Buying a gun in Pinellas county
Buying and owning a gun in Florida can be difficult. Pinellas County has some strange buying rules. First without a concealed weapons permit or a trade-in you will have to wait 3 (three) business days, for handguns and long guns.
To buy a weapon from a retail store in Florida you have to meet these requirements:
- you must be 18 to own a long gun (rifle or shotgun)
- you must be 21 to own a handgun
- you must pass a FDLE background check
- you must have current ID with the correct address on it
- depending on the county in which you purchase your weapon you will have to wait up to 3 business days unless you have a CWP or trade another weapon in.
Buying a gun online or from out of state.
There are a ton of great places online to buy weapons like www.gunbroker.com or www.budsgunshop.com. After you buy them though your journey has just started. You will have to have your weapon sent to a Florida dealer who then transfers it to you. These fees make buying or collecting guns like old .22′s very difficult to do. For example if you find an old Sears model I on gunbroker.com you could almost double the cost of it between shipping and transfer fees.
Call us first 727-828-1388 or use the online gun transfer form and we will get your information in our system so when you find a gun you are ready to go.
Because we are gun lovers too, Big Tim’s has set a very gun friendly transfer policy. You can transfer up to 5 weapons at a time for $20. That’s it, real simple. Long guns, handguns, $50 gun, $5000 gun, doesn’t matter.
Buying from a private party.
You can also purchase a weapon from a Florida citizen with significantly less paperwork, but you run the risk of the weapon being stolen or subject to seizure if it had been used in a crime. The great state of Florida has some of least restrictive private party laws in the nation. I highly recommend that you do the sale in the store just call us first. If you are buying the gun we can run it through a national database of stolen and wanted weapons. And if you are selling we can test the money for you. There have bee way too many news stories about private gun deals gone wrong.
Please be careful when you purchase from anyone other than a licensed dealer. If the weapon had been stolen or used in a crime you will be facing some conversations with your local LEO and possibly a Federal agent.
Shipping a gun somewhere else.
The rules to shipping a weapon are very complex. I highly suggest you use a FFL to ship your weapon anytime you need to. There is a ton of mis-information and old wives tales surrounding shipping and one mistake could land you with a huge fine….or worse.
If you are a Big Tim’s customer we will ship your weapon for the actual cost of the shipping and $10 for the materials to send your weapon to another FFL.
Why we do this…
A lot of businesses say they are customer friendly but we really love what we do. Seeing the look on our customers’ face when they get that long sought after gun at a reasonable price makes our day.
We know that gun ownership is not for everyone. But if you love guns like we do, send your next purchase to us. We will do everything we can to make it easy.
Call us first 727-828-1388 or use the online gun transfer form and we will get your information in our system so when you find a gun you are ready to go. Whether you purchase from a auction or an individual we can handle the details.
Get the fax number or email address from your seller and we will take over. Once your weapon comes in we call you to let you know it is in our gun log and can be picked up.
We have two convient stores to serve you:
