Have you wondered how you can get an FFL without a business? Why would you want an FFL without a business, and just what does that mean? For that mater what about an FFL without a storefront? Or do you need an FFL to do gunsmithing? As with all things involving the ATF, the answer is rarely simple or easy, and these questions and similar ones cannot be simply answered.
However, they can be answered, and we’ll take a look at a few things involving FFL’s, businesses, storefont locations and the finer points of what it takes to get an FFL these days.
When people ask if it’s possible to get an FFL without a business, many times they mean that to be an FFL without having a designated storefront. In other words, a home based FFL. The short answer is yes, but enough people wonder if they can get an FFL for personal use without operating a business that it is worth examining this question from all angles.
With one notable exception, FFL’s are for commercial use. In other words, you have to be actively engaged in business and trying to make a profit with your FFL. That isn’t to say you can’t use it for personal reasons too, but your primary focus has to be business. Unless you are a collector that is.
Great you say! “I’ll just go get an 01 FFL, and start collecting all the cool new guns on the market right now.” Well, sadly things don’t work that way.
The ATF has what is known as a Curio and Relics FFL or C&R. This is an 03 FFL which is only for the purpose of collecting guns 50 years old or older, or certain newer guns deemed to primarily have value due to collector interest. A full description of this process can be found here. But the quick and dirty version is this is a license for collecting old guns and military surplus guns ruled to have a C&R status.
This is the only FFL you can get without a business, and it is for non commercial collecting purposes only. You can’t use it to buy and sell guns for a profit, but only to build a personal collection. It doesn’t allow you to sidestep the NFA, and it grants no extra privileges beyond the ability to acquire C&R guns on an FFL, and thus in most places avoid paperwork and dealer fees.
For those who wonder if an FFL without a business is a good way to simply sell a few guns part time out of your home or garage, the answer is yes it is! This is perfectly viable option and a very popular one. While some areas may ban home based FFL’s through legal and zoning restrictions, most Americans can quite easily operate an FFL without a business storefront as long as they don’t have local law or rules stopping them.
You may have heard a lot of rumours about home based FFL’s such as that you have to sell a certain number of guns every year, that you have to invest in expensive fixtures and security systems, or that the ATF is shutting down home based FFL’s.
The truth of the matter is, you don’t have to sell a certain number of guns, you don’t have to maintain expensive security systems or the like, and the ATF is granting FFL’s to new home based FFL’s all the time. On the flip side, they do crack down hard on people who use their FFL’s primarily for personal use and don’t actively engage in business. That is where the stories of the ATF shutting down home based FFL’s come from, but as long as you actually are running a real business out of your home with your FFL, you will be fine.
Now you might wonder if you need an FFL to engage in gunsmithing activities. The answer here is “almost always.” While the ATF does make an exception for casual, infrequent gunsmithing activity without an FFL, it’s a pretty bad idea to take other people’s guns and work on them without having an FFL and the associated records of the guns you take in for repair.
The no FFL exemption is mostly an easy way to deal with people who might do things like the casual installation of sights or fitting a stock to a gun or the like. Something for machinists and woodworkers who sometimes get a customer with a gun. But if you really plan to do gunsmithing you should get, and do in fact need an FFL. A simple 01 FFL will work in most cases, but if you engage in what the FFL considers “manufacturing” (a concept that changes pretty regularly) but generally involves assembling fully functional guns from parts or certain major modifications (and depending on what day of the week it is, what they are serving in the ATF cafeteria, or what the ATF’s fortune teller tells them, maybe minor ones too). That means if you are gunsmithing you probably want an 07 Manufacturer’s FFL just to be safe.
There are some other good reasons to have an FFL when gunsmithing. For instance, some states now require a background check on almost any temporary transfer of firearms between private parties. This “universal background check” pretty much requires that outside of narrow circumstances when hunting or at ranges, family members or emergencies, any transfer – even temporary requires an FFL background check. But if you are doing casual gunsmithing and already have an FFL you don’t have to bother with this.
All this talk of background checks and paperwork and FFL’s raises another question – can you get a firearm without an FFL?
Now that is something of a catchall question. Because literally every American who can legally own a gun can buy a gun without having an FFL – after all, that is what FFL’s are for, to facilitate the commercial sale of guns.
Now if you are looking to buy a gun without going through an FFL dealer, the answer is that in nearly all cases, you can within limitations.
There are three common ways to get a firearm without an FFL:
As you can see unless you are into esoteric old guns, muzzleloaders or the luck of the draw on private sales, there are some limits on what firearms you can buy without an FFL.
There is another option as well, and that is building your own guns from so-called 80% receivers. These are partially completed receivers or frames and can be usually finished with some basic tools and a jig. It is possible to build a great many guns like this, from copies of Glock pistols, to various AR style rifles. Almost all states have no restrictions building these kinds of guns too.
As you can see, the world of buying and selling guns can be quite complicated. We just touched on the highlights and most common legal scenarios. Yes, make a great many guns without an FFL, you can have an FFL without a business storefront, and you can even do a bit of gunsmithing without an FFL or buy guns without an FFL.
However, for many people, you do need an FFL to engage in some of these activities if you are doing them on a commercial level.
Do you want to know more about FFL’s and how you can use them to make extra money and build your own personal gun collection at the same time? Are you ready to get an FFL and don’t want to go it alone, or just want to understand the sometimes complicated world of getting an FFL? Just click here and find out what nearly 100,000 Americans have already learned – that FFL123 is your best FFL guide out there at any price!