Legal age for private gun sales

[Rocketmanzzz]

I’ve had multiple people ask me about being 21 years old to have to privately purchase a pistol, but in the state of Louisiana there are no restrictions for the sale of any firearm or ammunition to anyone who’s an adult and not a felon. Only FFL’s cannot sell a sell a pistol or pistol ammunition to anyone under the age of 21 but can sell long rifles and long rifle ammunition to anyone of age to possess firearms.

 

[Magdump]

Yeah, watch out for that gunshow loophole.

 

[hotbiggun]

Sorry kids, because of the current state of the United states i will not sell you one of my firearms. 21 years old is my cutoff and if you come off imature i will not sell you my gun.

 

[Bigchillin83]

 

[cbbr]

Sorry kids, because of the current state of the United states i will not sell you one of my firearms. 21 years old is my cutoff and if you come off imature i will not sell you my gun.

Agreed. Not because of the law, because of the potential liability. I don't need the headache.

 

[krotsman]

Agreed. Not because of the law, because of the potential liability. I don't need the headache.

Playing devil's advocate here... How is the potential liability any greater when making a firearm sale to a legal purchaser, no matter what the age? Are you going to get sued harder if a 19 year old vs a 30 year old commits a crime with your former pewpew?

 

[cbbr]

DA's are out to score easy points and juries are made up of all sorts of people. They may or may not believe that selling to an 18yo is worse than selling to a 30yo. Perception - reality.

Life is full of tradeoffs and I like the odds to be in my favor as much as possible. So if someone were to do something bad with a gun that I sold, I want that someone to be a little older.

 

[Rocketmanzzz]

Playing devil's advocate here... How is the potential liability any greater when making a firearm sale to a legal purchaser, no matter what the age? Are you going to get sued harder if a 19 year old vs a 30 year old commits a crime with your former pewpew?

Legally there is no difference and if you sell your firearm you no longer have legal liability/responsibility for it after the completion of sale.

 

[cbbr]

Legally there is no difference and if you sell your firearm you no longer have legal liability/responsibility for it after the completion of sale.

I don't disagree, but I also don't want to have the argument. Selling to people who are over 21 and appear sane/mature keeps me from ever having to.

Just a personal preference, not arguing right/wrong because I personally believe that if you are old enough to have a firearm in the service of the country, you are old enough to have one for personal protection. But I don't want to have to make that argument to a DA/jury either.

 

[Bigchillin83]

tell that to the kind atf agents that come talk to you about an ar15 you sold and was used in a shoot out with local LE and the perp is now dead.... Trust me i know from experience, as do a few other members on this board lol just saying

 

[thperez1972]

Selling a handgun to an 18 year old in a private sale is legal. It is not, however, required. It's also legal to sell to a resident of the same state without needing to see ID. But, again, it is not required to sell to someone without ID. If your goal was to make sure people know what is legal, you've accomplished that goal. I'm sure a number of people were previously aware that it is legal.

While there is no legal liability to the seller once the sale is completed, the seller may feel moral liability. Because of that, the seller may impose personal restrictions on who they sell to. The seller may not want to sell to someone they feel is immature. While age does not coincide with maturity level with 100% accuracy, it's reasonable to say that maturity increases with age in an overwhelming majority of cases. So a personal age restriction is reasonable, especially when dealing with a stranger. You friends and family may be able to accurately access your maturity level because they associate with you on a regular basis. It's much harder for a stranger to determine your maturity level from the 5 minute conversation prior to a sale.

 

[hotbiggun]

Playing devil's advocate here... How is the potential liability any greater when making a firearm sale to a legal purchaser, no matter what the age? Are you going to get sued harder if a 19 year old vs a 30 year old commits a crime with your former pewpew?

For me i dont want to see my firearm used in a shooting. Reguardless of the law.
Parents arent teaching their booger eaters to be responsible young adults so i will not sell to a young person.
I dont need that on my concience.

 

[hotbiggun]

I don't disagree, but I also don't want to have the argument. Selling to people who are over 21 and appear sane/mature keeps me from ever having to.

Just a personal preference, not arguing right/wrong because I personally believe that if you are old enough to have a firearm in the service of the country, you are old enough to have one for personal protection. But I don't want to have to make that argument to a DA/jury either.

Plus going through bootcamp should increase your maturity level although its not guarenteed these days.

 

[cbbr]

While there is no legal liability to the seller once the sale is completed.

We will disagree on this part. There may be no criminal liability, but you are one bad jury/judge away from civil liability. Even if you win you cold go bankrupt paying for legal fees.

 

[mrwiggins]

i really started my gun collection at 18. had hand me downs and hunting guns, but i bought my first pistol, it was a ballester molina. no reason for adults not to participate in adult commerce

 

[hotbiggun]

i really started my gun collection at 18. had hand me downs and hunting guns, but i bought my first pistol, it was a ballester molina. no reason for adults not to participate in adult commerce

Would you loan your handgun to your friends or is their one or two friends you dont quiet trust?

 

[Rocketmanzzz]

Would you loan your handgun to your friends or is their one or two friends you dont quiet trust?

It’s age discrimination because if someone’s an adult legally you can’t just say, “your not adult enough sorry”. You should pay attention to their character and how they speak to you more than anything and if you can’t do that for someone who’s under 21 then how are you supposed do that for everyone else?

 

[Bigchillin83]

It’s age discrimination because if someone’s an adult legally you can’t just say, “your not adult enough sorry”. You should pay attention to their character and how they speak to you more than anything and if you can’t do that for someone who’s under 21 then how are you supposed do that for everyone else?

i dont know if your doing a good job of selling your case for us to sell you a pistol cause your 18 years old... just saying...

and using the millennials term "age discrimination" to try to get elders who weren't raised in this current soft/hurt feelings world or time where getting your feelings hurt was illegal arnt really accepted by the older community

you are right there is state case law in place that allow you to buy a pistol at age 18 or a long gun at age 5 ... but there's also morals and self perseveration of options and stances .. and as long as there is that you cannot make anybody and 99.999% of the time your not gonna change anybody's mind.. just take it case by case, you want to buy a handgun at your age of 18... all you can do is produce the info and see if seller is good with it..

 

[thperez1972]

We will disagree on this part. There may be no criminal liability, but you are one bad jury/judge away from civil liability. Even if you win you cold go bankrupt paying for legal fees.

No, we can agree. I just used the wrong word. I was thinking of criminal when I was typing legal.

 

[hotbiggun]

It’s age discrimination because if someone’s an adult legally you can’t just say, “your not adult enough sorry”. You should pay attention to their character and how they speak to you more than anything and if you can’t do that for someone who’s under 21 then how are you supposed do that for everyone else?

I wouldnt rule out selling my hangun to a young person if the pistol is transfered to a FFL then purchased through them. While i despise the rules placed on us by the federal government i equally despise children being raised with no moral path.

As a young boy, lets say 7 or so, i always had a gunrack hanging over my bed. I had a 410 and a 22lr. These days that is unthinkable. The difference? I knew that if i was cought touching those fireams without permission i would get a beating by dad. Now adays dads are friends and try to reason with their children, fear of a serious repercussion no longer exists. Children cannot be trusted nor are they taught to handle firearms.

In 4th grade NRA hunter safety was taught in public school during P.E. even if you had no intrests in such things you would still know what to do if you encountered a firearm and no adult was around.
Im rambling and painting with a broad brush but such is life!