Legality of buying a private sale out of state

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Maxim_X

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I have an opportunity to trade for a rifle from someone in PA. It’s MA compliant and I’m an ltc holder. I’m unsure how to best go about the trade. The seller wanted to meet halfway, which might put us in CT or NY for the sale. I’m hesitant to make the transaction out of state, and I’m unsure if making it in state would be any safer.

Googling the answer brings up lots of conflicting and inconsistent answers, from totally illegal to completely OK.

Can anyone help with some sources of info or a general recommendation?
 
Maxim_X said:
I have an opportunity to trade for a rifle from someone in PA. It’s MA compliant and I’m an ltc holder. I’m unsure how to best go about the trade. The seller wanted to meet halfway, which might put us in CT or NY for the sale. I’m hesitant to make the transaction out of state, and I’m unsure if making it in state would be any safer.

Googling the answer brings up lots of conflicting and inconsistent answers, from totally illegal to completely OK.

Can anyone help with some sources of info or a general recommendation?
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Must go through FFL. If it's a long gun it can probably go over the counter in PA via an FFL there but if it's a handgun it must be transferred through a mass dealer.

Anything else is usually a violation of federal law, like, a full blown felony. Not something you want to do unless you're into riding dirty but if you were you probably wouldn't have posted this thread. 🤣
 
drgrant said:
Must go through FFL. If it's a long gun it can probably go over the counter in PA via an FFL there but if it's a handgun it must be transferred through a mass dealer.

Anything else is usually a violation of federal law, like, a full blown felony. Not something you want to do unless you're into riding dirty but if you were you probably wouldn't have posted this thread. 🤣
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Yeah it’s a long gun. Thanks for that. If it was someone I knew I wouldn’t have posted the thread. But, it’s a complete stranger, so I didn’t want to risk anything, especially out of state.
 
Maxim_X said:
Yeah it’s a long gun. Thanks for that. If it was someone I knew I wouldn’t have posted the thread. But, it’s a complete stranger, so I didn’t want to risk anything, especially out of state.
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It doesn’t matter whether you know them or not. It is foolish to risk a federal felony, which would result in you becoming a prohibited person, just to save an effing FFL transfer fee. It just isn’t worth it.

Have the buyer ship it to an FFL local to you (after you first talk with the FFL to be sure they will accept the transfer).
 
BTSDOG said:
JMO, seller wants to meet halfway and do transaction in another state ? I smell a rat. But that's just me.
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Yeah, that's not going to work. Roll the dice on this one and you better have a good supply of soap on a rope or be cool with winding up in a ditch someplace with an empty wallet. FFL transfer for a long gun. Otherwise move along.

(Fixed long gun FFL nuance hairsplitting)
 
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M1911 said:
The FFL transfer can happen in any state for a long gun.
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Provided the buyer can buy in that state. While federally a MA FFL could do a long gun transfer to a non-resident, MA law says they cannot even with a non-res LTC (and FFL requires state law to be followed).

You’ll hit that with some other states too, perhaps CT.
 
BTSDOG said:
JMO, seller wants to meet halfway and do transaction in another state ? I smell a rat. But that's just me.
Click to expand...

Or the seller doesn't know the laws. There's a lot of people who are ignorant of stuff like that, or think it doesn't matter because "it's just a bolt gun" or "my cousin gave it to me like this, it must be OK."
 
BTSDOG said:
JMO, seller wants to meet halfway and do transaction in another state ? I smell a rat. But that's just me.
Click to expand...
I don't smell anything... regular people generally have no f***ing clue about gun laws. I mean think about it.... in a normal state you walk up to the counter at a dealer with your driver's license you fill out some form you'll never remember... and you leave with a gun. do you think that person is going to have any clue about the legal mechanicals / restrictions/ etc of the process? Nope. Not one thing.

Right now there are probably two guys somewhere unknowingly committing a straw purchase or violating some other stupid shitlogic based federal gun law simply because they literally don't know that it's a felony. Most of them start to push the boundaries of common sense so it's ultimately not reasonable to expect some average person to know what is legal or illegal. Like as an example do you have any idea how many people I have had tell me that they drove to another state and bought or sold a gun with a family member FTF? Those numbers are off the charts and not a single one of them realizes they committed a felony when they did that.
 
not new guy said:
What kind of gun? If it wasn’t already in MA on 8/1 you may have other issues to worry about.
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Well not until the law actually goes into effect at least.

Even then.... the odds of this actually becoming an issue in reality for somebody are between slim and none. I'm sure there are privsale flippers selling post 8/1 AR AK etc but because the buyers are rubes there's no way to actually tell if the gun is compliant with the law or not, and chances are it will never actually matter on the ground. The flippers all know this. And even then they're not on the hook because the new law hasn't gone hot yet.
 
