I know what an FFL license entails, but what is a C&R License? I have absolutely no idea what it would allow/exempt a person when it came to purchases.
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A C&R license is a type 3 FFL. C&R means curio and relics. Basically antiques. The ATF defines a C&R gun as:
"To be recognized by ATF as a C&R firearm, a firearm must fall into at least one of the following three categories:
Firearms which were manufactured more than 50 years prior to the current date, but not including replicas thereof;
Firearms which are certified by the curator of a municipal, State, or Federal museum which exhibits firearms to be curios or relics of museum interest; and
Any other firearms which derive a substantial part of their monetary value from the fact that they are novel, rare, bizarre, or because of their association with some historical figure, period, or event. Proof of qualification of a particular firearm under this category may be established by evidence of present value and evidence that like firearms are not available except as collector’s items, or that the value of like firearms available in ordinary commercial channels is substantially less."
If you have a C&R license you can get C&R guns shipped directly to you and avoid the FFL transfer fee and repetitive background checks and the fees associated with them.
It’s $30 for a 3 year C&R license. If a background check fee + FFL transfer fee is more than $30 for all of the C&R guns you intend on purchasing in the next 3 years the license will pay for itself.
This only applies to C&R guns though. For everything else you have to go through an FFL in your state.
A C&R license is also known as a Curio and Relic Collector license. It allows you to purchase antique firearms or guns as a collector. I added a link to the wikipedia article for you that will go into more detail:
C&R does not cover antique firearms
There is no license at all needed to collect antiques guns
It also does not prevent you from selling the guns you acquired on your C&R license you simply can not buy with the intention of selling as a livelihood
I generally buy five guns at the same time pick out the one or two I like best and sell the rest for what I paid for all of them, getting mine for free
This is perfectly legal under BATF rules
It costs $30 and does two things of importance
It allows you to buy guns that have been deemed by the BATF to be curio or relic directly from distributors at a discount and have them shipped to your home
Generally this means that the gun is either fifty years old or has some unique feature that renders it a curio either way the gun must be on the ATF list
The license will pay for itself with your first purchase
Example
A Mosin 91/30 costs me $65 compared to the $125 I have seen them for in the stores
The other thing it does is give you dealer status with many of the parts suppliers like Midway and Brownells which also gives you discounts
The license could pay for itself with your first order
If you are over 21 there is just no good reason at all not to have the C&R license even if you are not interested in old military guns
If you can legally buy a handgun on a 4473 then you can get the license,all you have to do is fill out a simple app and send a courtesy copy to the chief LEO in your area
They have nothing to say about whether you get the fed license or not and most have no idea how to even file it