Purchasing laws for military persons.

S

soldiercraig

New member
I recalling hearing that as long as your an active duty military person, you can buy handguns. My problem is that after boot cammp I will still be only 19 years old, does this mean I can or cannot but a hand gun?:confused: My recruiter does not know the answer so any help would be fablous.
 
I currently own a shotgun, but I am very interested to see wether or not I am able to buy handguns. I am joing the coast guard and will be working with the Sig P229 DAK, but am I goiong to be able to buy personal use hand guns for when I'm not on duty?
 
federal law says that a FFL can't sell you a handgun until your 21. Not knowing MD law I won't try to figure how you could have one transferred from another. Up here in PA your parent could just gift you one, but it looks like your in MD. too bad.
 
yeah maryland really sucks with the gun laws. So the fact that I will be active duty military/federal law enforcement bears no weight? Man, I guess I might just have to wait till the age catches up with the interest.
 
you can buy a rifle or a shotgun (unless you are an officer)
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What's rank got to do with it? Other than the fact that - since you need a bachelor's - almost no officers are less than 21.
 
I love the way you can us a M-16 or what ever on the job but not have a fire arm in you house on base. Your old enough to die but not old enough to defend your self? Political Correctness gone amok.:rolleyes:
 
Welcome to the Army, soldiercraig. What branch are you in? I have been in the Field Artillery for the last 11 years. I am on my third overseas tour and my third to Iraq. It's not the life for everyone but it has proven the life for me.

I hope that your enlistment goes well.

SSG Nathan J. Hickson
Baghdad, Iraq
 
It would appear to depend on what state you are stationed in and then on state law.

Under federal law, you cannot buy from a licensed dealer until you are 21. If stationed in a state like Florida, you can purchase a handgun from a private individual at 18. Someone can also buy you one as a gift even younger than 18.
 
Just because you have been in the military...

...doesn't mean doo to the rest of the government.

My son served as a MP in the U.S. Army and was in Panama guarding prisoners with a locked and loaded M-16 during that crisis. He was released from active duty and returned to Missouri where he couldn't buy a deer tag because he had not been to the "correct" hunters safety course.:barf:
 
Sorry about your tough spot. I too thought it was odd that once many years ago I could defend the constituion- but I couldn't buy a beer or a handgun. Being active CG, will you be living in barracks on station, general population quarters, or living out in the economy? There will be a difference. Once you get out of boot camp- ask your chain of command. If you live in the barracks- any personal firearms will have to be kept in the unit armory (at least it was this way in the Army). If you're married and have gov't quarts- you will be at the mercy of Post Regulations, but I have only heard of one instance where soldiers were instructed to store their weapons in the armory- and that was just heresay. The thing I hated about keeping firearms in the armory was you never knew which Armorer would get bored on a night shift and put his grubby little nose pickers all over everybody's personal firearms. Some folks had some really nice stuff.

Also, depending on your CO, it is up to him to allow you to remove your service pistol to take to the range. At least the Army had that buried deep in it's policies and regs as late as '04. Seems it goes back to the days when individual units had their own markmanship teams.

Good luck in boot camp. Be sure to tell your folks to send lots of cookies and tell your girlfriend to send lots of perfumed letters and bikini photos. :D
 
Speaking strictly for the Air Force. I know that if you lived on base, dorm or base housing, you had to keep your guns stored at the armory on base. And now that I think about it, I think if you lived off-base they wanted you to keep them in the armory as well. But I know plenty of guys who lived off-base that kept their guns at home. They said that you could retrieve them anytime 24/7 365 days of year, no questions asked. From what I saw from friends who had guns stored on base, they were good on their word. Never had a problem getting their guns day or night, whenever they wanted.

I never bothered to take my guns with me when I enlisted. The only sateside assignment I ever had was Cannon AFB, New Mexico :barf:. Colorado was right up the road so I just went home to shoot when I had the time. The rest of my time was spent overseas.
 
age issue not military status

which has been pointed out by many posters.

However once you are of age your ability own a handgun shold not be a problem. There could be specific command restrictions on having a handgun on base. But off base you should not have any problems. There are a number of USCG members here on Kodiak who belong to our club and shoot regulary at our range. Some of them even manage to get the Guard to supply part of thier ammo free of charge.

If you really get into the shooting you could easily become a member of a shooting team from you ship or station. I know the shooters from the local base get to shoot in matches a few times a year. Their only complaints fall on the few USCG members who actualy want to shoot. They ae always looking for more team members.
 
Darrne007: I'm not sure which base you are at, but here at DM if you live in base housing you can keep your guns in your house but they must be registered with Security Forces and kept unloaded at all times. If you live in the dorms you have to store them in the armory or off base somewhere. If you live off base nobody cares.
 
That's by far your best bet. If you're going to be living on base, you're really going to need to check into whether or not you can have your guns with you. Everywhere I've been any gun brought on to base needs to be checked in at the armory ... where they can mess with it as much as they want. It's also illegal to have a concealed handgun on federal property, which is every military base. Just a couple of the reasons why I don't live on military bases ... aside from the absolutely disgusting housing found on many of them.
 
about the only benefit is sometimes you get a discount from the big sellers.
if they advertise LEO discount ask about military discount.
Got a NIB PM9 for under $500 that way.
 
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