Greetings.

Here's the situation.  I found a member of the board who has experience modifying the exterior of the HK USC (non-operational parts like mounting a new stock and grip, etc.) and has posted the pics of his work. He does it as a hobby and several members have vouched for his work and character. My question is this: If I decide to allow him to work on my weapon, since he lives in another state how do I go about protecting myself legally? Is this a type of TEMPORARY transfer that still does to an FFL in his area? Any tips?

Hep

Unless he's an FFL, you can't legally send it to him.  If you send it to an FFL in his state for work, and he can work out some means whereby that FFL brings the gun to him to work on, or he goes to the FFL's premises to do the work, then it could come right back to you from the FFL.

That's a big reason people doing work as a gunsmith are required to, and should have an FFL of their own.

Thanks for the feedback.

I think that since he recently started working on these few modifications and that he doesn't plan on mass marketing his work he doesn't have an FFL. I would never send it to him directly, but I didn't want to actually TRANSFER it to him, in other words, grant him ownership. Fact is, that's like signing your car over to an individual private mechanic in an other state. Who knows where that road would lead. I'm too paranoid to go that road.

I don't think so. The transfer would be legal, but gunsmiths who have a firearm in their possession more than overnight (aka, not returned to the owner the SAME DAY) must log an entry into a bound book that meets ATF requirements.



ATF requires it. That's the reason.

Read what I wrote again - that's exactly the point I was making.  hepcat can send the firearm to an out of state FFL to be worked on, but the work will have to be done in the presence of that FFL by this other person.

I was studying to be a gunsmith at one point, and it was my understanding that ATF took a hard line against unlicensed 'smiths. You could be correct, though.

I think if I were the dealer receiving the gun, and I knew about this up front, I probably wouldn't want to be involved. JMHO though.

That said, if this were, say, a gunstock that were getting, say, a new recoil pad, I'm not sure that it would matter, if just the stock were shipped. Maybe it does, but I don't see how you'd log it.

At one point, ATF was considering the possibility of creating a license specifically for 'smiths, which would be a good thing for this individual; however, I don't think it went far. It's too bad, really, that there isn't such a thing; it would help to open the market to some good work.