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I am thinking about applying for an FFL and have a couple questions. Maybe someone here will be able to help.
I live in unincorporated jefferson county.
I want to start selling at gunshows etc... and transition to a store front.
I realize that not having a store front and using your home address as the business address could cause problems.
Does anyone have any experience with this?
You can go the Gun repair route
Ask Alan he does it. Go to his forum on this board, he is a dealer and runs out of his house.
There's a place in shotgun news that advertises kits to start an FFL.
They seemed very knowledgeable. I purchased one before i found out you must own the home, not rent.
Don't buy a kit, it's not needed.
1st thing to do is contact your local zoning officer and ask them what they will allow you to do from home. make sure to get the name of the person you talk to, the ATF investigator will talk to them.
ATF will not approve an FFL to sell at gun shows only.
As suggested the repair route is a good way to go. It's a type-01 dealer license. I actually make my own AK receivers so I went the 07 route.
From the ATF you order the application form and two blank finger print cards. You need to go get finger printed. If your local LEO is doing the CO CHP the same office will do your cards.
Fill out the application form and send along with $150 to the ATF.
About 2-4 weeks after filing an ATF investigator will contact you and schedule an interagation.....I mean an interview.[ROFL1]
Seriously it was not painful. We talked for about two hours. They showed me all the forms, how to fill out, answered every one of my questions. I was kinda scared about it ahead of time, but it was not the big a deal.
About 2 weeks later I had FFL in hand.
Running from home is not a concern to the ATF as long as it's ok with local zoning.
Now some manufacturers and wholesalers might not deal with you, but there are plenty of distributors that will. Lipseys and Davidsons to name two.
According the ATF investigator I dealt with, if you can legally own a firearm, and its OK with zoning, you will get approved.
If you have any specific questions let me know.
Pete
Unincorporated means you can generally do what you want with your property, including running a gun business on it. Won't hurt to check with jeffco zoning, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by High Altitude
You can primarily sell at gunshows if you want, but *must* have some public business hours at your premises address, whether you like it, or advertise those hours, or not. My public business hours are 3-5pm on saturdays, with other hours by appt only. In the old days, you could actually get away with "appt only", and some FFLs are grandfathered in for those hours, but new applicants have to provide some legit business hours.
Not having a storefront doesn't really cause any problems. It means your residence, or whatever is your 'premises address' is subject to a possible annual search by the ATF during your compliance inspection. Some solve this by providing an outbuilding on their land, complete with a seperate address (221 1/2 baker street, or box 14-A, county rd #43, for instance), such that only the outbuilding is the 'premises address', and subject to annual compliance inspections.
My business name, for instance, is "Richard Stone". If someone balks at sending firearms to me that way, even though they have an ffl copy in hand, I tell 'em to put
Richard Stone, Custom Guns
or
Richard Stone
Custom Guns
and that seems to shut 'em up. ATF doesn't mind as long as it's clearly the name of the licensed business, and the physical address is as described for the 'premises address' on the FFL.
Good luck with your endeavors.
Thanks for all the information.
Next stop is to go talk with zoning and see what they say.
I all ready have the forms in hand from the ATF. They mailed them right out. The local sheriff station does finger
printing.
Everything hinges on what zoning says.