Giving Guns as Gifts and Another Idea

By Ben Baker

Right now it is still legal to buy a gun and give it to someone as a gift, provided you follow the law.

The sticky part is you must follow federal law and state law where the person lives.

Federal Law

Federal law allows people to give guns as gifts.

"A person may transfer a firearm to an unlicensed resident of their state, provided the transferor does not know or have reasonable cause to believe the transferee is prohibited from receiving or possessing firearms under federal law," the BATF says on the website.

ATF defines transfer as "gift, trade, loan, sale, ownership, etc." in the Best Practices brochure.

You can even give a gun to someone under 18. BATF says, "However, persons less than 18 years of age may only receive and possess handguns with the written permission of a parent or guardian for limited purposes, e.g., employment, ranching, farming, target practice or hunting."

BATF prefers you buy a gift certificate and give that instead of a gun. That way, the person getting the gun has to fill out Form 4473 and go through the required background check.

An up side to this is the person can get the exact gun they want, provided the gift card has enough money to cover the purchase. The downside is unwrapping a gift card is nowhere near as exciting as unwrapping a gun.

State Law

You have to follow state law where the person lives as well. If you are not sure what the gun laws in a particular state are, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has a guide to get you started. This is only a guide and you should do further checking.

Two of the best places to check are the state's Attorney General office and a local federal firearms licensee.

State law in some places requires a gun transfer go through an FFL holder. FFL Dealer Network can help you locate a dealer near you.

Another Idea

Tucker Gunleather fully supports the idea of guns as gifts. We also have another idea. Add a custom hand-made accessory to that gift gun. If the person already has a gun or guns, give that person something to make their gun more functional. Our products are hand-crafted one at the time in our Texas plant. Each one is unique.

For a handgun, add a custom holster to the gun box or wrap two gifts. You can choose colors and patterns. We can stamp the person's initials into the leather or add a conch. Sorry, we cannot do both.

We also make rifle slings, belts and a bunch of different kinds of holsters for various shooting needs. Your gift can help that important person carry concealed, carry for shooting competitions and carry for hunting.

Best of all, our products come with our Tucker Tough Guarantee. We know whoever gets a Tucker Gunleather holster is going to love it.