The State of CT Special Licensing Firearms Unit (SLFU) has just announced that effective immediately there will no longer be private, person to person firearms transfers in CT. All transfers must be processed by Firearms dealers (FFL’s).
“Effective immediately, based on state law and federal NICS requirements, S L F U will no longer allow private sales of firearms between two individuals. All firearm sales must be facilitated through a firearms dealer. As a dealer, when assisting with a private sale, please let the staff know when you call for an authorization so we can code the background appropriately. As a general reminder, when assisting with a private sale, the firearm should still go in on your books and out on your books. Thank you for your cooperation.”
Mark Ingram emailed SLFU and asked for additional information such as exactly which CT State Code or Law states that there are no private transfers. Here is the response to the question. The one for the club is regarding what “law” in CT prohibits private transfers:
- Yes, you still need to do an incoming authorization and an outgoing authorization. We need to know that it is a private party transfer assist for NICS coding purposes (all NICS check require a purpose code) so this is why we asked that you state you are doing a private party assist when calling in.
- It was brought to our attention by the FBI that the NICS system is only to be utilized for firearm transfers to/from an FFL and it cannot be utilized for person-to-person transfers. The problem with this is that our state law requires us to run a NICS check at the time of the firearm transfer (Connecticut General Statute 29-33, see below). Therefore, in order to satisfy the federal requirement AND state statute, we can NO LONGER authorize person-to-person transfers. As such, the firearm will need to go into the books of an FFL then go out from the books of an FFL.
Sec. 29-33. Sale, delivery or transfer of pistols and revolvers. Procedure. Penalty…
(c) No person, firm or corporation shall sell, deliver or otherwise transfer any pistol or revolver except upon written application on a form prescribed and furnished by the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection. Such person, firm or corporation shall ensure that all questions on the application are answered properly prior to releasing the pistol or revolver and shall retain the application, which shall be attached to the federal sale or transfer document, for at least twenty years or until such vendor goes out of business. Such application shall be available for inspection during normal business hours by law enforcement officials. No sale, delivery or other transfer of any pistol or revolver shall be made unless the person making the purchase or to whom the same is delivered or transferred is personally known to the person selling such pistol or revolver or making delivery or transfer thereof or provides evidence of his identity in the form of a motor vehicle operator’s license, identity card issued pursuant to section 1-1h or valid passport. No sale, delivery or other transfer of any pistol or revolver shall be made until the person, firm or corporation making such transfer obtains an authorization number from the Commissioner of Emergency Services and Public Protection. Said commissioner shall perform the national instant criminal background check and make a reasonable effort to determine whether there is any reason that would prohibit such applicant from possessing a pistol or revolver as provided in section 53a-217c. If the commissioner determines the existence of such a reason, the commissioner shall (1) deny the sale and no pistol or revolver shall be sold, delivered or otherwise transferred by such person, firm or corporation to such applicant, and (2) inform the chief of police of the town in which the applicant resides, or, where there is no chief of police, the warden of the borough or the first selectman of the town, as the case may be, that there exists a reason that would prohibit such applicant from possessing a pistol or revolver.