NOBODY can purchase a handgun in any state except the one they live in! That is FED LAW, violation of which sends you to the "big house" for an all expense vacation.
Len, while that is mostly true, a minor technicality- eg, its more like
nobody can "be transferred" a handgun in any state other than the one
they are a resident of. There is no law prohibiting someone from
buying a gun from a dealer (somewhere else) and having that dealer
transfer the handgun through an FFL in their home state, which ultimately
would transfer it to the person that bought it. You can buy handguns
in virtually any state you want; problem is you can't actually
take physical posession until it goes through an FFL in your state of
residence. I know this sounds like a nit, but there is a difference between
being able to buy something and transfer it and not being able to buy
something at all. Of course, in the case of MA residents, there is
very little in the way of handguns one can buy at a "foreign" FFL that
will make it by the iron curtain on the MA FFL's end. If one is shopping
for handguns out of state, it is imperative that they know what can
and cannot come into the state beforehand. (otherwise you could waste
a lot of time and money. ) This "problem" is pretty much nonexistant
in the free states... EG, like ME > NH, vice versa, etc, as most states
don't have the handgun compliance BS.
-Mike