Buying a gun from another customer at a gun store?

[sed1208]

Let me start by saying I know this was an etiquette faux pas but I was doing a transfer today at an FFL when a young guy came in to sell his pistol. The shop offered him half (or less) of what they would sell it for so I spontaneously said "I'll buy it for more than that!" The shop employees got angry and said that discussions of that type were outlawed by the ATF in a gun store. Any truth to that?

[pennlineman]

Not aware of any laws against it. It could put on bad terms with the shop which may be painful. Especially if you deal with them a lot. I would see if they accepted the offer. If not, I'd make an offer outside the store.

[Kramer]

Exactly, wait until the guy walks out of the store. Once in the parking lot they can't complain.

[Xringshooter]

Yeah, it was a faux pas but not illegal. Saying the ATF outlawed it is just a bunch of crap. You should have seen what the guy was going to do then followed him out and made your offer. As said, if you frequent that gun shop a lot, you can hope they have a short memory of you might not get good (or any) service any more.

[Grey Bearded One]

ATF doesn't make laws but it isn't even against regulations. It might be gauche but not illegal. The clerk should have grabbed the opportunity to make a quick buck and said, "Hey, take it and I'll do the transfer right now for $25." Twenty five bucks right now is better than shelling our $200 and waiting six months to get it back plus small markup.

[QuackXP]

Most certainly a faux pas but not illegal to my knowledge. I would A: wait for customer to leave and then approach. B: if customer sells, give your offer to the dealer explaining there will be close to zero overhead on this firearm as it will not sit in a case, need to be marketed, handled another 50 times before sale, etc.

[GunLawyer001]

We all know that the 2 worst sources of firearms law are most gun shop employees and most cops. They seem to think that their job automatically makes them experts, without putting the work into learning the actual laws.

On a related note, every Dremel tool comes with an Instant Gunsmith Certificate.

[sed1208]

We all know that the 2 worst sources of firearms law are most gun shop employees and most cops. They seem to think that their job automatically makes them experts, without putting the work into learning the actual laws.

On a related note, every Dremel tool comes with an Instant Gunsmith Certificate.

Thanks all. I did feel kind of bad even though this is a gun shop known for gouging. For example, their daily transfer rates are a reasonable $35 but on weekends they go up to $50. None-the-less, I paid the $50 for the transfer even though they had all my information from a transfer I had made just 5 minutes before. So I guess I paid them $50 for less than 5 minutes additional work. BTW, got a great deal on a Springfield XD .40 -- even with the $50 transfer!

[markshere2]

Car dealers' bread and butter is used cars. More markup- they pay shit for trade-ins and the sky is the limit on the sell price.

Same deal @ gun stores. Taking away the gun shop guy's bread and butter is bad form... in the store.
If he can't make a deal with the seller, then it's game on in the parking lot.

You will most likely not get a good deal at that gun store ever again.
Hope it was worth it.

And $35 for a transfer is not reasonable, to me.

[Grimm]

Thanks all. I did feel kind of bad even though this is a gun shop known for gouging. For example, their daily transfer rates are a reasonable $35 but on weekends they go up to $50. None-the-less, I paid the $50 for the transfer even though they had all my information from a transfer I had made just 5 minutes before. So I guess I paid them $50 for less than 5 minutes additional work. BTW, got a great deal on a Springfield XD .40 -- even with the $50 transfer!

Are you saying that you did two transfers there in one visit and they charged you 50 dollars for each one? If I'm reading that correctly, i would have already quit dealing with them.

The shop I used to work at kept raising their rate. Last I heard, it was 35 dollars plus tax even though a transfer isn't even considered a taxable sale.