Not sure if this goes here, but it’s about the law, so…
I saw, on another site, someone talking about a gun they had just received as a gift. (It was a modern sporting weapon, but that shouldn’t matter.) So, how is buying a gun as a gift not a straw purchase? Does a straw purchase include buying a gun for someone who could have legally bought it for themself?
Not a straw purchase. Bonafide gifts are allowed under the current rules. I have dealt with the ATF on this very subject several times. They saw a purchase and looked into it and the buyer had given it as a gift. They tried to say it was a straw purchase we allowed to happen and we needed to prove to them that it wasn't. I told them that isn't how the law works, the burden is on them to prove that it wasn't a gift and then prove that we could possibly know that it was. That put a wrench in their gears because the purchaser told them it was a gift and that he hadn't told us he was buying it as a gift.
If the other person can't legally purchase the gun then it is law enforcements responsibility to charge the purchaser with transferring a firearm to a prohibited person and the prohibited person for being in possession. But that literally never happens, just like the millions of transactions where a person lies on the 4473, I know of 1 case that has ever been prosecuted and that was of the president's son. 99.9% of the other people who lie are never even charged.
