Comment on FR Doc # 2026-08922

As a regular guy who works at an FFL business and sells firearms I fully support the American tradition of gifting firearms, especially to ones direct family such as spouse or children. I do not support this rule as written however as it simply makes it impossible for the FFL to prevent straw purchases. It made much more sense to have it be required that the intended recipient be the one to fill out the paperwork and pass the background check to me. Doesn't matter who pays for it, just that the person actually getting the gun be verified by background check either directly or indirectly by parent or spouse. As written a person could be intending to purchase a firearm as a gift for a friend and not even know that that friend would not pass a background check. It would be a straw purchase and be completely unavoidable. All they'd have to do is to say is that it is a bona fide gift for their buddy and the FFL would have no recourse to have the 'buddy' be present to fill out the form. The written rule would only serve to tie the FFLs hands and prevent the FLL from being the first line of defense at preventing firearms ending up in criminals hands. I would suggest instead that the rule be re-written to specify that a bona fide gift to someone (other than spouse or child that they can purchase for without it being straw purchase) requires the person being gifted the firearm to be present and to fill out the 4473 and pass the background check. People would still be able to gift firearms just fine, it would simply move the burden of verifying the intended recipient back to the FFL instead of on the purchaser. Especially as it is not currently federally required to do background checks for private buying/selling of firearms there would be no way to identify and prevent straw purchases.