As long as it’s a genuine gift, it is legal to gift a firearm, but there are actually a number of things you’ll want to consider before doing so. Check out this NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) article (https://www.nssf.org/articles/giving-a-firearm-as-a-gift-some-reminders-from-nssf/) on buying a firearm as a gift, and make sure you do your research because as we all know, gun laws change daily it feels like. At this time, Indiana pretty well follows the federal law on this one – the gist being that if you can legally purchase a firearm, and the recipient can legally own a firearm, you can gift the them the item.
- Consider buying them a gift card/certificate instead!!!
- Unless you know beyond a shadow of doubt that they want the firearm and that they can legally own the firearm, do a gift card – as you’ll see below, there are lots of issues you can run into buying a firearm for someone.
- If you are certain you want to buy them a gun, make sure you KNOW EXACTLY what they want. A gun is kind of like a car in that as soon as it leaves the shop, upon return it is considered “used”. That’s why there’s a restocking fee notice in the shop concerning returns. We aren’t trying to be rude, but once it goes home with you, neither we or the manufacturer can guarantee the firearm hasn’t been tampered with, and so the firearm must be sold “as is” as a used firearm. That means we now have to price it lower than its brand new twin potentially sitting right next to it.
- Are you 150% sure they are legally able to own a firearm?!? It’s fairly rare, but there is the occasion where we’ve had a potential customer do a background check to purchase a firearm, and they get denied! They’re generally shocked because they’ve lived a straight & narrow life for many years, but they have something from their younger, more stupid days on their record that they didn’t realize would preclude them from purchasing a firearm, or that they thought was expunged. But here’s the kicker, IF they have something in their past that makes it illegal for them to own a firearm, and you know or have reason to believe they may not be legally able to purchase a firearm, YOU are now COMMITTING A FELONY by gifting them a firearm.
- Does the recipient live in the same state as you? In states such as Indiana, it is generally legal for you to transfer a firearm with or without compensation for it (as long as you didn’t buy it with the intention of doing so), without any official documentation of the transfer.* However, if the person you’re selling or gifting the firearm to lives 5 minutes down the road from you, but across the state line, that same transaction between two individuals is federally prohibited. You must deliver the firearm (or have shipped which is a whole other hoop to jump through, especially as an individual) to an FFL (Federal Firearms Licensee) in the recipient’s state where they will receive the item into their bound book and then legally document the transfer of the firearm to the recipient.
- Even if the recipient can own a firearm by federal guidelines, do you know their local and state laws? An item that is perfectly normal and legal to own in Indiana may get the gift recipient in big trouble in Illinois (and many other states) if it is a prohibited item, which can be anything from a suppressor to a 11+ round magazine.
*We don’t recommend selling a firearm to another individual without documentation. You can print a simple bill of sale template document by performing a quick google search. Just in case that firearm ends up at a crime scene, when the police do the legal trace to determine the trail of ownership, you’re going to be very happy you filled out some basic information concerning the sale of that firearm. Most local gun shops will do the transfer for you for a $25 transfer fee which provides you a receipt that you disposed the gun to the shop, then the shop runs a background check and documents the legal transfer to the recipient.