So, suppose your elderly father or grandfather lives a different state from you.
He wants to leave you a gun in his will. Then suppose he says "I'm going to give it to you while I'm still alive -- why wait until I'm dead for you to inherit it?"
A lot of people assume this is OK because they never heard of a law against private individuals transferring guns between residents of different states.
Another significant group of people in our country have heard of the Gun Control Act of 1968's provisions about interstate transfers going through an FFL dealer, but they know there's an exception for guns that you inherit. So they figure that when an elderly relative says that you should get the gun now without having to wait for him to die and his will to be probated,
that should be an unrestricted transfer that doesn't require a dealer's involvement either.
That's not so.
An "inter vivos" gift (while the testator is living ), even if it is done in a way that would perfectly mirror the provisions of a will or the laws of intestate succession (dying w/o a will),
is legally considered a private party transfer that has to comply with the same laws that would apply to somebody answering a classified ad for a gun for sale.
The November 2021 issue of Guns & Ammo magazine seems to gloss this over in an article about an adult man whose elderly father drives up to Alabama to visit him and leaves him with a rifle. It's a gun that the father owned but that they had both used during the man's childhood.
The article does not mention whether either of these people hold an FFL license, although it's possible that the adult child--being a columnist for a gun magazine--is serious enough about firearms that he does have an FFL and could process the transfer from an out of state (Florida?) resident.
He wants to leave you a gun in his will. Then suppose he says "I'm going to give it to you while I'm still alive -- why wait until I'm dead for you to inherit it?"
A lot of people assume this is OK because they never heard of a law against private individuals transferring guns between residents of different states.
Another significant group of people in our country have heard of the Gun Control Act of 1968's provisions about interstate transfers going through an FFL dealer, but they know there's an exception for guns that you inherit. So they figure that when an elderly relative says that you should get the gun now without having to wait for him to die and his will to be probated,
that should be an unrestricted transfer that doesn't require a dealer's involvement either.
That's not so.
An "inter vivos" gift (while the testator is living ), even if it is done in a way that would perfectly mirror the provisions of a will or the laws of intestate succession (dying w/o a will),
is legally considered a private party transfer that has to comply with the same laws that would apply to somebody answering a classified ad for a gun for sale.
The November 2021 issue of Guns & Ammo magazine seems to gloss this over in an article about an adult man whose elderly father drives up to Alabama to visit him and leaves him with a rifle. It's a gun that the father owned but that they had both used during the man's childhood.
The article does not mention whether either of these people hold an FFL license, although it's possible that the adult child--being a columnist for a gun magazine--is serious enough about firearms that he does have an FFL and could process the transfer from an out of state (Florida?) resident.
