[Timindc]

Hi,

My name is Tim and I am new here. Was looking for a place to ask this question and TFL seemed like a nice general firearm forum. In any case....

I live in Washington DC (yeah yeah, I know!) and have a second part time / vacation property in Florida. When I was younger and in the military I enjoyed shooting with friends at a range or someplace we set up for target practice. I am now semi-retired (yea!) and just work part time on some consulting gigs in DC anymore.

When I moved to DC 30 years ago I had two rifles and a hand gun. There was no place really to shoot in the immediate DC area however and the city was/is not very firearm friendly. So I sold the three firearms I had at the time. There still isn't any place nearby to shoot at, so I have no desire to have any type of firearm in DC.

But there are places around my Florida place to shoot and some gun clubs and whatnot. But I have given myself a headache trying to figure out how I can buy any firearms. I don't know exactly what I want yet since I am not going to go shopping until I can figure out how to buy something.

For the sake of discussion, let's say I want to buy one rifle and one hand gun since I know the laws are different between hand guns and long guns. We have a grand total of one FFL here in DC and he charges something like $200 to transfer each gun. I was in the military and they accept veterans for ownership in DC without much additional work. I think I might still have to watch a film take a short written test but I do not need to go through any certified training to register a gun in DC. And pay the local FFL an absurd fee for transfer of each firearm.

But like I said, I don't want the gun in DC. I want to store and use it in Florida. So how the do I go about buying either a handgun or rifle to use in Florida???

Do I have to get the paperwork in DC to buy the gun, transfer it to the FFL in DC, and then transport it down to Florida myself the next time I go there? It just really seems stupid and there has got to be a better way!

For long guns, there isn't technically any Federal or State laws restricting my purchase. And I technically don't have to have the DC form ready for the dealer to fill out and sell me a rifle. (Oh, by the way, there are no gun shops in DC so I can't buy any type of firearm "in state".) In practice though, the gun shops in VA and MD want the form from DC MPD stating that I met DC requirements to buy a long gun. And from my understanding, any place outside of VA and MD will not let me buy any type of firearm because they just don't want to mess with the problems.

So if I go to a Sporting Goods store or Wally World in Florida, from what I have heard they will not even sell me buy any type of firearm. I guess I could drag a lawyer with me and make a stink about it and probably eventually end up being able to buy a rifle. But it seems most places don't know the laws very well and just find it easier to say no.

A handgun seems near impossible however without doing what I described earlier (i.e. get the registration paperwork to buy, pay the rip-off FFL in DC to transfer the handgun, then take it down to Florida myself. And I am supposed to notify DC MPD that I still own the handgun but transferred it out-of-state yet still present the firearm to MPD every three years for registration renewal or else I am guilty of a some sort of firearm felony and no longer allowed to own or buy a gun...

Help! Does anyone know how I can shoot at a soda can in Florida without loosing my mind????