My uncle recently passed, my aunty would like to acquire and sell most of his firearms. Does she have to take the hunter safety course to acquire the pistols? How about the rifles? She’s in her mid 70’s.

Dr Jones

How many firearms total is she inheriting?

How many are pistols?  How many are long guns?

When you say "acquire and sell," do you mean she wants to keep some and sell the rest, or sell them all?

I think she can transfer any of the guns to a buyer without going through the acquisition process herself if she presents to HPD the death certificate for the previous owner and the paperwork showing she inherited them and/or is the executrix of the estate.

If it's a lot of guns, going to an FFL probably makes sense. They can take possession of everything and then do the transfers to the buyers.  They can even take them on consignment to help find buyers.

Others have posted this exact issue before.  You should look those up.

20+ pistols 40+ long guns.

Given your Aunt's age and the number of firearms, it sounds like making her the legal and registered owner may be difficult.

You didn't answer whether she's keeping any of them herself.  If she is, then she needs to jump through the hoops for those firearms anyway.  She might as well transfer them all to herself.  Then she can sell/give away as many as she wishes.  The only hiccup I foresee would be if she has anything that might prevent her from passing the background check.  It doesn't take much to be rejected, as we well know.

Here's a good write-up from another person involved in this predicament;

https://2ahawaii.com/index.php?topic=3946.0

When your aunt gets around to dealing with HPD, see if they'll provide her a list of registered firearms that are in the system.  I've known other people in a similar situation and HPD provided the executor of the estate with a printout.  This helps the executor account for some of the firearms.  There may be long guns that may not be in the system if your uncle purchased or sold them before 1994.  Hopefully HPD will be helpful.

Thank you, I will try to keep you updated.

Mr Jones

Another good example of why to register your firearm jointly with your spouse.
Another option may be to turn them over to an FFL and just put them on consignment if that's possible. 

Thank you, I will try to keep you updated.

Mr Jones

Sorry to hear about your loss. 

Many hear have been through this.  I've been through it when my dad passed, as well as know a few folks who have done estate management.  Please reach out if you have questions along the way. 

could just take them to a gun shop and put them on consignment.

Some shops will not accept firearms that are not registered or if they don't have enough display space for the firearms.  Tough situation.  Takes a while to liquidate a lot of firearms locally.

Update: Called the gun shop by the by old sears service center and the guy with the high voice told me the owner was not around. Tried several times. He finally asked me what I was calling for. Told him my uncle passed with a substantial collection and what options we could work out. The owner never called. Weird, very unprofessional for a business.  I will not be patronizing that shop again. In the mean time my Auntie has decided to let her neighbor  handle it. I'm out.

Mr Jones