No, You CANNOT Legally Get a Gun Online
Ten days ago, The Nation ran an article by George Zornick entitled Could Machine Guns Become Totally Legal? The article begins with a blatant lie. I hope that it was just ignorance on his part, but it is difficult for me to believe that Mr. Zornick doesn’t know it’s a lie.
Since 1968, it has been illegal to ship in interstate commerce any non-black-powder firearm except from and to yourself or to a Federal Firearms License (FFL) holder (i.e. a gun store). So though you can legally purchase a gun online, you must have it shipped to a local gun store in order to take possession. In order to transfer that firearm to you, the FFL checks your government issued identification, usually a driver’s license, and has you fill out a federal form 4473, in which you promise, under penalty of perjury, that you are not under indictment for and have never been convicted of a felony, have never been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, have never been committed to a mental institution, are not a user of or addicted to any controlled substance, and that you are obtaining the firearm for yourself, not for anyone else. The FFL then calls the National Instant Check System (NICS), who verify that they have no record that what you said on form 4473 is not true. You usually pay $35 or more for this transfer service, on top of whatever you paid to the vendor for the firearm itself.
Yet George Zornick has the nerve to start his article with:
Given that a hypothetical American, who is underage, has been convicted of a gun crime, has restraining orders out against him, and is on a terror watchlist could go online and have an assault rifle shipped to his door without incident…
I suppose this might be possible, but both seller and buyer would be guilty of federal felony offenses. Why do anti-gunners feel the need to lie through their teeth?
The FFL writes on form 4473 a description of the firearms transferred, and their serial numbers, and he is required to hold the forms for 20 years. If a BATFE agent requests to see them, the FFL is required to produce the forms, and the agents often photograph them. Hence, though no official government database is kept recording all transfers through FFLs, this is defacto gun registration. If an FFL goes out of business, he is required to turn over all his 4473 forms to the BATFE.
It is possible, in most states, to legally transfer a firearm without this registration and background check process. Individuals may legally buy and sell firearms from and to other individuals in the same state. But if the BATFE gets wind of someone making it his business to regularly sell guns, they will come down hard on that person to obtain an FFL or to stop selling. This is the so-called gun show loophole. Yes, private sales do happen at gun shows, but most of the gun sellers at gun shows are Federal Firearms License holders, and they do NICS checks on those sales.
