Texas-Book-Gun Law Armed And Educated - Flipbook - Page 91
On the federal level, the ATF is charged with regulating firearms,
including sales, purchases, and transfers through Federal Firearms
Licensees (“FFLs” or “dealers”); however, a multitude of federal
agencies can be involved in any given firearms law investigation or
police function, and most fall under a branch of the U.S. Department
of Justice. Texas has no direct state-level counterpart to the ATF.
A. What is an FFL?
An FFL or Federal Firearms License is a license required by federal
law for those persons or entities that are engaged in the business of
buying and selling firearms. When an individual purchases, sells, or
transfers a firearm through a dealer, the FFL and the individual must
both comply with specific federal law requirements, paperwork,
and procedures concerning the buying, selling, or transferring of
those firearms. These requirements will be addressed throughout
this Chapter.
B. Who must obtain an FFL?
Federal law requires an FFL if a person is engaged in business as
a firearms dealer, manufacturer, or importer. For the purposes of
our discussion in this Chapter, a person is engaged in the business
when the person “devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in
firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal
objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase
and resale of firearms, but such term shall not include a person who
makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the
enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells
all or part of his personal collection of firearms.” See 18 U.S.C.
§ 921(a)(21)(C).
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