A private citizen can sell just about anything at a private garage sale or by placing advertisements in the local media. However, if it is a motor vehicle by state law it must be registered, taxes paid and licensed by the state to be operated. Even if the motor vehicle is inoperative, it may require some sort of registration. Even the sale of a home requires a title search to determine if any liens are outstanding with the state and taxes paid up.
In Florida, a private citizen could also sell a firearm at a garage sale without taking any additional action to register, pay taxes or notify the authorities of the new owner. Taxes could be required in accordance with IRS rules about reporting overall profits of any private sale. This, of course, depends on the honesty of the seller.
The private sale of a firearm, gun, weapon, or a so-called assault weapon in Florida, as well as many other states, is private. These sales are often referred to as straw man sales or just straw sales. There are no state required background checks of the buyer. A person with a mental condition or a person with ill intent can easily purchase an assault type rifle through a straw sale as well as large capacity magazines.
The Sandy Hook school shooting has caused an uproar of demands for tighter gun control to include background checks for private sales, as listed in the executive actions recommended by President Obama. Action #6 or his 23, reads, as follows: “#6. Publish a letter from ATF to federally licensed gun dealers providing guidance on how to run background checks for private sellers.” This implementation will be interesting since all transactions through a federally licensed gun dealer could require a fee.
In order to enforce a background check on the private sale of a firearm, the state would have to pass a law requiring the check similar to the private sale of a motor vehicle. The seller would have to take the firearm to a licensed gun dealer and the buyer would have to pay for the background check similar to the home buyer paying for the title search.
This examiner has purchased firearms on the Internet and gone through this painless process. The NRA should not object to have private sales go through a licensed gun dealer. The second amendment gives us the right to have a firearm, but the state can regulate how we can be safe in ownership.
The president could have made the recommendation that in the year 2014, all gun owners must list all privately owned firearms and magazines by make, model, caliber, serial number on their IRS filings for the year so that private sales could be tracked. Now this would be the ultimate in gun control. Let us gun owners settle for a more invasive control.
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