At Estate Auctions of the deceased, if you buy a firearm is there a paper trail? Or is it the same as if buying from a Private Person?
STANG,All auctioneers are required to follow Federal and State laws when dealing with the sale of firearms.My wife is an auctioneer.
The only way around that is to buy it from the heirs before it gets inventoried and turned over to the auctioneer. They have to account for the sales, and use an FFL holder to do the transfer. Not all of them are FFLs themselves, but they hire one for the event.
There isn't a back door. Also, unless they are "gun people" who know the law; in my experience quite often the heirs will want more than the law requires. Why do gun people sell guns? The collection was too large and the others wanted cash. I used to collect antiques and the stories were interesting. A widow called a local FFL and two of the firearms in the collection were a FA. He said are they legal? She answered my husband said they are fully transferable and you'd know what he meant. He did and referred her to someone who had a license.
