Residential Firearms Businesses? Yes, please.

A recent article about home-based gun sellers in New Jersey caught my eye.

It seems that, if you have an FFL and meet zoning and other requirements, you too can be a gun dealer and your living room can be your sales floor.

That’s kinda cool.

I shouldn’t be surprised at this. After all, I did read and review Mike Detty’s book “Guns Across the Border,” in which he described a plethora of gun sales in his living room. Of course, the majority of those transactions were done illegally and with the full knowledge and blessing of the BATF.

So I guess I didn’t really think much about it, but as long as you have an FFL and meet other requirements (such as locking up all inventory overnight and a burglar alarm is required in some locales) you can operate just like any gun shop.

And, just like any gun shop, you must open your place of business–in this case, your home–to unannounced state and federal inspections to delve through your records and operation to ensure compliance with the plethora of rules and laws regulating such things. And, of course, each purchaser must submit to government background checks.

Personally, I have some mixed emotions about this. If I know and trust the dealer, I’d be happy to conduct business in his home. But to deal with a stranger, I might be more comfortable meeting in a public place such as a retail store.

The lack of overhead by selling guns from one’s home will allow for similar profit margins at lower selling prices, which very likely helps home-based gun dealers to compete with brick-and-mortar shops.

At any rate, it’s an interesting way to think about government-regulated gun sales, and overall I think I like it.

What do you think?

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.