Giving the Gift of Boom

So Alphecca had a post about black Friday gun sales and he wondered about the whole legality of it all, and I must say I was of the same mind.  If I buy a pistol with the intent of giving it to my straight laced fully eligible and definitely not prohibited brother, that, to my mind, was a straw purchase.  Now I'm not so sure.  (And don't get your hopes up, bro, this is just an example...)

First, it's hard to prove a straw purchase.  If I buy a gun and then have buyer's remorse after shooting it, and I already detailed that it isn't easy to return or sell a gun at many local gunstores, what do I do?  I sell it or give it away.  That's not a straw purchase.  That's just me getting rid of a gun I don't want or need. 

I can have buyers remorse an hour after purchase.

A commenter, George, clarifies, "a 'straw purchase' is when someone else directs you to purchase a gun and, normally, gives you the money for it."  And that's certainly not the case with a gift or me unloading a gun to person/associate I know is not a prohibited person.  Say, another Maryland gunnie at a blogshoot, where I see he clearly already HAS lots of firearms.  If he is prohibited, then there are bigger problems at heart that go way beyond my transaction with him (or her.) 

So I am good, right?  No.

Ok, that's Federal law there.  There is specific statutes in Maryland law forbidding such transfer.  MBtGE may be able to gift another Virginian, but I can't gift another Marylander.  (Marylandanian?  Marylandfolk?)

The law says: "A person who is not a regulated firearms dealer may not sell, rent, transfer, or purchase any regulated firearm without going through a regulated firearms dealer." 

Regulated firearms are pistols, and, since the 1990s, rifles that look scary.  ARs and AKs and the like.

Which is why the gun shows in Maryland really suck.

But THIS is the so-called gun show loophole that my state has closed. 

So I can gift a Springfield '03 or a Remington Model 11 12 gauge to my brother, but not a Ruger MkIII .22 target pistol to take care of a racoon problem on his palatial multi-acre estate in the middle of nowhere.


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Also: Here is a unrelated thing I didn't know.  If your firearm is stolen or destroyed in a fire or whatnot, and you have a police report, and you consider it essential that your firearm is replaced immediately, you can short circuit the waiting period of 1 week or 30 days depending on what waiting period you are up against.  Interesting.  Then you get the contradictory clause:  "In no case, however, may the handgun be delivered before seven days, even if the application is approved earlier."  So which is it, Maryland?  If I were an FFL and a gun owner that lost his pistol in a fire presented me with police report to short circuit the waiting period because having a gun was essential to him. AND I had an affadavit from the State Po-po, the local police Chief and the State and County DA's I STILL wouldn't sell a gun to him without waiting out the waiting period.  Because of that badly worded set of gun laws.

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Due not that the last revision to that MD Firearms Laws website was in 2003.  I need to check for a later compilation somewhere online.