I know if I go to a gun shop and buy a gun there is a waiting period [Homer at BloodBath and Beyond] 2 weeks?!?! but I might not be mad by then!!![/Homer] What about person to person sales through classifieds though? What about Gun shows? Are the laws the same? If I wanted to buy a gun from someone advertising in the paper is there some protocol?
I dont know if there are differences, but lets say for the sake of argument I’m talking about pistols.
The laws may differ from State to State, City to City, etc.
Generally, in most areas of the US, there are no waiting periods or background checks of any sort for person-to-person sales. I can only speak specifically for Kansas, where there are none at all.
And this thread will soon turn into a debate, as people chime in to express their indignation/outrage that individuals be able to sell their firearms in this manner…
Anth… thanks for the info. Im in Nevada now and my guess is that in nevada there is none, but only cause in nevada you can carry unconcieled or concieled with a permit you get from a week long class. Soon Im moving to KCMO though so your info is good. I dont own any guns right now but I want to purchase for sport/fun after the move and have no idea of the laws national or state. Wanna stay legal ya know. 
BTW if this starts to turn into an argument or debate do as you see fit Mods but IMO please close and dont move.
There is no longer any federal waiting period for gun store purchases–that was phased out around five years ago in favor of “instant” (couple hours, in most cases) background checks. There was, to my understanding, never a federal waiting period on private sales, nor is there any requirement of a background check on a private sale. State and local laws often vary considerably, however, and they may impose stricter requirements. Consult your local gun shop, which is likely to have fairly detailed information about the requirements in the relevant jurisdiction(s). You would be very, very foolish to rely on a general statement of the law when you need to know the specific federal, state, and local requiements.
Now, KCMO, however, has some relatively restrictive firearms laws, as well as a long history of “ad hoc” firearms laws - that is, having the KCMO police randomly pull you over, doing a search without your consent, finding a firearm (even a locked and unloaded one in the trunk, even if clearly en route to or from hunting), and confiscating it. If you start to complain about it, well, suddenly the random stop takes on a whole new level of menace…these incidents are reported from time to time locally, and KCMO residents just seem to accept it. :rolleyes:
To put things into perspective, quoth an old friend of the family who was a Kansas Deputy Sheriff (at the time):
“I’m a cop, and I won’t take my guns into KCMO.”
Like minty says - you really must learn all of the laws which affect you where you live in Kansas and Missouri (there aren’t that many; I used to have a neat book from the respective States which told them all).
There’s hasn’t been a federal waiting period since 1998, federal law now requires that you fill out the yellow form and go through a NICS criminal check, which is usually pretty instant but can take up to three days. The other thing to bear in mind is that gun laws vary hugely from state to state, so asking about ‘in the US’ is pretty vague.
The only Federal restriction on person-to-person sales is that you can’t sell to anyone you know is disqualified from owning a firearm (like a felon, illegal alien, etc), and that you can only buy from a resident of the same state as you. Local laws vary widely; while NV doesn’t have any state restrictions of that sort, in a state like NY you would still have to get a permit approved or amended by the police, have a dealer fill out the transfer paperwork, etc.
The link below has summaries of all state firearms laws:
http://www.nra-ila.org/GunLaws.asp?FormMode=State
and this one has the actual text of the laws:
http://www.atf.treas.gov/firearms/statelaws/22edition.htm