Federal Charges for Selling Gun That Was Used in Crime
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of federal firearms charges - not the sanitized version gun rights advocates present, not the scare-tactics fiction, but the actual truth about what happens when a gun you sold ends up at a crime scene. The system works in ways most private sellers never imagine until federal agents are standing at their door.
Here is the truth that private gun sellers desperately need to understand: the ATF doesn't need to prove you KNEW the buyer was going to commit a crime. They only need to prove you SHOULD HAVE known something was wrong. That distinction - between actual knowledge and constructive knowledge - is the difference between walking free and spending the next decade or more in federal prison. The standard under 18 U.S.C. § 922(d) is "knew or had reasonable cause to believe" the buyer was prohibited. Reasonable cause. Not proof. Not certainty. Just reasonable cause.
And here is where it gets worse. Many private sellers believe the lack of paperwork protects them. No background check required for private sales under federal law, so no paper trail, right? Wrong. The ATF traces approximately 400,000 crime guns every single year. Every trace works backward from the crime scene through dealer records to the original retail purchase and forward through subsequent transfers. When your gun shows up at a murder scene, they WILL find you. The question isn't whether they can trace it - the question is what happens when they do.
The ATF Trace That Starts at a Crime Scene and Ends at Your Door
Most people picture ATF investigations starting with a suspect and working forward. Thats not how it works. The trace starts at the crime scene. A gun is recovered. Serial number gets run. The trace goes back to the manufacturer, then to the distributor, then to the first retail dealer, then to the first buyer. Every subsequent transfer gets traced through interviews, records, and detective work until they find the last known possessor before the crime.
Heres the thing - the time-to-crime metric is everything. Time-to-crime means the length of time between a gun's last known sale and its recovery at a crime scene. ATF data from there National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment shows that median time-to-crime dropped 50% from 4.2 years in 2017 to just 2.1 years in 2021. Even more alarming: 32% of traced crime guns in 2021 were recovered within ONE YEAR of the last known sale.
What does this mean for you? If you sold a gun in 2024 and it shows up at a crime scene in 2025, your sitting in the highest-risk category. Short time-to-crime is the ATF's primary indicator of firearms trafficking. It triggers mandatory investigation. Every sale you made in the last three years is potentialy under a microscope the moment one of those guns gets traced.
Think about that for a second. Let that sink in.
You sold guns legally. Private sales. No FFL required. But now investigators are looking at your entire sales history because one buyer did something terrible. And heres were it gets interesting - they're not just looking at THAT sale. There looking at the pattern.
"Should Have Known" - The Standard That Destroys Private Sellers
This is the part nobody talks about. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(d), it is unlawful to sell or dispose of a firearm to any person knowing or having reasonable cause to beleive that such person is prohibited from possessing firearms. The key phrase is "reasonable cause to believe."
What creates reasonable cause? The buyer paid in cash. The buyer seemed nervous. The buyer asked if you keep records. The buyer didn't want to provide ID. The buyer was from out of state. The buyer made comments suggesting urgency. Any of these factors - factors that occur in completly legitimate sales every day - can be reconstructed by prosecutors as "red flags" you ignored.
As Todd Spodek explains to clients facing these charges, the prosecution doesn't need to prove you had a conversation where the buyer said "I'm going to commit a crime with this gun." They need to prove that a reasonable person in your position would have suspected something was wrong. And once a gun you sold shows up at a crime scene, prosecutors have unlimited motivation to find those red flags retroactivley.
OK so lets be clear about what this means practicaly. You can do everything right - sell to someone who presents well, answers questions appropriatly, seems like a normal gun enthusiast - and still face federal charges if that person turns out to be a felon, a straw buyer, or someone who commits a violent crime. The "should have known" standard means your judgment gets evaluated with perfect hindsight, and hindsight is always 20/20.
Heres the reality. Private sellers operate in an impossible position. Federal law does NOT require you to run background checks on private sales. But federal law DOES hold you liable if you sell to a prohibited person you "should have known" was prohibited. How exactly are you supposed to know without running a check? Thats the trap.
When "Casual Sales" Become "Unlicensed Dealing"
The 2022 Bipartisan Safer Communities Act changed everything for private sellers, and most people dont even know it happened. Before 2022, to be considered "engaged in the business" of selling firearms - which requires a Federal Firearms License - you needed gun sales to be your "principal objective of livelihood and profit." That meant selling had to be your job basicly.
The new law changed the standard to "predominantly earn a profit." Think about what that means. You buy a gun, decide you dont like it, sell it for $50 more then you paid. You just predominantly earned a profit on that transaction. Do that a few times at gun shows and suddenly your operating as an unlicensed dealer under federal law.
