Do you have the question can I gift a gun for the holidays? Watch Independent Program Attorney John Schleiffarth teach what you need to know before you buy.

John: Hi I’m John Schleiffarth Independent Program Attorney for U.S. LawShield of Missouri. I’d like to talk to you today about gifting guns. We often get the question as the holidays approach about whether or not it’s legal to gift a gun, or give a gun as a gift, in the state of Missouri. The answer to that question is yes. As long as you are giving that gun to a person who is otherwise eligible to own a firearm, and you don’t have any reason to believe that person isn’t eligible to own a firearm then you can give that gun as a gift. There’s no special registration form that needs to be completed and returned to the government.

If you want to purchase a gun for someone who lives out of state, you’ll want to check with that state and make sure that their state laws allow for this kind of gift transfer.

Now you want to be sure to avoid anything that resembles a straw man purchase. A straw man purpose would be, for example, if I wanted to buy a gun for a friend of mine and I purchase that gun and sold it to them. That would be a straw man purchase. If the intent is you’re buying that gun because you’re going to trade it or sell it, that’s a straw man purchase and it is illegal. The person would need to purchase that gun themselves.