Skip to content

Supreme Court: Congress Did Not Bar Buying Guns as Gifts for Law-Abiding Citizens

Supreme Court: Congress Did Not Bar Buying Guns as Gifts for Law-Abiding Citizens

The Supreme Court recently ruled in Abramski v. United States that a law-abiding citizen may not buy a gun for another law-abiding citizen when the buyer is knowingly doing so to transfer it to another individual; however, in expressing the opinion, Justice Elena Kagan made it clear that Congress did not intend this to apply to guns purchased as gifts or guns sold on “the secondary market.”

The Supreme Court found that transferring a gun to another individual in this manner violated the congressional intent of background checks by allowing one person to pass the check in someone else’s place. 

But Kagan specifically distinguished between one who knowingly passes a background check in someone else’s stead and “one who buys a gun, or receives a gun as a gift, from a private party.” 

She explained:

The line Congress drew between those who acquire guns from dealers and those who get them as gifts or on the secondary market, we suspect, reflects a host of things, including administrative simplicity and a view about where the most problematic firearm transactions–like criminal organizations’ bulk gun purchases–typically occur.

She added, however, that the lack of regulation intended for the secondary market or gift-giving was “no reason to gut the robust measures Congress enacted at the point of sale.”

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.  Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.


Comment count on this article reflects comments made on Breitbart.com and Facebook. Visit Breitbart's Facebook Page.