JavaScript is disabled
Our website requires JavaScript to function properly. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser settings before proceeding.
Messages
2
Reactions
0
Hello friends--

Need some advice.

Say I gifted a cute lil Ruger .22 pistol to my sister in 2018 (for my 13 year old nephew to own later, and to fondly remember his gun-friendly uncle).

The law says no background check necessary between siblings for the transfer: RCW 9.41.113: Firearm sales or transfers—Background checks—Requirements—Exceptions.

Since I am the original legal purchaser, my question is this: Does sis have to also or otherwise "register" the weapon in her name?

I gave it to a relative. My concern: does The Man know that? God forbid the piece slips sideways some day, how do I then prove that it is not mine?

Thanks guys!
 
We are not required to register, but you can file a transfer to your sister and there will be record of that. There is no way to tell who or what other than your background check, and then word of mouth.
If you're worried about it have her file a transfer.
You'll just have to sort it out if it ever becomes a problem, if not.
 
There is no registration here yet. Now for what you are talking here as far as I know yes you can do this. If it was me? I would not. If I decide to gift one of my guns to a family member I will gift them the cost to do a transfer. Reason? After that gun leaves my control it still has my name all over it, assuming I bought it through a dealer. So if the person I gift it to loses it, sells it, lets it get stolen? Then it ends up at a crime, guess where the law is going to be, my house. Yes what I did was legal but to me the cost of paying for the transfer is worth not wondering for decades where that gun went.
 
If your somehow worried about your sister Don't do it, otherwise if it's a transfer thing have her do one
if it were my sister there would be no posting on this site about it ,and my nephew would have fond memories
I don't have anyone to leave anything to other than friends and they are well taken care of
 
Last Edited:
Just me, but if the law says FTF gifts between sibling are exempt, then I'd give it to her and be done.

Five years ago, guns were being bought, sold and traded at will like we were free people doing what we wished with our own property. Now we are talking about actually going above and beyond what the BS law requires. Crazy.
 
For the above, ensure you and your sister are both Washington residents before doing a private (sans FFl) transfer. If you two are residents of different states then federal law requires it to be transferred through a dealer FFL in the recipient's state. (If it is a C&R gun and recipient has a C&R FFL then in many states they can receive it directly).

There is another option. If you and your sister are both Washington residents and you are concerned about the future travels of the gun, draft a simple one paragraph letter with the gun's serial number, make and model, and state that you are giving it to her and that she acknowledges receiving it. You both sign and date. If the police ever come asking about it you retrieve it from your safe as proof that you transferred it on a date when no background check was required.

Also keep in mind that if you have any reason to believe she might be a prohibited person, or have any prohibited person living with her, that you decline the transfer. (If she needed a gun for protection and lived with a prohibited person then she could get a locking container only she had access to, but I would refer her to buy herself a new gun in those circumstances).
 
As for having some kind of legal responsibility for a gun you have legally given to a family member - if the gun has no "paper" on it (e.g., you bought it privately before BGCs became law), then the firearm will probably never be traced back to you unless the person you bought it from kept records themselves and they themselves have "paper" on it that can be traced to them.

Personally, I would never gift a gun to anyone I did not trust with it. About half my family qualifies - the other half are either a 'maybe' or a definite no due to their past behavior.

As far as legal liability, I am not aware of anything in the law that requires a firearm owner to keep track of which family member got which gun as a gift or a purchase. Personally, when (not if) confiscation comes about, I am going to fall back on my well known poor memory (and possible Alzheimers) and just say I do not remember. Better yet - plead the fifth.
 
In this type of example, if concerned, simple bill of sale. Yet, as a gift. Description, serial number, to whom, when. Signed. Done.

IMO.

Keep with all your other regular/non-family FFL transfer paperwork, backed up appropriately.
 
Does Oregon law use the same definition for " immediate family members?".

Yes, more or less. ORS 166.435 - Firearm transfers by unlicensed persons - 2017 Oregon Revised Statutes

(A) A transferor's spouse or domestic partner;

(B)A transferor's parent or stepparent;

(C)A transferor's child or stepchild;

(D)A transferor's sibling;

(E)A transferor's grandparent;

(F)A transferor's grandchild;

(G)A transferor's aunt or uncle;

(H)A transferor's first cousin;

(I)A transferor's niece or nephew; or

(J)The spouse or domestic partner of a person specified in subparagraphs (B) to (I) of this paragraph.
 
I just did that this month. Transferred to my granddaughter with a formal letter, citing "her responsibility? from the transfer and got a witness to sign also. Then yesterday, she went to an FFL and filed a formal transfer because she wanted it in her name.
 

Upcoming Events

Tillamook Gun & Knife Show
Tillamook, OR
"The Original" Kalispell Gun Show
Kalispell, MT
Teen Rifle 1 Class
Springfield, OR
Kids Firearm Safety 2 Class
Springfield, OR

New Resource Reviews

New Classified Ads

Back Top