Straw Purchases and Gun Trafficking in Georgia

Georgia law makes it a felony to arrange for someone else to buy a firearm on behalf of a person who is not legally entitled to make that purchase themselves. This offense, commonly called a straw purchase, targets the intermediary who facilitates the unlawful transfer rather than focusing solely on the prohibited person who ultimately ends up with the weapon.

Elements of the Offense

O.C.G.A. § 16-11-113 criminalizes knowingly soliciting, persuading, encouraging, or enticing a licensed firearms dealer to transfer or convey a firearm to someone who is not the actual buyer, or to a person who is prohibited from possessing a firearm under Georgia law, such as a convicted felon, a person on first-offender felony probation, or a person currently on felony probation. The statute’s focus is on the person who arranges or induces the dealer to make the transfer, not on the dealer itself or, exclusively, on the prohibited recipient.

The Knowledge Requirement

A defining feature of this statute is its explicit knowledge requirement. To convict someone under § 16-11-113, the state must prove the person knew that the intended recipient was either not the actual buyer or was a prohibited person. Because the statute is written this way, a genuine lack of knowledge about the recipient’s prohibited status functions as a built-in statutory defense, rather than the offense being one of strict liability that applies regardless of what the facilitator knew.

Penalties

A first conviction under § 16-11-113 carries a sentence of one to five years of imprisonment. A second or subsequent conviction increases that range to five to ten years. These penalty tiers reflect the felony-level seriousness Georgia law assigns to facilitating an unlawful firearm transfer.

The Federal Parallel

Straw purchases can also implicate federal law. 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6) makes it a federal crime to make a false statement in connection with the acquisition of a firearm. In a typical straw purchase scenario, the person actually filling out the federal purchase paperwork, misrepresenting themselves as the true buyer on the required dealer form, may face federal charges under this provision, separate from any charge the person who solicited or arranged the transaction faces under Georgia’s § 16-11-113. Georgia’s statute targets the solicitor or enticer in the transaction, while the federal statute targets the false statement made directly to the dealer.

Dual Prosecution Is Possible

Because Georgia’s straw-purchase statute and the federal false-statement statute have different elements and serve different legislative purposes, both a state and a federal prosecution can proceed from the same underlying conduct without raising a double jeopardy bar. This dual-sovereignty principle means that a person involved in arranging an unlawful firearm transfer could potentially face both a Georgia felony charge and a separate federal charge arising from the same transaction.

Scope as to Dealers

By its terms, § 16-11-113 is directed at conduct involving a licensed firearms dealer, criminalizing the act of soliciting or enticing that dealer to make a prohibited transfer. Readers researching how this statute applies to private, dealer-free transactions should confirm the precise statutory scope directly, since the text centers on inducing a dealer’s conduct rather than describing private transfers generally.

Why This Distinction Is Often Missed

General firearms-law summaries frequently describe straw purchasing only from the perspective of the ultimate prohibited buyer, overlooking that Georgia law separately and specifically targets the person who solicits or arranges the transfer. Combined with the statute’s explicit knowledge element and the possibility of simultaneous federal exposure, straw purchase liability in Georgia involves more moving parts than a single-sentence description usually captures.

This article provides general information about Georgia law and is not legal advice. Consult a licensed Georgia attorney about a specific situation.