Basics of Arms Dealing & Arms Trafficking

[largehazard]

    Most organized arms dealing, as roleplayed by factions, is the sale of stolen legal firearms or firearms purchased in poorly regulated transactions in gun states. The profit margin is significant, as criminals and gangs will pay several times the legal sale price for an unregistered firearm they can use in crimes. If you're selling firearms outside the bounds of the law, you are an arms dealer or arms trafficker rather than a legal gun seller.

 

Arms trafficking can be divided into two basic categories: state and federal. California state arms trafficking charges are generally less serious - all you have really done is sell a locally acquired firearm without a license or without conducting the proper background checks. For this you may be sentenced to six months in county jail or fined, with more serious consequences for aggravating factors (e.g. prior trafficking convictions).

 

Federal arms trafficking is much more serious, and applies more to most roleplayed weapons dealing. An arms dealing incident is made federal by transporting the weapons across state lines, which is how the bulk of guns used in California crimes enter circulation. Arizona and Nevada are major weapons shipment points, being gun states in which large amounts of firearms can be acquired in legally murky or outright illegal gun sales and also being states which border California, where those weapons can be sold for several times their retail value. The penalties for federal offences increase sharply, to a maximum of 10 years in federal prison and much more extensive fines. In addition most people who engage in these activities are already convicted felons prohibited from possessing firearms, which carries an extra five years.

 

320. Illegal Sale, Lease, or Transfer of a Firearm is the LSRP penal code entry for arms trafficking. It's a low-end felony. 324. Illegal Distribution of Ammunition will probably also come up. Between these two charges, being stacked (or multiplied) by the amount of arms and ammunition you're selling, your character is looking at heavy time. If your character is convicted of major arms trafficking you should probably also roleplay a more serious federal conviction, assuming you're roleplaying interstate transactions. I suggest this for 'realism' purposes, as any major arms trafficker irl is investigated by a federal taskforce and usually ends up with heavy sentences. Ultimately it's up to you though. Typically people are only ever charged with weapons possession on these servers, as arms dealing investigations are rarely done, so I don't see this particular issue coming up much. But you should be aware of the potential consequences your character faces and how serious arms trafficking is taken in a gun restricted state like California (and therefore San Andreas).

 

There's also 319. Manufacture of a Destructive Device or Prohibited Weapon, covering fabricated weapons and arms conversion devices, which is a newer trend in arms trafficking. Shmoe has covered this here.

 

In regards to your actual roleplay, you have a couple of options. This is assuming you are a faction member who is selling weapons directly acquired by your faction from the 'scheme' and you're unsure how to roleplay this. Generally speaking these guns will have crossed the state border, so you can either roleplay being that level of arms trafficker yourself or you can roleplay having acquired your weapons from somebody who specializes in this as their criminal 'profession'. From there your roleplay is a simple question of actually selling the guns on to other characters. I would suggest some people experiment with roleplaying a dedicated arms trafficker, as most people involved in this business do it 'professionally'. Weapons dealing in real life, unlike on roleplay servers, is much less profitable than drug dealing so the only people who seriously profit from it are those who specialize in it. Criminal organizations have constant easy access to firearms and do not really prioritize it as a business, as is done in roleplay.

 

NB: You should not roleplay internationally 'smuggled' weapons, as is sometimes done, particularly by European factions. This does not happen, unless for some reason somebody has gotten their hands on a massive shipment of weapons somewhere and it's worth taking the risk to smuggle them into the United States for sale. The U.S. is the biggest gun country in the world - guns come from there, they are not smuggled there. International arms trafficking in the United States goes the other way, into Canada and Mexico. Your guns will be from the U.S., probably a gun state like Arizona, New Mexico or Texas.

 

I hope this will be informative for some people who might not be familiar with how arms trafficking actually works in places like California.

Edited March 2, 2022 by largehazard

[i dont wanna od in LA]

Good stuff

 

[Shmoe]

Glad someone said it, trafficking firearms is much different than it seems in movies and shows. Thanks for throwing this up and adding my guide, much love.

[5lime]

lit