Hi,
I live in MA, can I legally sell ammo to people in surrounding free states? I have a C&R FFL, but no license to sell ammo. Specifically, in person, advertised on NES, driven from MA to another nearby state. My approach to laws are to do everything 100% according to the law, without ANY short cuts. So please keep that in mind if you provide an answer. For example, I would not sell (or buy) even 1 bullet to a friend in MA. And I wouldn't sell the paper box for $20 and give the contents for free. Please don't tell me how to skirt laws, only tell me what is 100% perfectly legal. Or better yet, send me links to laws or facts. Thanks for your time and help.
This issue has been discussed on NES previously. You can find a thread about it here:
private sale of ammo in MA? there is also a law which speaks to the topic generally here,
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Chapter140/Section122B However, my understanding of how this has been interpreted is that it applies to people who are in the business of selling ammunition. And that's readily evident by the fact that an ammunition dealer is allowed to have a larger supply on his premises than an individual is allowed to have at home. However, if you are concerned about 122B and feel it requires you to have a sales license to sell of a few personally owned boxes, then remind yourself of these three things: 1) The law is never interpreted so as to yield an absurd result, and it's absurd to require a licensing scheme of this type to apply to a de minimus private sale of a few boxes; 2) You could advertise the ammo here to be sold as one single transaction, contingent upon them meeting you in Woonsocket or Nashua to take possession or c) Or possibly, you could type up a receipt which states that they are paying $0 for the ammo and $x for delivery, then if the person you deliver it to shows you that they have and LTC.
Please keep in mind that MGL and CMR both have the force of law and between them make the regulatory picture more clear. This CMR
https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2017/10/11/527cmr1.pdf talks about a storage license not being needed for "private use" ammo under certain limits, but the MGL previously cited is silent on the "private use" distinction. My understanding is that the private use ammo distinction is understood and enforced across the spectrum of all MA state ammo laws, but I'm not a lawyer and I don't give legal advice. That said, the CMR I linked to even specifically mentions "commercial use".
Now I know this is a lot to process, but it's reasonably clear that the ammo sales license in question from 122B is in fact intended for those who are in the business of selling ammunition, which is why the official state page (
Information for firearms dealers) where you can get the license application talks about "Firearms dealer business location requirements". It's very clear that the license to sell ammunition (
https://www.mass.gov/media/9611/download) is not a stand alone ammo license, but rather it's a parameter of the dealer's license; such licenses only being available to those who are actually in the business of selling firearms/ammo. This understanding is bolstered by the fact that private sales of even firearms are allowed - no firearms dealer license required for that (you can transfer four firearms personally per year in MA - see this:
https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Chapter140/Section128A).
Taken together, the reasonable conclusion to draw is that if a person is not engaged in the sale of ammunition as a business and they are only selling a modest quantity of personally owned ammo, then the laws cannot be interpreted as to require that he obtain a dealer's license; for the simple reason, he's not a dealer. And that understanding is bolstered by this sentence from the MGL (Ch 140 s122B) itself "Every license shall specify the street and number, if any, of the building where the
business is to be carried on." The emphasis on the word "business" is mine, but I think that provides all the information you need. If in Massachusetts, you are engaged in the
business of selling ammunition, then you would need a MA dealer's license, specifically for ammunition. But if not, you don't. Now, what's a "business"?
The best way to understand that is the most simple: A for-profit business is an ongoing enterprise which provides goods and/or services for a profit. A non-profit business does the same, but with an aim for social good and not for a profit. A person who paints his friend's garage for $300 is not in business per se. But if he holds himself out to be a garage painter and starts painting a series of garages, then he's in business. The key here would be if your activities are deliberately aimed at conducting commerce or if they are incidental to existing.
USA is a nation of ordered
liberty. What that means is that absent an express restriction on your liberty (which does not violate your state or federal rights), you are allowed to go about your affairs in a reasonable manner, unmolested. The bottom line of regulated activities is this: There are some which are red-line "do not murder" and some which are context dependent "no reckless driving". Driving at a fast clip to keep up with the highway traffic might be speeding, but it's not reckless per se. Driving that same speed in a residential neighborhood very well could be. Similarly, a "business" of doing something is fact-driven and context dependent. If you inherit 10,000 round of ammunition and you sell it off piecemeal, that's not a business. Neither would it be if you built up a 10,000 round personal ammo supply and then, before moving sold it to avoid needing to transport it.
But if you had a small side gig where you sold firearms holsters and decided to start selling 100 rounds of ammo a month, even that small amount would be a business. Thus, to me, the bright line test would be this: Are you a regular commercial seller of things in MA? Do your activities regularly require you to collect sales tax on those sales? If yes to both of those, you are engaged in the business of selling things and if you add ammunition to the list to things you sell, you need the firearms dealer ammunition sales license. Last point: The distinction between personal property and business sales inventory in Massachusetts is this: a) has sales tax already been paid in MA on the item and/or has personal use tax already been paid?
Now, some things, such as cars, require sales tax each time they a sold (registered, actually), but generally speaking, in MA if you own personal property in Ma and the original sale conveyance of that property was already taxed in MA, no sales tax is required to sell it again. If you own it via your business and you take it out for personal use for free, "use tax" is still required (and income tax on the value of the property). So to sum up, if you are not in the business of selling items and you are only selling off personally owned ammunition and if those sales do not require you to collect MA sales tax, then it cannot reasonably be construed that you are in the business of selling ammunition and therefore, MGL Ch 140 §122B does not apply to you.
But as I said, I am not a lawyer and I don't give legal advice. But I will offer to buy your ammo, if you send me a message (if the price is good and it's something I can use). And if you are still worried, we can do the transaction with my FFL dealer friend as a principal/ intermediary. He'll take possession and ownership from you and then he will sell me the items I want, leaving the rest for him to sell in his shop. Let me know....
And as for your questions about "out of state"; once you are clear on MA laws, then the questions become: which states are you talking about and how would you physically convey the ammunition? But I've already spoken to that above, so let's not repeat.