When does a hobby become a business?

[barnbwt]

If it's not legal for widows to sell of their husbands hundreds of thousands of dollars of guns at an estate sale (which it isn't, from what I understand), there is therefore no limit whatsoever to how many guns you can sell before it becomes a 'business.' The limit is perception, and as we all know, perception is a moving target. All you can do is try to objectively look at your activities and see if they have the appearance of impropriety; same rules as what governs bribes/corruption.

"Here's a hint: no one knows where the line is. If the OP's friend is unlucky, whether or not he's crossed the line will be decided by a jury."
Technically, it will be decided by a law enforcement officer (ATF agent, but possibly a local cop who does the referral). By the time an officer has decided to pursue you, you're already unlucky, and on track to losing much of your savings, peace of mind, and probably hair. The process for proving your innocence for something this technical almost by rule requires a lot of litigation, meaning it takes a lot of time and money to get any result. In the meantime, there's a good chance your funds have run out, and you've settled with the ATF to never mess with guns again; voluntarily giving up your gun rights in order to walk. It's not quite a Kafka-court situation yet, but it's getting there...

The real trick is to conduct your affairs such that no one cop could conceivably distort your actions into the appearance of gun dealing; and then also be sure you don't give them a reason to try, either

TCB

 

[dogtown tom]

barnbwt If it's not legal for widows to sell of their husbands hundreds of thousands of dollars of guns at an estate sale (which it isn't, from what I understand).....

There is no such law or prohibition in Federal law and therefore perfectly legal.

Did you read what was posted above?:

Frank Ettin Quote:
Let's say someone has inherited a large collection from someone and needs cash more than he needs the guns. Or someone with a large, long standing collection, is sending one of his kids off to college and needs to turn a bunch of guns he's owned for a long time into cash. A one time dispersal of a large number of guns owned for a long time is probably going to be on the okay side of the line.

The number of guns for sale could be a factor, but will not, apparently, be, in and of itself, determinative. As the Third Circuit said (U.S. v. Tyson, 653 F.3d 192 (3rd Cir., 2011), at 200-201):

Quote:
...Although the quantity and frequency of sales are obviously a central concern, so also are (1) the location of the sales, (2) the conditions under which the sales occurred, (3) the defendant's behavior before, during, and after the sales, (4) the price charged for the weapons and the characteristics of the firearms sold, and (5) the intent of the seller at the time of the sales. Id. (explaining that “the finder of fact must examine the intent of the actor and all circumstances surrounding the acts alleged to constitute engaging in business”). As is often the case in such analyses, the importance of any one of these considerations is subject to the idiosyncratic nature of the fact pattern presented... ....

There are hundreds of estate sales every day (with firearms). I've yet to hear of anyone being arrested or prosecuted for disposing of the decedents firearms.