confusing pistol ownership question

**PA1749** · March 3rd, 2013, 02:53 PM

My daughters boyfriends father has a pistol that was in an old girlfriend's name from out lf state. Confused yet? His dad gave him the pistol. I'm sure that there must be something wrong with this. How does he make it legal?

**39flathead** · March 3rd, 2013, 02:57 PM

If the transfer between the father and girlfriend was legal in the state of the transfer, there is no problem.

In short, if the father is the legal owner, he can legally gift it to his son per PA law.

**jerkin** · March 3rd, 2013, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by 39flathead

If the transfer between the father and girlfriend was legal in the state of the transfer, there is no problem.

In short, if the father is the legal owner, he can legally gift it to his son per PA law.

If both the father and son live in PA at the time of the transfer.

**GunLawyer001** · March 3rd, 2013, 04:36 PM

In these situations, there really are a few issues.

Was the gun stolen, and if so, what trouble could there be for the guy holding it when the music stops?

If any previous transfer was unlawful, does that affect the last guy in line?

Was the last transfer legal?

If his possession is lawful but unpapered, does he have to do anything to make it "official"?

You don't want to be the guy holding a stolen gun, especially if there's no paper trail. You can ask your local PD to run a check to see if it's stolen, but I'd call before walking in with a gun, and they'll want the gun there because if it's reported as stolen, they'll want to keep it. "Receiving stolen property" is always prosecutable.

If a prior transfer was unlawful, but the last transfer was legit, what happens? In practice, if it wasn't stolen, then the DA has better things to do than try to cobble together a case against transfer #3 of 6. Arguably, the gun is contraband, but they'd have to prove that it was used criminally.

Father to son transfers between PA residents don't require a gun dealer to do the transfer, but the risk is that the son is a prohibited person who would not pass PICS. Plenty of people are genuinely unaware that they are prohibited, because they aren't "felons". A transfer from a father to a son who had almost any M-1 conviction is illegal, for example. The exemption from FFL transfers is not an exemption from the state and federal categories of prohibited persons.

I personally wouldn't use an unpapered gun as my primary carry gun, because your carry gun is the one most likely to be scrutinized by cops who don't understand the laws. They want it to be matched to your name in the ROS database, and a lot of them think it's required. The fact that they are wrong doesn't mean it won't be seized and require expensive intervention.