When I first started looking to buy gun, (very) shortly after I arrived here in the md-1980s, I was astounded to learn that while I could buy any long gun from an out-of-state Merchant Of Death, I could not buy a handgun in such fashion.
It made no sense to me back then, and it has never done so since, especially as the stupid NCIS-check thing (which has to be carried out before even buying a gun from an FFL in your home state) seems to make the whole issue a moot point.
Well then, lookee here:
The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) is taking on the federal ban on interstate handgun sales in their latest lawsuit. The filing is titled Elite Precision Customs v. ATF. Industry notables Tim Herron and Freddie Blish are plaintiffs alongside the FPC and Elite Precision, which is an FFL based out of Mansfield, Texas.
The federal ban makes it illegal for Herron or Blish, both of whom travel quite a bit for work, to purchase a handgun directly from Elite Precision Customs when they’re in Texas. Under current law, a handgun has to be shipped to a FFL in the buyer’s home state where the background check will be completed. If the ban can be successfully challenged, it would make it possible for people to purchase handguns directly from brick-and-mortar FFLs while visiting states in which they don’t reside.
Well, I don’t agree with the whole NCIS check thing at all anyway, but I would love to swing by a mom ‘n pop pawn shop or gun store in my travels, and pick up a handgun which caught my fancy. (I actually stumbled on one such situation somewhere in Arizona, many years ago; it was a peach of a 3rd Generation Colt Peacemaker, and the price was about three-quarters of what I’d expect to pay in Texas. But noooo…)
Strikes me that if a federal law states that I need to have my ass checked before buying a gun anywhere, that a handgun should be treated no differently from, say, a shotgun.
But that would mean applying logic to Gummint — and that right there is a non-starter. Silly me.