bal_g23,
If you are the one under 21, your mother or father can buy a firearm and gift it to you later. Hypothetically, if you were married to an older woman over 21, she could buy a gun and gift it to you as well.
Immediate family members can buy a firearm as a gift for X-mas, birthdays, graduations, blah blah blah--------for their husbands, wives, sisters, brothers, children---------
Your aunt can't buy you a gun, nor can your uncle, or nephews, etc------you get the point I'm sure. Immediate family members only apply here, and anyone else buying you a gun is a straw purchase--period.
One of your older friends [ 21 and over ] CAN'T buy a gun and then hand it off to you. That's a straw purchase. Even if they gift it to you, it's a straw purchase in the eyes of the BATF.
You can play semantics all you want with the who what when why and how, the result is the same, you are subjecting the person buying it and yourself to criminal charges if either or both are caught and I guarantee you, the BATF will make your life hell, cost you/your family or anyone who can financially support your atty fees hell as well.
DON"T try to circumvent the laws on this. DON'T play cute with the semantics and think you got away with something-------
Let your mother or father buy the gun, then depending on the states laws that pertain to you, have the adult/s who bought the gun learn whether you [ the underaged in this case ] can control/take possession or use that firearm.
18-20 years old, you can buy a rifle or shotgun. 21 and up, you can buy a handgun.
I deal with this every day I work the gun shop. The above is the way it's going to have to be. If the dealer has knowledge of anyone buying a handgun for you before you are 21 with the exception of your mother or father, he has to stop the sale, if he even suspects it was a straw purchase later, you could still face the possibility of his getting BATF involved. He'll do this as he is obligated to do so or lose his license, either at the time of purchase or afterwards.
The laws are very specific on this, DON'T try to circumvent them in any way. Don't be young dumb and full of _____, you get the idea I'm sure. If your mother or father is willing to buy a handgun for you as a gift, great. Thats the only way you are not looking at potential problems.
I'd ask why you haven't just asked you folks to buy a gun and gift it to you. Is there a reason one or both won't do that? That would be the clearest course of action. Persue that avenue or the best advice is to forget it till you turn 21.
At the shop I work at, the person buying the handgun has to also pay for it at the time of purchase. In other words, even a wife can't pay for the gun her husband has just bought. The BATF doesn't have a clear cut rule on this, but it could be considered a straw purchase by agents as well--here's why---
The wife could have a felony record and can't buy a gun. The husband fills out the 4473 federal form with the idea of handing it to her later. She's plucks down the credit card and tries to pay for it. In our jurisdiction, two agents have stated that they would consider that a straw purchase. So in our shop, the person who fills out the form also has to pay for the gun, there are NO exceptions to this in our shop.
We went through an extensive audit last summer that lasted three weeks. One of the agents saw the wife pay for a gun the husband had purchased [ he filled out the 4473 form ]. He watched the sale, followed them to the parking lot and took down the plate number, came back in the shop and told us that we would not do that again or lose the license, that they considered that a "flag" the transaction could be a straw purchase. When asked why, we were told---We don't verify marriage certificates, how do we know they were married.
Brownie