My roomate is Phillipino. He was intersted in buying a gun, and his father instead told him to just pay the shipping costs for a few firearms that he owns that are with family in the phillipines.
My question is, can this even be done, and what sort of guidlines can one expect?
He wants to find out about having 2 .357 revolvers and one .380 semi-auto shipped from the Phillipines to here in Sacramento.
After that, how would the registration process go?
Thanks in advance!
In general firearms, particularly handguns, have to be shipped to licensed dealers. I think there is an exception for firearms being returned to the owner after repairs, but that would not apply in this case.
You might check with a gun dealer in your state to see if they would be willing to accept delivery and do any paperwork for a small fee. The dealer would know all about the required paperwork. When making a purchase from a dealer there is the federal yellow sheet (4473?).
Firearms coming from a private party overseas may pose more problems than it’s worth. The issues of your roommates citizenship may be insumountable.
Alcohol, tobacco and firearms? Someone bring chips and salsa and we’ve got a party.
FWIW his citizenship should present no problems as long as he’s a legal alien and not otherwise barred from owning firearms. A friend who is a Canadian citizen owns several machine guns, all legal of course. The process for getting a registered NFA weapon is long and complex but it citizenship was never an issue.
I was not sure whether the citizenship might be an issue. Thanks for the clarification.
You’re probably going to spend more than the guns are worth getting them imported, so unless they have sentimental value he’s likely going to be better off buying locally. The guns can’t simply be shipped in, they need to go through a licensed importer and meet all of the import laws for what can be imported. None of those sound like they’d hit the various import bans, but an importer would know for sure. I’m not sure exactly where to find one, I know that there are several importers who work with individuals. You will have to pay to have it shipped to the importer, pay the importer’s fee, and probably wait some time for the paperwork. Unless they’re in AZ, you can’t get the gun from the importer (and can’t have them ship it to you in any case), but will have to have it shipped to a Federal Firearms Licencee (usually a gun store)…
Just like buying a new gun; IIRC in AZ he’d have to fill out a form 4473 at the dealer’s and that’s it. Before messing with the rest of the process, make sure that he’s eligible to purchase a pistol in your state - I forget exactly which non-citizen statuses are OK, and he might not be old enough, or have some other disqualificaiton. A local gun store should be able to tell you what to do here, and they’ll probably charge a fee for doing the transfer to him.