.

Or, the only closeby and willing FFL charges $75 for the transfer, and will only accept shipments from another FFL, and the seller's FFL wants something for his time (call it $25, that seems reasonable) and they insist on shipping it overnight or something ($60?), they could be in it for over $150. Sure, that would be a lot more expensive than it HAS to be, but if it takes them a month of phone calls and shop visits to find someone who will do it cheaper, it might not be worth the savings.

I was just trying to give him a realistic range of possibilities.

-Sam

 

[bodul67]

I'd like to thank everybodies reply. I understand now. I should find a FFL dealer up by him to ship it to FFL dealer by me to leagally transfer the rifle to me.

Thank you

 

[Speedo66]

Actually, the best thing would be for you to find a dealer in NJ that will accept a shipment from a non-dealer. If your friend can ship directly to that dealer, you only have to pay one dealer fee.

Shipping is not a problem, he can ship via the post office, UPS, or Fedex.

Now I've got a question:

Can the friend, if he's close enough, just bring the rifle to the dealer in NJ?

 

[Sam1911]

Can the friend, if he's close enough, just bring the rifle to the dealer in NJ?

I believe that would be fine. Ask the dealer first, but I don't see anything in the federal law that would disallow it. If you can mail the firearm to the dealer, you should be able to bring it to him in person.

Being that this is NJ, you'd want to be very careful to obey NJ's rules on transporting the gun (and, of course, triple-check that the gun and/or its magazines are legal there to begin with) but as long as you were going directly to the dealer's shop you should be fine.

(Get a second opinion on this, though. I'm not from NJ and avoid the place as though it were on fire -- and IANAL! This is just a layman's reading of the laws as listed on NRA-ILA.org.)

-Sam

 

[bodul67]

Thanks for the info. I'll go to this local dealer and find out from them.

Once again Thanks