I have a friend that hunts and his 22yr old daughter is interested in shooting.
I plan to give them a S&W 36-1 3" HB as a Christmas Gift and he can pick it up after his papers come through.

My thought is she may want a 22Lr auto instead so if that's the case,
can I trade the S&W for what she wants and then have them do the paperwork at the LGS?

I'd give her a 22 but I only have a S&W 41 and a tricked out TacSol Buckmark.
TIA.

True, a gift is not a straw purchase, as the 4473 says it is legal to purchase a firearm with the intent to gift it to another...  no formal relationship need exist (such as parent/child, sibling/sibling, etc) - you can gift a firearm to anyone.  The notion of "direct relationship" only enters into play if you want to transfer a firearm without going through an FFL, which are:  between spouses, domestic partners, parent, stepparent, grandparent, sibling, stepsibling, child, stepchild, and grandchild, as related by blood or by law.

The issue in NJ is that most such transfers must go through an FFL (aside from certain "relationship" transfers), and be executed on pistol purchase permits.  Since the OP is looking to gift to his friend, the transfer must go through an FFL.

So, if the OP wants to give his friend his .38, they can do so at an FFL - not a problem.  But to trade it in on a .22, and then transfer that, is going to eat up two permits - one from the OP, then another from his friend.  At that point, I would think it better to simply sell the .38 to the FFL, then just have the friend purchase the .22 from that FFL directly, with the discount of the sale of the .38 applied.  That keeps everything neat and clean on the permits, the 4473's, and the FFL's books.

What if i wanted to gift my mother a handgun? Does she need to do a whole bunch of paper work? I could just drive one of mine up from sc to give her for xmas.

Transfers between residents of different states require a FFL conduct the transfer, and in the case of a handgun a dealer in the transferee's state of residence. That's federal law. So to answer your question yes she will have to do paperwork and no you cannot legally just give it to her.

Like Mak said...

Now, even if you lived in NJ, and wanted to gift your mother a handgun, she would still need to first obtain a permit to purchase a handgun.  That part of NJ law hasn't changed.  You would just be able to transfer it to her directly, without an FFL involved, due to the parent/child relationship.

The only way to avoid the purchase permit is through inheritance.

Update:
Our family "gave" his family a gun rug and 2 boxes of ammo for Christmas.
They all got to view and fondle the J frame then it went back in the safe.
His father is getting a little cloudy so my friend is getting 3 pistol purchase permits.
At the end of the road he'll have our gift, and a minty 686 from his dad and a 22 of some sort that he buys.