Firearm trafficking charges, including those related to illegal gun sales or the transport of prohibited firearms across state lines, carry severe penalties under both federal and state law, often involving mandatory minimum sentences and substantial fines. If you’re facing serious gun charges, you should speak with an experienced defense attorney right away to start building your defense. Contact Weinstein Legal Team 24/7 to start your free, confidential case review with an attorney.
What Firearm Trafficking Charges Actually Look Like
There is rarely a single charge called firearm trafficking. Prosecutors build these cases from a cluster of related offenses.
- Straw purchases and false statements. Lying on ATF Form 4473 to buy a gun for someone else is a federal felony, and Florida separately makes it a third-degree felony to knowingly give false information to a licensed dealer in connection with a purchase (Fla. Stat. § 790.065(12)).
- The federal trafficking statutes. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 created stand-alone straw purchasing and firearm trafficking offenses (18 U.S.C. §§ 932 and 933) carrying up to 15 years in federal prison. A straw purchase made knowing the gun would be used in a felony, a drug trafficking crime, or an act of terrorism carries up to 25 years. Most large cases are federal and driven by ATF investigations.
- Dealing without a license. Repeated private sales for profit can be charged as engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(1)(A), punished under § 924(a)(1)(D)), and the government has to prove you acted willfully.
- Supplying prohibited persons. Selling or giving a firearm to a convicted felon or anyone else barred from possessing one is charged under state or federal law.
- Stolen firearms. Possessing or selling a firearm you know is stolen is a federal felony (18 U.S.C. § 922(j)), and stealing a firearm is grand theft in Florida regardless of its value.
Why These Cases Are Defensible
Trafficking cases are built on inference: purchase patterns, resale timing, and the testimony of cooperating witnesses. Knowledge and intent are the government’s burden. Buying several firearms is lawful, and proving that you bought them for a prohibited person or as an unlicensed business is never automatic. The usual battlegrounds are Fourth Amendment challenges to the searches, the credibility of cooperators, and whether any false answer on the paperwork was actually willful. Because so many of these cases are prosecuted in federal court, counsel with federal experience and a working knowledge of the Sentencing Guidelines matters. See our federal charges page.
Firearm Trafficking Questions We Hear Most
Is it illegal to sell my own gun privately in Florida?
No. Florida does not require a background check for an occasional private sale between two residents, but federal law still applies. You cannot transfer a gun to someone you know or have reason to believe is prohibited from having one, you cannot sell or ship to a resident of another state outside a licensed dealer, and repeated sales for profit become unlicensed dealing. Counties can also require background checks and waiting periods for sales on publicly accessible property such as gun shows. Read more in our guide to Florida’s gun show loophole.
What is a straw purchase?
A straw purchase is buying a firearm for someone else, at their request or with their money, while telling the dealer you are the actual buyer. A genuine gift is not a straw purchase. The crime is the false statement on the form and the purchase for another person (18 U.S.C. §§ 922(a)(6), 924(a)(1)(A), and 932), and the Supreme Court held in Abramski v. United States (2014) that it can be prosecuted even where the person you bought for could have passed a background check. It is the charge most often used to open a trafficking investigation.
Will my case be in state or federal court?
It depends on who investigated and how large the case is. A single false statement to a Florida dealer is often charged in state court. Multi-gun cases, interstate transfers, and anything built by the ATF usually go federal, where sentencing is driven by the guidelines rather than Florida’s statutory maximums.
