Help, suggestions, and support

[Guest]

Hello calgunners,

I am interested in obtaining a FFL here in LA County in order to perform transfers of firearms. I have contacted my local city in regards to this and its a go.

Now what would be needed and/or concerns of operating this from my place of residence? I will not be selling any firearms, just allowing for transfers o firearms both bought online and private party.

I am not even doing this to make a huge profit. Just very irritated with the horrible gun shops out in my area with horrible service and outrageous transfer fees. I will even be giving a discount to all Leo's an military.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

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[TheExpertish]

What you're trying to do is called being a "kitchen table" FFL. I'd be curious as to what city in LA County you are in and who and what department at your city you talked to. For starters go to these two threads for the run down. It's not horribly hard, just time consuming.

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=384995

http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/showthread.php?t=454280

They're the first two stickies in this forum.

[GunSafari]

If you are inside what is considered LA city (inside LA county) its a little more work and a home based FFL will never happen as it is outlawed through zoning ordinances. For LA county I highly doubt a home based FFL would be granted because of those same ordinances. If you are in the county but outside the city limits you avoid the whole conditional use permit issue which is extremely costly. Around 8k$ just for application fee, and that fee is due again every 5 years.

We are pretty far into the process already and can tell you what LA City requirements are. Resale license from SBOE, la city business license, local zoning requires a conditional use permit and for you to be in very specific zoning. For the CUP to be granted you need to be 1000 ft away from any residentially zoned properties, have local police, city council and neighborhood council support or you will be waiting much longer then the 4-6 months that is typical for your application to go through and of course pay the application fee of around 8k$. Once that major hurdle is complete you can then apply for your FFL, send in your COE, police commission permit for your business, and each employee that is handling firearms, (additional permit for ammo sales) and then finally the CFD from DOJ. You can now sell firearms

[irockstar661]

see thats just it. According to the person I spoke to over phone in my city, to be able to provide this service via my residence, I cannot sell firearms. I will merely be handling the transfer from online or private party sales.

By the way, I am inside la county, city of Lancaster and in a residential area. If I am going to run into unforseen problems who else should I contact in order to verify that the type o services I am looking to offer will be allowed to be operated from a residence?

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[tenpercentfirearms]

see thats just it. According to the person I spoke to over phone in my city, to be able to provide this service via my residence, I cannot sell firearms. I will merely be handling the transfer from online or private party sales.

By the way, I am inside la county, city of Lancaster and in a residential area. If I am going to run into unforseen problems who else should I contact in order to verify that the type o services I am looking to offer will be allowed to be operated from a residence?

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That is interesting. Handling the transfer is selling firearms according to the BOE and in reality it is. I would get more details from Lancaster and know exactly what they are going to approve before going any further.

[irockstar661]

Awaiting a call back from my cities chair of planning. The planning department person I spoke to today is same a yesterday with an all go. But o be sure I want to iron out all details.

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[TheExpertish]

You have to explain to them that you will be licensed as a gun dealer, and if you're planning on importing from other states you'll need all the same permits and permissions as someone who will be selling new firearms.

[irockstar661]

It was a go with a loophole. I can do it no problem as long as customers will not pick up firearms from my residence which does no good. I might be looking at renting an office space now for the business. I am told any commercial or industrial area would be perfect.

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[TheExpertish]

It was a go with a loophole. I can do it no problem as long as customers will not pick up firearms from my residence which does no good. I might be looking at renting an office space now for the business. I am told any commercial or industrial area would be perfect.

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Haha, welcome to my world. I'm a few steps ahead of you going down the same road.
Diary of a Would-Be FFL.

[irockstar661]

Yes I have been following. Well have a location. My boss would not min me using an office in our warehouse

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[kemasa]

Is the City of Lancaster an actual city? It is important. LA County does not allow home based businesses in which people have to go to the location. This does not apply if you live in an actual city in the county which either issues their own permits or farms it out to the county.

Been there, done that. If the city has the county issue the permits, then you will have a problem as they don't want to do what they should. When I went through it, I had the pager information for the person at the Sheriff's department and was told that if they gave me any problem to have them page him. That was enough to get them to give me the forms.

Rather than saying that you would not be selling firearms, it would be that you are not a stocking dealer. It is the stocking aspect which causes problems and just doing the transfers and special orders are not, even though you would have the firearm for 10 days, but "they" tend to view it differently.

There are 13 FFLs in Lancaster, CA. Some seem to be stores, but some do not, so it might be possible.

[TheExpertish]

Yes I have been following. Well have a location. My boss would not min me using an office in our warehouse

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You'll need written permission from the owner of the building so hopefully that's him.

Is the City of Lancaster an actual city? It is important. LA County does not allow home based businesses in which people have to go to the location. This does not apply if you live in an actual city in the county which either issues their own permits or farms it out to the county.

Been there, done that. If the city has the county issue the permits, then you will have a problem as they don't want to do what they should. When I went through it, I had the pager information for the person at the Sheriff's department and was told that if they gave me any problem to have them page him. That was enough to get them to give me the forms.

Rather than saying that you would not be selling firearms, it would be that you are not a stocking dealer. It is the stocking aspect which causes problems and just doing the transfers and special orders are not, even though you would have the firearm for 10 days, but "they" tend to view it differently.

There are 13 FFLs in Lancaster, CA. Some seem to be stores, but some do not, so it might be possible.

Fortunately for the OP Lancaster and Palmdale are their own municipalities.

[GunSafari]

always check the zoning, and it is considered firearm sales regardless so ask someone in city planning what zone you need to be in for the sale of firearms and what permits if any are required. From there you get your ffl, coe, and cfd.

It's best to take care of zoning first, los angeles effectively removed most dealers through zoning ordinances. Just like oakland removed most dealers with taxation...

[irockstar661]

I might be screwed. I was really hoping to o this from home. Just really wanted to provide an alternate.

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[kemasa]

I might be screwed. I was really hoping to o this from home. Just really wanted to provide an alternate.

Why do you say that? The FFL database shows what appear to be home based businesses, although not many, it is said that you are in a local city, so you just need to check with your city. Because you are in a city, the county does not matter, which is good because with the county you could not do it.

Just go to your city and see what they say. Saying that you are not going to be a stocking dealer helps. They don't understand between "sales" and transfers vs. stocking firearms, so you might need to explain it to them. You can also mention that there appears to be others in the area, if they give you a hard time.