Buying a rifle in PA

Under Federal law, an unlicensed individual is prohibited from transferring a firearm to an
individual who does not reside in the State where the transferee resides. Generally, for a person
to lawfully transfer a firearm to an unlicensed person who resides out of State, the firearm must
be shipped to a Federal Firearms Licensee (FFL) within the recipient’s State of residence. He or
she may then receive the firearm from the FFL upon completion of an ATF Form 4473 and a
NICS background check. More information can be obtained on the ATF website at www.atf.gov
and http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/unlicensed-persons.html. The GCA provides an exception
from this prohibition for temporary loans or rentals of firearms for lawful sporting purposes.
Thus, for example, a friend visiting you may borrow a firearm from you to go hunting. Another
exception is provided for transfers of firearms to nonresidents to carry out a lawful bequest or
acquisition by intestate succession. This exception would authorize the transfer of a firearm to a
nonresident who inherits a firearm under the will of a decedent. See 18 U.S.C. 922(a)(5).

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alucard0822 said:

One weird catch with private sales, it must be transferred from an individual to another individual by an FFL in the recipient's state, in this case MD. A PA FFL can transfer a rifle from a MD resident to a PA resident, but can't transfer a rifle from a PA resident to a MD resident. A MD resident can buy a rifle from an FFL in PA provided it is not prohibited in either state. A PA FFL transferring a rifle into their inventory from an individual seller, then transfering from the FFL to a MD buyer is a grey area, generally seen as OK if a MD resident is basically buying a used gun from a PA FFL. Have run into this a couple times, and had to ship a firearm or take the drive to MD to complete the sale lawfully. Could hand over > 10rd mags in PA, then have the MD FFL do the transfer provided the mags were not "offered for sale" in MD. It's kinda stupid, and some FFLs might not be aware of it right away, but they catch it soon as they call PICS

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Pinecone said:

You are incorrect.

The PA FLL will receive the firearm and log it into their bound book. Then they will transfer to the buyer and log that into the bound book.

The PA resident does not transfer the firearm to the MD resident directly.

This is done all the time. And I have purchased several firearms that way.

What you probably ran into is that many non-MD FFLs will not transfer to an MD resident, due to the whacky MD laws. They are afraid of transferring a firearm that is illegal in MD.

I purchased a rifle at a VA gun show from a private seller. The FIFTH FFL I checked with at the show would do the transfer. The first 4 would not.

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alucard0822 said:

Section 3, F. This is the latest, but similar guidance in the past.
https://www.atf.gov/file/88181/download

There are a few other ATF guidelines about it. Some exceptions too like inheritance or .mil with orders, but not generally allowed. Have had PICS(PA's NICS) stop PA FFLs from facilitating an interstate transfer when a MD resident comes up here to buy something from a non FFL. Other states that use federal NICS might get away with it, or if the FFL transferred it to their inventory, then did a 2nd transfer to the buyer might be able to get away with it. There are FFLs that won't sell to MD residents when lawful, this isn't the case here. Bluefins does enough in both states they might be able to shed some light on it, but know of 3 other FFLs around here that got stopped when they tried.

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