You know it's kinda hard to buy guns in Maryland. The State puts up more roadblocks on top of the ones the Feds have up that everyone is familiar with.
But it's harder to sell a gun.
Let's say you have one revolver too many, and you cull it from the herd. Trot on down to the store you bought it to sell to them? Naw. Quite a number of gunstores won't buy your used gun. Or buy back. Lots have a 'all sales final' clause and once you walk out the door with it, you can't return it to get your money back 5 minutes later.
Which is a decent policy. Otherwise crime guns could be sold or returned to the gunstore, sold to someone else. I can see the reasoning of the dealer.
You can sell your surplus item to a buddy that wants. Yeah, the name's T-Bolt. My friends call me T... only I ain't got not friends.
And if I did, I'd have to drag that friend to a gun dealer, both of us get probulated by forms, NICS checks done, then the pistol is left in the dealer's safe for a month until the friend can come pick it up. Dealer collects a fee for all this.
Under the table sales? Man to man with a handshake to another state resident? Illegal. That revolver I want to sell if kinda rare and Tam wants it? She lives in Indiana and that state has more sane gun laws. I can just trot it up to her the next blogshoot in the Midwest and sell it to her, lickity splickity, right? No, that's illegal, too, is my understanding. The Feds require all sales to be in state or through a dealer. It's Maryland that makes it a no no to really sell it IN state. At least Maryland cares a little less about many long guns. But a handgun is a restricted item. And difficult to sell.
I don't go to pawn shops much, but when I do I rarely see one selling guns in this state.
So how DO you sell them? Well, befriend an FFL til he trusts you and knows you're not a dirtbag and maybe he'll be laxer on the buying of used guns policy. Also. Look for gun dealers with large used gun counters. If the dealer isn't buying guns he might take your gun and put it up on consignement and display it in his case. For a fee. There your prized gatt can linguish for a short or a long time waiting for a new owner to pick YOUR puppy in the window.
It's like the state wants to make it a hassle that no one will bother with. Imagine that.
What if its a family gun and my dad dies and my mom gives his guns to me?
ReplyDeleteNot sayin I live in MD. Just askin.
That's a good question Anon... The law is a bit unclear.
ReplyDeleteNormally? Nothing. Nothing happens.
Let's say you get a speeding ticket and the DA wants to throw the book at you and search warrants your house and finds them and the indicts you on all sorts of gun trafficking hoohah? THe guns are a pile on charge to everything else?
Well he still has to prove it, I guess. YOU don't have to produce a receipt to prove your innocence, naturally.
We also have to assume that this isn't his hunting shotgun and his .22 and .30-30 lever action, that's pistols and ARs or what have you.
To reaffirm, Maryland gun laws aren't the clearest, and some parts seem contradictory.
ReplyDeleteT-bolt, you can sell it across state lines. The buyer has to do the transfer at an FFL and a NICS check is done at pickup with a 4473. Pretty straightforward, actually.
ReplyDeleteWV: "exces" too many law
"Let's say you have one revolver too many, and you cull it from the herd. Trot on down to the store you bought it to sell to them? Naw. Quite a number of gunstores won't buy your used gun."
ReplyDeleteIn all my years of selling guns in three states, I have never heard of such a thing.
Given the super low profit margins on new guns, used guns are most shops' bread-and-butter.
(New guns customarily range from 12% to 20% markup. and 20% is that dealer nobody shops at because everyone knows what a ripoff he is. Hence the need to make money on used inventory, where you can try for a more reasonable 30%-50%, which will let you keep your lights on.
By comparison, most retail operates at 50%-100% markups, or more. Gun buyers are frickin' cheapskates.)
Tam, maybe it's a Maryland thing? Pawn shops 'round me don't sell guns. NONE of'em. In fact, to my knowledge, there is no place to buy a firearm in Baltimore City, but the amount of pawn shops within City limits is absolutely ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAlso: I've SEEN a handful of shops tell folks they won't buy used guns.
Walk into a gunstore in MD and many tell me they won't buy my guns. They'll put them on consignment, they'll run the NICS for me for a fee to sell to some other shlub. But that's it. They SELL used guns, but they don't buy them. I dunno where they get stock like that.
ReplyDeleteI have sold one gun through my local range/gun shop in MD. Another I took back (after paying a fee) when it didn't sell for almost a year, and the pressing financial need had passed. It's a hassle, and the laws are definitely designed that way. And long guns with more than three "scary" features (bayonet lug, adjustable stock, detachable mag, etc.) are classed with handguns as restricted firearms. Yes, MD laws are vague; they are written by people who hate guns and don't understand anything about them. I had a long telephone conversation with a MD State Police sergeant about these laws (writing a report to an informal gun club), and he cheerfully admitted as much. He said that whether a particular trooper would decide to bring you in on a violation often depends on his, and your, attitude at the time of an encounter (like a traffic stop - transporting firearms rules are just as arcane in MD).
ReplyDeleteI hear you Chris. If I ever get pulled over after a range trip it's all yessir nossir and no lip from me.
ReplyDeleteInteresting.
ReplyDeleteIf you somehow lost a handgun while traveling through Texas, and I found it.
Can I return it to you?
How about I just compensate you for you "loss" and tell Maryland to pound sand.
Interesting to say the least.
Laura,
ReplyDelete"Tam, maybe it's a Maryland thing?"
I guess so, I was just expressing amazement. :o
It's just so foreign to my experience that it's like hearing that people drive on the wrong side of the road there or something, that's all.
WOW, worse than Mass.....
ReplyDeleteWhen I gave one of mine to my brother we had to fill out all the state police background check and mental forms. After he came back ok it got registered in his name and I could give it to him.
ReplyDelete