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  1. I was told by a BATF agent that, having homes in two states, I was a resident of whichever I was in at the time from the federal viewpoint. State law is apparently at odds with this. Certainly I have not been able to obtain a second ID, so purchasing firearms in the ‘other’ state has been problematical.
    Of course, taking advice from federal employees is not without its risks. I understand that people have been prosecuted for following instructions they got directly from the IRS.

    1. Hi Randy,
      I believe there is the domicile” aspect. As we have homes in both Washington State and Idaho, We decided to Domicile in Idaho after Washington state went sideways with their gun laws.. We have Idaho Drivers licenses,vote in Idaho, licensed our vehicles in Idaho, have hunting and fishing licenses in Idaho, pay Idaho income tax.. all proving we are Idaho residence..however, our jobs are in Washington State, we own a home in Washington State and spend about 50% or sometimes more of our time in Washington State. If it were ever to be challenged that we were somehow designated Washington Residence because of our home and jobs there, the overwhelming evidence of our Idaho ties would suggest otherwise. The benefits of owning two homes as you know, is you have the ability of exercising your option to choose which state you want to claim as your domicile. If one state is gun friendly and the other is not, the choice is obvious. If both states are gun friendly then you move on to things like taxes, or hunting/fishing regs if you hunt or whatever else is a priority in your life. But the point is,to pick one, so as you dont find yourself dabbling in things that can draw attention to you and your uneventful life. ,don’t complicate your life in ways that give them an excuse to use you as an example for the rest of the folks out there looking for ways around their control . ( be the grey man ) You can always switch it up if things change, Like we did, thats the beauty of it.

    2. As someone who deals with the Federal Government on a daily basis, I urge you to heed what I say. If you don’t have it, on a piece of paper (not e-mail, not on recording, on paper) with the letterhead of the respective agency, signed by someone in authority, IT NEVER HAPPENED and you are going to take the fall for it. Believe this like you believe the sun will rise in the East tomorrow.

  2. In past years before living in the Redoubt I was a primary resident of California and obtained a seasonal resident ID in Nevada where we had a second home by meeting the Nevada requirements for that ID.
    I was able to purchase firearms in Nevada with the seasonal resident ID, but some were illegal in California (the two I bought) so they didn’t cross the state line.
    Thankfully those days are over for me now living in a more free state.

  3. How do you determine if you are selling to a person that is legally allowed to own a firearm or not? How to know so you do not get in trouble or offend a buyer? I have a few I want to sell so I can buy what I do want. I am in Montana, and have enough stuff for a table at our gun show. That is the only thing stopping me from doing it

    1. Ray, have them fill out a 4473 and keep it for your personal records. Or you could take it a step farther and do the transfer through a dealer.
      Or you can trust your gut by asking a few serious questions.
      (I’m not a lawyer and I didn’t sleep in a holiday inn last night.)

  4. Ray, good question. There is no way to know. Fortunately the odds are vastly in your favor since surveys of prison inmates find that very few purchase at gun shows. I recently dealt with the same question when I sold my private collection. In Virginia, the preferred method is to ask the buyer if they have a Concealed Weapon Permit (CWP) since this permit requires the same background check that an FFL conducts. Obviously most do not have a CWP, so the standard routine is for the seller to verbally ask the buyer if they are allowed to own the item for sale. This will not prevent a liar from buying the gun, but it will show a court that you conducted due diligence to ensure the buyer was legal (even if they were not). In addition, I have had sellers tell me they intentional price their hardware high for two reasons. First, to give a lot of room to negotiate to make the buyer feel happy. Second, if they feel suspicious that the buyer is shady, all they have to do is not negotiate and the shady buyer leaves. Of course your high prices may scare off legitimate buyers, so you have to be quick to tell them you are willing to negotiate. You can also require buyers to provide a name and address in case the gun ever shows up at a crime scene. This will not stop a liar, but once again shows due diligence. This does tend to put off some buyers, but you need to do what your are comfortable with. For me, I ended up using an internet auction house since I had enough odd-ball stuff that I knew it would take forever to sell it by myself. The house charged a 20% fee, but I like to think they were able to sell everything for more than I could so I broke even. If you do end up selling at a show, be sure to decide ahead of time how you are going to handle the other dealers when they come to cherry pick your table in the hours before the show starts. At least you can feel confident that anyone that is a show vendor is legal.

  5. JWR: Thank you for a great 3-part series and the reader comments are also informative. Because of liability I no longer sell firearms to anyone that is not a relative or close friend. One time …. purely as a test ….. I asked our local police department if they could run a background check on a gun buyer. They scoffed a ‘no’ answer. (I dare say that most police agencies do not view guns per se as a problem).

    I have more than enough gear for several shows. I’ll have to consider buying a table in the future.

  6. If a prospective buyer offers you their “Medical Marijuana” card as a government-issued ID, just say, “No!” as emphatically as possible.

    Yes, we have had it happen at gun shows. More than once, I dare say. If someone shows up at a gun show, looking to buy a gun and doesn’t have their driver’s license with them, they really are too stupid to own a gun and should just go home.

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