[BobL]

“This letter is almost pointless. If two private citizens in the same state decide to buy/sell a firearm between themselves, why would they even bother to go anywhere near an FFL?”

I’m far from an expert in this, but one reason that I could see is to get a background check on the buyer - since it is not legal to sell a gun to a felon.

...of course, with the Internet, one can do that themselves just as easy.

I think the result of this de-facto registration is to move more gun sales underground...which actually is good, in the end.

As to sales out of state, I think people will just risk it, and claim ignorance if later told the guy was from out of state...but I’m only guessing here.

[familyop]

"I’m far from an expert in this, but one reason that I could see is to get a background check on the buyer - since it is not legal to sell a gun to a felon."

I'm aware of statutes that make it illegal to knowingly do so. It's a bit difficult to prove that someone knowingly did so or had reason to believe, etc. I'm not aware of any laws that would mandate background checks or make private sellers responsible for what they don't know about a buyer. Maybe an attorney could tell us whether there's such a law in some state.

[familyop]

Looks like there’s such a law regarding handguns in PA.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2979865/posts?page=32#32