ffl help

[alxone]

So im visiting family in Maryland and found a ak74 i want to buy off a friend but was told i had to transfer it to my name ? Ok no big deal fill out a paper or two with the police right ? Wrong no dice , turns out have to go through an ffl and have it sent to Colorado ? But in all this ill be driving back home and stopping in Nebraska for the holidays and wanted to do some shooting . So i guess the question is why cant i just go to a gun shop or to someone with an ffl in md buy the thing with them as a witness and drive the ak home with me ?

[Richard K]

So im visiting family in Maryland and found a ak74 i want to buy off a friend but was told i had to transfer it to my name ? Ok no big deal fill out a paper or two with the police right ? Wrong no dice , turns out have to go through an ffl and have it sent to Colorado ? But in all this ill be driving back home and stopping in Nebraska for the holidays and wanted to do some shooting . So i guess the question is why cant i just go to a gun shop or to someone with an ffl in md buy the thing with them as a witness and drive the ak home with me ?

Because, by the letter of the law, you can only buy a rifle in a contiguous state. Again, by the letter of the law, it will have to be shipped to an FFL in CO and you have a background check done by that FFL here.
Others feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm wrong

[Circuits]

Federal law does prohibit you from purchasing a firearm from an unlicensed person in a state other than your own, but allows you to purchase a long gun from an FFL in any state, provided both your state and the state in which the sale occurs allow the sale.

Unless Maryland has a law against it, your friend can take the gun to a Maryland FFL and have the Maryland FFL process your transfer to you while you're in Maryland.

If Maryland has a law against that kind of transfer/purchase (which it sounds from your description like they do... ), then it'd have to be taken or shipped by your friend to an FFL in a state which will allow the sale... Virginia or Pennsylvania or Deleware or West Virginia, etc, depending on where in Maryland you are. Failing that, your friend could ship it to a Colorado FFL for you to do your background check, etc, when you get home.

IIRC, Maryland treats any semi auto rifle which can accept large capacity magazines as some kind of restricted class of firearm, and they treat it like a handgun, which might be why the MD FFL can't sell to you, an out-of-state resident. Slipping over the border to a free-er state might be in your near future.

[Circuits]

Because, by the letter of the law, you can only buy a rifle in a contiguous state. Again, by the letter of the law, it will have to be shipped to an FFL in CO and you have a background check done by that FFL here.
Others feel free to jump in and correct me if I'm wrong

contiguous states went away at the federal level in 1986, so doesn't matter unless still enshrined in a particular state's state-level laws.

[alxone]

Because, by the letter of the law, you can only buy a rifle in a contiguous state. Again, by the letter of the law, it will have to be shipped to an FFL in CO and you have a background check done by that FFL here.

so then it looks like i need to fine myself someone who has an ffl in the denver area , any takers and how much are you gonna charge ? also can i do all that here and send it before i leave so it would be waiting for me in co ?

[Byte Stryke]

I am sure we have a few FFLs here that will do this.
all you have to do is have the weapon shipped to them and then do the paperwork when you get back.

[Elhuero]

I am sure we have a few FFLs here that will do this.
all you have to do is have the weapon shipped to them and then do the paperwork when you get back.

yeah, it's not as hard to do as you think.

but yeah, driving the rifle back yourself ain't gonna happen

[Circuits]

so then it looks like i need to fine myself someone who has an ffl in the denver area , any takers and how much are you gonna charge ? also can i do all that here and send it before i leave so it would be waiting for me in co ?

You could drive it back if your friend takes it to an FFL in another state, who will do the transfer to you, an out-of-state resident. Contiguous states no longer applies federally.