You mention a trade. Is it a rifle both ways? And is it legal to possess in each person's state?

If so, then find an FFL that you both agree to and get er done.

As for smelling a rat??? in the vast majority of the US where guns aren't icky and you don't need a f*cking LTC to buy a book in a store, then most gun sales go like this:

Buyer hands over money
Seller hands over gun
They say thank you and head their own separate ways

They don't have to think about 10000 convoluted laws and the many ways they could get butt f*cked because they don't have crap laws.
 
@pastera another thought.... I think realistically the 8/1 garbage only really is ultimately going to matter to dealers because they're exposed to exponentially more risks. (It would be way easier for MA to rap a dealer for it vs a rando) And as you know that entire thing is like in this constant state of flux depending on the referendum petition and all of that crap.
 
dhuze said:
I'm not sure how much these guns are worth, but 5 hours of my time each way, plus driving and wear and tear and gas and food wouldn't be worth it to me.
But back to it, any firearms transfers over state line must go through and FFL.
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If it was something cool id drive 8 hrs in a heartbeat. But i actually like road trips. 🤣
 
drgrant said:
@pastera another thought.... I think realistically the 8/1 garbage only really is ultimately going to matter to dealers because they're exposed to exponentially more risks. (It would be way easier for MA to rap a dealer for it vs a rando) And as you know that entire thing is like in this constant state of flux depending on the referendum petition and all of that crap.
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Concur
A dealer is under a shit ton of scrutiny with the firearms roster and forthcoming ASF roster.
However, if a dealer does get hit for selling or transferring something on the ASF roster, you know they will go after the possessor also, if only to send their collection to a bonded warehouse while they sort out what to with the dealer.
Fun part is when they add an item to the ASW
Do they give a 30 day notice so dealers can ship items out of state?
Do they mail evey current owner notice to dispose or exempt items currently possessed?

Each addition to the ASF roster will end up being a taking so it will likely remain essentially static and on features tests to keep most semiautomatic long guns out of Mass.
 
Maxim_X said:
I have an opportunity to trade for a rifle from someone in PA. It’s MA compliant and I’m an ltc holder. I’m unsure how to best go about the trade. The seller wanted to meet halfway, which might put us in CT or NY for the sale. I’m hesitant to make the transaction out of state, and I’m unsure if making it in state would be any safer.

Googling the answer brings up lots of conflicting and inconsistent answers, from totally illegal to completely OK.

Can anyone help with some sources of info or a general recommendation?
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's a hard no...

The only exception being to know more specifics and I would be making it worth my while.
 
LuvDog said:
You mention a trade. Is it a rifle both ways? And is it legal to possess in each person's state?

If so, then find an FFL that you both agree to and get er done.

As for smelling a rat??? in the vast majority of the US where guns aren't icky and you don't need a f*cking LTC to buy a book in a store, then most gun sales go like this:

Buyer hands over money
Seller hands over gun
They say thank you and head their own separate ways

They don't have to think about 10000 convoluted laws and the many ways they could get butt f*cked because they don't have crap laws.
Click to expand...
Your description of how most sales go in most states is accurate if buyer and seller are in the same state. Tere isn't much that's convoluted about the atf law that if buyer and seller reside in different states there needs to be an ffl involved. Fwiw I'm not saying I agree with the law.....just saying it's really not convoluted.
 
whacko said:
Your description of how most sales go in most states is accurate if buyer and seller are in the same state. Tere isn't much that's convoluted about the atf law that if buyer and seller reside in different states there needs to be an ffl involved. Fwiw I'm not saying I agree with the law.....just saying it's really not convoluted.
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I think what he’s saying is many people who aren’t used to dealing with a million gun laws don’t know that’s an actual federal law.
 
If the rifle is a 50+ years old and you’re a C&R License holder, feel free at your own (personal) risk. Otherwise, as others have stated, go through an FFL.
 
Fun fact: the restriction on interstate transfers only applies when the parties are residents of different states.

Under federal law, two NH residents could conduct a sale between themselves at Beacon Hill.
 
How about someone that has a MA driving license and a home here but also has a house in NH (with a state of NH ID -not a drivers license). They claim they can buy a handgun in NH and because they have a MA driving license (and license to carry) bring it into Ma and sell it directly to anyone with a gun license in MA.
 
Martinilover said:
How about someone that has a MA driving license and a home here but also has a house in NH (with a state of NH ID -not a drivers license). They claim they can buy a handgun in NH and because they have a MA driving license (and license to carry) bring it into Ma and sell it directly to anyone with a gun license in MA.
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Those are dualies, and yes they can do that, given the rest of the usual constraints.
 

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