JLStorm,
The fact you asked this question is great - it shows you cared enough to dig into the issue. Whether you sell or not (you now say you will) is at least thought through.
I am very conservative (meaning: no more laws than needed, respect free choice and individuals). But this does bother me:
They have bought several parts that will allow them to convert these weapons into full auto.
I would want to know that they have a BATF tax stamp. I believe part of "freedom" is respecting the law, and that includes that full-auto is regulated and that is the law. I may or may not agree with that law, but I am going to respect it because I am a citizen. I may not want to be a "fink" or "rat" and call the BATF to report someone, but I don't have to aid and abet them in using a loop-hole to circumvent the law. Frankly, that we have a law tightly regulating FA and then allowing the free trade and sale of the parts is a bit crazy. That the anti-gun crowd doesn't push this agenda, instead of silly AWB's and fictitious "gun show loopholes" is beyond stupid, to me. They have a political "gimmee" to take, and they are too blind to see it. Jeez. Can you say, "low hanging fruit?"
Personally, i would call the guy and just say "hey, let's work out the shipping on this" and start a dialogue. Feel him out, see if he's cool. Then ask "hey, I noticed you bought a lot of FA parts. How hard is it to get a BATF stamp, I've been thinking about one?" If you have that discussion and everything seems cool, then go ahead. I like
catspa's response because, though we differ perhaps on the result, we both view dealing with the issue head on, verbally with the guy the right choice. I do lots of on-line transaction with guns and accessories, and this is always the correct way to work out differences or confusion.
If you don't want to do that level of checking, then try to evaluate your upside/downside as if it were a stock purchase. I used to be a professional trader, and I was taught/learned to thoroughly evaluate, as best as possible, the upside/downside to any transaction. This required trying to quantify and monetize a lot of intangibles. Let's try to run through this here:
1) Pros/upside:
a) By selling now, you get your asking price today/quickly. Cash in hand.
2) Cons/downside:
a) You refuse him, sell to someone else at the same price in two weeks. Opportunity cost on $250 (notional cost of body armor I'm guessing) for two weeks in today's economy/inflation rate = $0.48 (5% simple annual interest rate)
b) Buyer is planning a rampage, your items are part of it. Factor emotional cost of that, as well as time lost to LE inquiry (and press inquiry following that).
c) Buyer is actually a straw buyer, is really an employee of the HPC/Brady Bunch affiliate. Going to do an expose article about ease of acquiring a FA gun and body armor.
Assumptions:
a) item is fairly priced in a free, liquid market
b) That the chance the buyer is an anti-gun crusader or unstable is greater than "zero."
Result:
It is not worth $0.50 to me to take on the risk of Risks/Con arguments b) or c).
So your upside is limited to $.50, and your downside is a lifetime or worry and or guilt. Is that a good trade to make? Just because something is legal, DOES NOT make it ethical.
Would you check on someones back ground about drinking before selling them a car?
Let's analyze this type of thinking ethically. There is a presumption that the purchaser of a car is going to use it to move himself about the roads of this country. There is a presumption the purchaser of a full-auto fire control system is going to, um, use them to create fully automatic weapons. That he wants to add my body armor to his inventory, in an age of electronic tracking and Patriot-Act era lack of privacy rights, is a different thing than selling a car. It would take a lot of said alcohol the presumptive car purchaser is theoretically abusing to make me loose my judgment enough to equate the two things.
One raises certain ethical questions, the other does not. Again, just because something is legal, doesn't make it ethical.
Regardless of the ethics of whether he should be allowed to freely purchase said FA components or armor, the real issue is YOUR risks/downside. In this case, with the information you have in hand, I would focus on minimizing my risks in today's world. The information you now have in hand is different than selling to someone with an unknown history, and your risk/reward profile changes dramatically.