This is critical - the ATF's April 2024 final rule implementing this change gives prosecutors massive discretion. One person sells five guns over two years and nobody cares. Another person sells five guns over two years and gets charged with unlicensed dealing carrying up to five years in federal prison. The difference? The second person's guns ended up at crime scenes.
Look at what happened to Jonathan Ludlow in Texas. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license and making false statements on ATF forms. At his sentencing hearing, prosecutors revealed that ATF traces had linked him to "numerous guns recovered from crime scenes across the state of Texas, including multiple homicides." Other guns he sold were found "in the hands of criminals" and still more were "recovered in foreign countries."
Ludlow wasnt some cartel arms dealer. He was a guy selling guns who got connected to crime scenes through ATF traces. That connection transformed his sales - which might have looked like a hobby - into a federal conspiracy.
Or consider David Lewisbey. He bought guns at Indiana gun shows and resold them in Chicago. Clean criminal record before he got charged. Sold as many as 43 guns in a single weekend. His sentence? Seventeen years in federal prison. The interstate element - buying in Indiana, selling in Illinois - elevated his "hobby" into federal firearms trafficking.
The Short Time-to-Crime Trap
Heres were people dont understand how the system actually works. Time-to-crime isn't just a statistic - its a triggering mechanism for investigation intensity.
According to ATF's National Firearms Commerce and Trafficking Assessment, in trafficking investigations, nearly 40% of traced firearms were recovered within ONE YEAR of the last known sale, and almost 58% were recovered within three years. Short time-to-crime is treated as presumptive evidence of trafficking.
What this means is your most recent sales are your most dangerous. That gun you sold six months ago? If it shows up at a crime scene tomorrow, your automaticaly in the highest-risk category. The ATF will assume trafficking until proven otherwise.
And heres the kicker - you cant prove otherwise without records. But you didnt keep records becuase private sales dont require them. So when investigators ask "who did you sell to?" and you say "I dont remember, it was a guy at a gun show," what do you think that sounds like?
It sounds like unlicensed dealing. It sounds like deliberate anonymity. It sounds like exactly what a trafficker would say.
The irony is brutal. Federal law doesnt require private sellers to keep records. But the absence of records becomes evidence of criminal intent when prosecutors are looking at you. The very anonymity you thought protected you becomes your undoing.
Consequence Cascades: How One Sale Destroys Everything
Let me show you what this looks like in practice. These are the consequence cascades that destroy lives.
Cascade One: You sell a gun at a gun show. Completly legal transaction. No paperwork required. Eight months later, that gun is recovered at a murder scene in another city. ATF traces it back to you. Investigation reveals youve sold twelve guns at gun shows over two years without keeping records. Prosecutors charge you with unlicensed dealing (up to 5 years), 922(d) violation for selling without due diligence (up to 10 years), and if they can construct a conspiracy theory, trafficking enhancements. Total exposure: twenty-plus years. Your "hobby" destroyed your life.
Cascade Two: The buyer paid cash, seemed nervous, asked if you keep records. You said no and completed the sale. Turns out he was a prohibited person - a felon who couldnt legaly buy a gun. He used your gun in drug trafficking. Under 922(d), prosecutors argue those "red flags" meant you should have known. Your convicted under 922(d), and because the gun was used in drug trafficking, enhancement applies - up to 25 years. The buyer gets 10 years. You get more because you "armed" him.
Cascade Three: Youve sold fifty guns over five years at gun shows. Good prices, mostly to regulars. ONE buyer turns out to be a straw purchaser funneling guns to prohibited persons. Three of "your" guns get recovered at crime scenes in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore. Federal trafficking indictment follows. Conspiracy charges mean ALL fifty sales are now part of the "pattern." RICO implications surface. Asset forfeiture proceedings begin. Your house, your cars, your savings - all on the table. Sentancing range: fifteen to thirty years.
Notice what happened in each scenario. The seller wasnt trying to arm criminals. The seller was trying to make some money selling guns - a perfectly legal activity. But the system is designed to retroactivley transform legal sales into criminal enterprise when guns end up at crime scenes.
Spodek Law Group has seen this pattern in hundreds of cases. The client sitting across the desk is never a hardened criminal. Hes a gun enthusiast who sold some firearms, didnt keep records because they werent required, and now faces federal prosecution becuase the ATF traced crime scene guns back to him.
The Federal Sentencing Reality Nobody Explains
Most private sellers think the maximum penalty for unlicensed dealing is five years. Thats technically true for the base offense. But heres what happens in the real world.
