It's Sunday night and I got nuttin.
Per usual.
Lessee.
Something I gotta ask the gunsmith.
Do you HAVE to keep a storefront and be a gunsmith? There's gotta be a way to work on guns and be an FFL (you are intaking firearms, transferring possession to yourself and back again.), yet NOT have to have display tables and a cash register and whatnot.
I guess my gunsmith is in the bidness of MAKING brand new guns, so he has to FFL up in there. Storefront and public hours and all.
Which is bad for him, as he is a curmudgeon.
Hmmm. You could partner up with a store, and use that guy. But then you have to deal with another irascible gunnie that owns a store. Oil and water.
It is possible. I have a 2 friends who are gunsmiths/builders who work out of their houses. There have a different FFL than a dealer but not sure what it’s called.
ReplyDeleteAnecdotally speaking, the two times I have taken a firearm to a gunsmith they both had a "storefront" of sorts, but were not working out of traditional gunshops.
ReplyDeleteOne ran an automotive shop (motorcycle repair), but out of the same location, he ran his gunsmithing business, specializing in military surplus. He helped me get an old Russian capture K98 running again.
The other had an outbuilding next to his house (formerly freestanding garage?) set up as his storefront and workshop. While he may have had "regular hours" registered with the ATF, customers were by appointment only. He specializes in 1911s and has a competition pedigree to back it up, including at the Olympic level. He fixed the issues I was having with a second-hand SW1911 and smoothed out the action a little bit on a new Ruger 1911 Commander.
I also apparently have an FFL who operates out of his house down the street from me, but I have yet to pay him a visit. Really should get on that; always good to have a neighbor who won't freak out about the gun thing.
Requiring a storefront is one of the ways that Pres Clinton got the ATF to drive so many FFL's out of business. When you combine this with local and state pols who are anti-gun, you can easily create catch-22 regs that can't be met. Result: no FFL license or state or county licenses that are needed to meet all the rules. The derogatory term for them was "kitchen table" FFLs, but a gunsmith doesn't need or want a retail store in most cases. That just gets in the way, and costs a lot of money to set up and time to manage.
ReplyDeleteFun fact: the '68 Gun Control package was a translation of the Nazi Germany gun regulations.