You need a firearms dealer to complete the registration application, but there are no licensed firearms dealers in the District.
That sounds pretty freaking unreasonably difficult to me…
There’s actually a single person in the district with an FFL. Amazingly enough, he’s Josh Sugarmann, the executive director of the Violence Policy Center, one of the more strident of the gun-banning organizations.
Now, a condition of having an FFL is that you actually use the license to conduct business in firearms. If someone were to petition Sugarmann for help in filling out the form, I don’t think it would be a good idea for him to refuse to do so. Such a refusal might cause a complaint to be filed with the BATF.
Mr. Sugarmann might claim that he does do business in taking illegal weapons off the streets. Having an FFL indemnifies him from DC’s handgun laws, so having an FFL is probably the safe course of action for him.
Still, that in and of itself does not allow him to refuse to transfer weapons for citizens that pass the NICS, a complaint can still be filed. However, he is not limited in how much he can charge for the transfer fee (to the best of my knowledge). “You want it transferred? Sure thing, sir, that’ll be $5,000”. So, the question becomes this: do you want to avail yourself of your rights or fund the VPC in their quest to dent your rights to you?
Quite the fanciful scenario, wouldn’t you say? Were that it were impossible, given the politics of Mr. Sugarmann.
IIRC, the only requirement is that an FFL must have regular business hours and a fixed location. It used to be many people would get an FFL (it was only $10 for three years) just for the benefit of buying guns at wholesale prices through the mail.
When Clinton came in, he tightened it up, but not too bad. I went through the process in 2001 and had a nice little business for a couple of years (it was $200 for three years) and as I said, you had to have regular business hours and a fixed location.
But I would have been under no legal obligation to help someone fill out a registration form or transfer a gun.
IMO, this is the biggest flaw in the District’s new law. How can a person comply with it? It’s like saying that you have a right to free speech in the District as long as you have a free speech permit which is only available when you apply through email…but we don’t have an email address.