Selling firearms to LE agency

[CA_PI-Ray]

Good evening,

I am newly registered to this site. I appreciate the opportunity and thanks to all. I hope to contribute as much of my knowledge as possible.

Question: Is there special licensing required to sell to Law Enforcement organizations (City Police and County Sheriff) in addition to the process of obtaining an FFL, CFD / Centralized List, COE, Resale Cert, Business License and approval from Local law enforcement?

Thank you in advance

Ray

[SkyHawk]

You probably also want a SOT, hicap permit, AW permit. In CA, you're not of much use to a LE agency without those.

[Ron-Solo]

With some agencies, you will have to be a registered and approved vendor. Los Angeles County is one such organization. All departments have to go through the Internal (read infernal) Services Department, which approves all vendors selling to the county.

I dealt with purchasing and stores when I was a lieutenant with the Sheriff's Department. Major league pain in the posterior. If it didn't come from an authorized vendor, it didn't get approved, unless we could show that the company was a "sole source vendor", meaning no one else had it available.

After I retired, I sold walk thru metal detectors and did service work and installation at various county facilities. There were a lot of hoops to jump through and it usually took 30-60 days to get paid IF all the paperwork was in order. I got tired of the hassles and totally retired.

Good luck. There are a few firearms dealers that deal with government agencies. They are usually direct distributors for the various manufacturers. All State Police Equipment and ProForce are such vendors. The also sell to first responders, but the pricing is at a whole different level. Unless you can become a distributor directly with a manufacturer, you're going to have a tough time being competitive in pricing and volume.

All State handled the LASD conversion from Ithaca shotguns to the Remington 870. I don't know how many shotguns were ordered, but they all had a special serial number that began with "LASD". I believe that LASD got their M&P 9 pistols directly from Smith and Wesson, just like they did years ago with the Beretta 92f pistols.

Hard to compete at that level, but I wish you luck.

[Tyke8319]

On the other hand, if you deal with many very small to smaller Depts. or Counties the sales process is not nearly as complicated. Many times a Lt. or Capt. will have the authority to "buy" and as such can and will deal directly with dealers almost on a cash and carry basis. Some counties up north don't have the staff nor the funding to complicate the process. Best to check what would be required with the agencies you plan on dealing with and determine the process you'll be governed by.

[PolishMike]

Most agencies will buy guns direct from manufactures as they will sell them waaaaaaay under your cost.


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