Dual Residency for Student?

[jaymce]

What does a student need to prove dual residency in ME? Have a buddy going to school up there and wants to know. He has his MA LTC A and might want to buy a handgun at some time when he is up there over the next few years.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

He is going to have a hard time getting a dealer to accept that he is a "resident" unless he has a driver's license in the state in which he is attempting purchase. With most dealers you can explain your dual residency and the fact you meet ATF standards all you want, but it's just not worth it to the dealer to take the chance for a single sale.

 

[NinerMaine]

What does a student need to prove dual residency in ME? Have a buddy going to school up there and wants to know. He has his MA LTC A and might want to buy a handgun at some time when he is up there over the next few years.

It seems to me he would be able to do so. As a student he is living in the state per the info listed below from ATF web links. The problem I see is convincing an FFL of that fact. The form of ID used for purchasing a gun at an FFL is almost always the DL. With an out of state DL you may have trouble convincing the FFL that you can legally buy the handgun in ME. My advice is to copy this info and find an FFL who would look at it and then call the ATF to confirm it and find out what form of ID can be used.

From the ATF FAQ: http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/unlicensed-persons.html#state-residency


Q: What constitutes residency in a State?
The State of residence is the State in which an individual is present; the individual also must have an intention of making a home in that State. A member of the Armed Forces on active duty is a resident of the State in which his or her permanent duty station is located. If a member of the Armed Forces maintains a home in one State and the member’s permanent duty station is in a nearby State to which he or she commutes each day, then the member has two States of residence and may purchase a firearm in either the State where the duty station is located or the State where the home is maintained. An alien who is legally in the United States is considered to be a resident of a State only if the alien is residing in that State and has resided in that State continuously for a period of at least 90 days prior to the date of sale of the firearm. See also Item 5, “Sales to Aliens in the United States,” in the General Information section of this publication.

[18 U.S.C. 921(b), 922(a) (3), and 922(b)(3), 27 CFR 478.11]

Also from page 126 of this document:

http://www.atf.gov/publications/download/p/atf-p-5300-4.pdf

27 CFR 178.11: MEANING OF
TERMS
An out-of-State college student
may establish residence in a State
by residing and maintaining a
home in a college dormitory or in a
location off-campus during the
school term.

ATF Rul. 80-21

"State of residence" is defined by
regulation in 27 CFR 178.11 as the
State in which an individual regularly
resides or maintains a home. The
regulation also provides an example
of an individual who maintains a
home in State X and a home in State
Y. The individual regularly resides in
State X except for the summer
months and in State Y for the summer
months of the year. The regulation
states that during the time the individual
actually resides in State X he is a
resident of State X, and during the
time he actually resides in State Y he
is a resident of State Y.

Applying the above example to outof-
State college students it is held,
that during the time the students actually
reside in a college dormitory or
at an off-campus location they are
considered residents of the State
where the dormitory or off-campus
home is located. During the time outof-
State college students actually
reside in their home State they are
considered residents of their home
State.

 

[Len-2A Training]

What about pushing to get a RESIDENT ME CCW permit?

Can that be used for purchases (and with the ME address for proof of residency)?

ME State ID might be another way to do this too, since I don't think you can possess 2 DLs any more.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

My advice is to copy this info and find an FFL who would look at it and then call the ATF to confirm it and find out what form of ID can be used.

Good luck convincing the FFL to do that as even a verbal opinion from the FFL does not provide an absolute protection against a charge of selling to a non-resident.

 

[NinerMaine]

Good luck convincing the FFL to do that as even a verbal opinion from the FFL does not provide an absolute protection against a charge of selling to a non-resident.

As I said, that would be the difficult part. It is worth a try. It might be easier buying a gun from a dealer in a college town as they might have experience with it. I am not sure how one would prove you are a full time college student. Present a transcript? And how would the FFL confirm it is ligit? It will be a hard thing to do.

I know a ME FFL who refuses to sell to any MA resident. He says he has no idea what the laws are in MA or when they change. He is not willing to risk losing his FFL over a few sales a year. Plenty of other FFL's will sell long guns to MA residents tough and will stay on top of the law and what they can sell to them.

It is worth a shot. You might find the right FFL.

 

[Rob Boudrie]

The simple fact is that there is no way the FFL can obtain a binding ruling confirming, without a doubt, that the ATF will accept the student is in fact a "dual resident".

If this is really important, it might be worth changing your address each time you move, or getting the MA non-resident LTC. As long as you change your driver's license and voter registration, your new residence would be fully documented.

Or, you can use the Bump strategy and simply claim one is your "primary residence" and the other is your "principle residence".

 

[jaymce]

[
Or, you can use the Bump strategy and simply claim one is your "primary residence" and the other is your "principle residence".[/QUOTE]

Classic!

Not sure what his exact status up there will be. He may be staying year round or just for the school year.

Looks like he will just have to stick with the MA thing and call it a winner. I thought I had read about dual residency and wondered what that was all about. Looks like not an easy thing to overcome and may be more trouble than it is worth.

Thanks for the help

 

[Len-2A Training]

Sounds like some of the ladies on NES like making things much more complicated than they need to be!

He should get a ME ID, then try to get a resident ME CCW permit.

It'll be up to any individual FFL on whether to deal or not anyway.

Per BATFE Regs, if he's living there for 9 months of the year, he certainly is RESIDING in ME! He's legally entitled to purchase per Fed Law. I've never filled out a 4473 that required me to put down "what month did you move in?" "Do you intend to spend your life in this state?"

This has been here before. Too many require letters from the AG (both Federal and each state they reside/call home in) before they will believe anything.

 

[RKG]

What about pushing to get a RESIDENT ME CCW permit?

Can that be used for purchases (and with the ME address for proof of residency)?

ME State ID might be another way to do this too, since I don't think you can possess 2 DLs any more.

While BATF might consider a Massachusetts resident living for a short time in Maine as a student to be a Maine resident for purposes of the federal Gun Control Act, almost certainly Maine would not consider him to be a Maine resident for purposes of Maine law. (I haven't research Maine law and don't intend to, but virtually all of the states adhere to the common law view that one can be a resident of only one state at a time.) And simply applying for a Maine resident license -- with its concomitant requirement that the applicant declare himself to be a Maine resident -- would likely put his Massachusetts resident license in jeopardy.

 

[Climbnsink]

Flags of convenience- yeah bureaucrats hate that. I understand that according to scotus you are a resident of a state when you are there and decide you are a resident. Instantly. Instant residency works for welfare benefits, but not for gun benefits hmmmm.

 

[Nick-mc]

Interesting to see that no one has yet to comment on the fact that your friend needs to be careful of what he purchases in Maine (if he even found a way to do so) because he can buy plenty of firearms in Maine that would certainly be a "NO GO" in MA.

 

[GSG]

Interesting to see that no one has yet to comment on the fact that your friend needs to be careful of what he purchases in Maine (if he even found a way to do so) because he can buy plenty of firearms in Maine that would certainly be a "NO GO" in MA.

The OP's friend wants to buy handguns. Aside from AWB issues (only really an issue with an AR or AK pistol, or post ban high cap mags), the handgun restrictions in Mass. are only on dealer sales, not on what you can possess.

 

[Nick-mc]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't there several handguns that aren't "MA approved"?

 

[GSG]

Correct me if i'm wrong, but aren't there several handguns that aren't "MA approved"?

Yes, but that is only a restriction on what a dealer can sell. It's very common for such guns to hit the second hand market after people move into the state with them, purchased by a LEO, etc. It's fine to possess something that's non-compliant.

 

[Nick-mc]

I stand corrected, thanks for the info GSG.