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Path: utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!jade!jkh
From: jkh@jade.UUCP
Newsgroups: mod.rec.guns
Subject: Re: How do I get a FFL?
Message-ID: <1898@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: Thu, 11-Dec-86 15:43:06 EST
Article-I.D.: jade.1898
Posted: Thu Dec 11 15:43:06 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Dec-86 18:36:57 EST
Organization: U.C. Berkeley
Lines: 55
Approved: jkh@ucbjade
Author: voder!kontron!cramer@ucbvax.Berkeley.Edu (Clayton Cramer)
Article: 12:4

To: voder!ucbopal!jkh
References: <1720@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>

> Article: 11:18
> 
> Can any one explain the procedure/requirements/fees/bribes/etc. required
> to obtain a FFL?  Are there different classes of licensure or is it all
> encompassing.  What are the advantages/disadvantages of having a FFL
> if you intend to sell firearms as a primary business, secondary
> business, hobby or not at all.  ( FFLinfo * ptr[]; welcome! )
> 
> Thanx
> Tim Tessin
> (415) 463-6850 423-3992
> ARPA:  tjt@lll-tis-b.ARPA
> UUCP:  {ihnp4,dual,sun}!lll-lcc!styx!tjt

If you look through _Shotgun_News_, you've probably seen the "kits" offered
for $3.95 or $5 that purport to show you how to get an FFL.  Don't bother;
there's no mystery to it.

Call up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in your nearest large
city and ask for an application for a Federal Firearms License to be mailed
to you.  The fee is $30, and the process takes about three months to 
complete while they do a background check with the FBI and (I assume) the
authorities of the State you live in.

The form specifies that no one will be issued a license who does not intend
to actually operate as a business -- this just means they don't want people
to get FFLs so they can avoid going to gun stores.  It means you should make
a serious attempt to sell weapons or ammunition to your friends, and it would
be a good idea if you actually sell a couple.

The form also specifies that you have to give some hours that your business
is open, and if the business is open to the public.  (If not open to the
public, you have to explain why.)  In my case I wrote down some utterly 
absurd business hours and indicated that the business was NOT open to the
public, and my customers would only be people I knew well, or were known
to people I knew well, and wouldn't you rather I only sell to people in
those categories?  They issued me a license.

On the upside, you get to buy weapons at very good prices, especially if
you live out in the boonies.  (Ammunition is no longer a regulated item,
and FFLs are no longer necessary to buy ammunition interstate.)  On the
downside, you give up your Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable
searches in your business, and in any non-business portions of the building
you occupy.  (So if you run your gun business out of the spare bedroom,
the whole house is subject to search.)  Also, you can't sell any personal
weapons very easily, since they have to be sold in accordance with all
the regular procedures for a dealer, and if you live in a city that requires
a license to sell concealable firearms (as I do -- San Jose, CA), you 
won't be able to dispose of any of your personal concealable firearms without 
that license.

Clayton E. Cramer