Norm,
I believe the grey area is with regard to your "intent". The ATF uses that word alot. If your intent was to buy firearms for the specific purpose of reselling them, then you are violating the law unless you have the FFL. Again very subjective because we all buy our collections with the idea that at some point we are gonna have to sell them, hopefully at a profit. Does that make every collector that sells his/her stuff a dealer???
Here is an example of a guy that got stuck with a felony charge...
There is a flea market every Monday not far from where I live. An old guy and his wife set up there every Monday for as long as I can remember. He always had at least 4 or 5 guns to sell. At some point the Pa state police must have been monitoring him, as they came to the sale one day with a couple of ATF agents. They had documented the fact that he was selling firearms without a license. His defense was of course that he was liquidating a collection. And he may very well have been too. Selling a couple every week would certainly take a long time if one had a big collection.
The Pa State police got him for the handguns. All handguns in Pa MUST be transfered thru a licensed FFL. The ATF got him for being activley engaged in the business of buying and selling guns without a license.
He is a prohibited person today. He did no jail time, but he certainly lost the ability to ever own a firearm again.
No easy answer here, it seems like a risky proposition to ever set up and sell firearms at a public event, be it gun show or otherwise.
John
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