First, 18 U.S.C. § 924(c) adds mandatory consecutive sentences when firearms are used in connection with drug trafficking or violent crimes. "Possession" of a firearm in furtherance of such crime carries a mandatory minimum of 5 years - served AFTER your other sentence. "Brandishing" the firearm increases it to 7 years mandatory minimum. "Discharge" increases it to 10 years.
These sentences STACK. If multiple guns you sold were used in multiple crimes, each one can carry its own 924(c) enhancement. Three guns, three crimes, thats potentially 15-30 years in mandatory minimums alone - before your base sentance even gets calculated.
Second, the new straw purchasing statute - 18 U.S.C. § 932, created in 2022 - carries a 15-year maximum. If the illegaly purchased firearm is used in a felony, act of terrorism, or drug trafficking crime, the prison sentence increases to 25 years.
Third, conspiracy charges multiply everything. If prosecutors can show you were part of a trafficking conspiracy - even unknowingly - your liable for all reasonably forseeable acts of your co-conspirators. That means guns you never touched, sold by people you barely knew, can be attributed to you for sentencing purposes.
Todd Spodek has watched clients go from "I sold a few guns at gun shows" to facing effective life sentences when prosecutors stack these charges. The federal conviction rate exceeds 90%. Once your charged, the odds are overwhelmingly against you.
What Happens in the First 72 Hours
If ATF shows up at your door asking about guns, you have a very narrow window to protect yourself. Heres what happens and what you need to know.
They will ask you about specific guns by serial number. They already know you possessed those guns at some point - thats why their at your door. What they want to know is who you transfered them to, when, and what you knew about the buyer.
Everything you say can and will be used against you. There is no "off the record." There is no "just helping with the investigation." If you say "I sold it to some guy at a gun show, dont remember his name" - that statement can be used to show you werent keeping records. If you say "yeah, he seemed kind of sketchy" - that statement can be used to show you "should have known."
Do not talk to investigators without an attorney present. This is not optional advice. This is survival. The natural instinct is to cooperate, to seem helpful, to clear things up. That instinct will destroy you. Every word you say without legal counsel is ammunition for prosecutors.
Call an attorney immediatly. Before you answer questions. Before you sign anything. Before you let them into your home. The attorney can communicate with investigators on your behalf, can assess what evidence they actualy have, and can begin building your defense before you inadvertantly give them their case.
The Defense Strategies That Actually Work
If your facing federal charges for selling a gun that was used in a crime, several defense approaches may be available depending on your specific situation.
Challenging the "Engaged in Business" Finding: The new "predominantly earn a profit" standard is vague and untested. Courts are still working through what it means. A skilled defense attorney can argue that your sales pattern doesnt meet even this lower threshold - that you were genuinely selling as a hobby, not to earn profit.
Attacking the "Should Have Known" Element: Prosecutors must prove you had reasonable cause to beleive the buyer was prohibited. If the buyer presented no red flags - provided ID, answered questions reasonably, showed no signs of being prohibited - the "should have known" standard wasnt met.
Severance from Conspiracy: If your charged as part of a larger trafficking conspiracy, defense counsel can argue you had no agreement with, knowledge of, or connection to other defendants. Your liability should be limited to YOUR actions, not the actions of people you never met.
Challenging the Trace Evidence: ATF traces arent perfect. Records get lost. Transfers get miscoded. If the trace connecting you to the crime gun is flawed, the entire case may collapse.
Negotiating Charge Selection: Federal prosecutors have discretion in what charges to bring. A skilled defense attorney with federal experience can sometimes negotiate which charges are filed, which directly impacts your sentencing exposure.
The Call You Need to Make
The clock started when you learned about this investigation. Maybe agents already visited. Maybe you just heard your name mentioned. Maybe a gun you sold showed up in a news story about a crime. Whatever brought you here, the time to act is now.
Federal firearms investigations move fast. Evidence gets gathered. Witnesses get interviewed. Grand juries get convened. Every day you wait is a day prosecutors get stronger while your defense opportunities narrow.
At Spodek Law Group, we handle federal firearms cases across the country. We understand the ATF trace system, the "engaged in business" standards, the 922(d) knowledge requirements, and the sentancing enhancements that can turn a misdemeanor-level sale into a decades-long prison sentence. We know how federal prosecutors build these cases and we know how to defend against them.
The consequences of getting this wrong are catastrophic. Loss of freedom. Destruction of family. Financial devastation. Career ended. All because a gun you sold ended up in the wrong hands.
That window is closing. Every hour that passes is an hour prosecutors are using to build their case. Call 212-300-5196 now. The consultation is confidential. The advice could save your life.
The system designed this trap. You dont have to walk into it alone.
