What ATF Rolled Out in Delray Beach
On September 3, 2026, ATF Director Rob Cekada stood in Delray Beach with the National Shooting Sports Foundation and launched a campaign called “Don’t Lie for the Other Guy,” targeting straw purchase law Florida residents run into more than they realize. Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Delray Beach Police, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, and West Palm Beach Police all sent representatives to the press conference. The campaign runs billboards, digital screens, and audio ads across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties through the end of September, aimed at one behavior: buying a gun for somebody else who can’t buy it themselves (ATF).
I’ve had this exact conversation in my classes more times than I can count. Somebody’s buddy, cousin, or coworker asks them to “just pick it up” because their own background check is going to be a problem. It sounds like a favor. It’s a federal felony, and now the federal government is spending money on billboards in your neighborhood to say so.
Straw Purchase Law Florida: What Actually Counts
Straw purchase law Florida cases come down to one question ATF asks on every single sale: who is the real buyer? Federal law makes it illegal to lie about that answer. Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6), it’s unlawful to make a false statement to a licensed dealer about any fact material to the lawfulness of a sale, and the Supreme Court settled the hard question in Abramski v. United States back in 2014: it doesn’t matter whether the real buyer could have passed the background check themselves. If you’re not the one keeping the gun, you’re not the actual buyer, full stop (Cornell Law).
Congress also passed a standalone straw purchasing statute in 2022, 18 U.S.C. § 932, as part of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act. It carries up to 15 years in prison, which matches the number ATF used in Delray Beach, and jumps to 25 years if the gun was headed toward a felony, an act of terrorism, or a drug trafficking operation (U.S. Code). A related charge under 18 U.S.C. § 924(a)(1)(A) covers false statements in dealer records and can add years on top of that.
Question 21.a Is the Whole Ballgame
Every firearm purchase from a licensed dealer runs through ATF Form 4473, and question 21.a is where straw purchases live or die. It asks, in plain language, if you are the actual transferee or buyer of the firearm listed on the form. The warning printed right next to it says you are not the actual buyer if you’re acquiring it on behalf of someone else, and if that’s the case, the dealer legally cannot hand you the gun (ATF Form 4473).
ATF’s own guidance lays out the two scenarios that trip people up constantly. If your friend hands you cash and asks you to buy a gun for him, you answer “no” to 21.a, and the dealer cannot transfer that firearm to you, even if your friend is perfectly legal to own it himself. But if you buy a gun with your own money and later decide to give it to that same friend as a genuine gift, with nothing expected in return, you answer “yes.” The line is who paid and who’s keeping the gun, not whether the eventual owner is a good guy (ATF FFL Newsletter). Getting a Christmas present at a gun shop is legal. Being reimbursed afterward is not, and neither is buying it to get someone a family discount.
Florida Adds Its Own Felony on Top
Florida doesn’t just defer to federal law here. Florida Statute § 790.065(12)(a) makes it a third-degree felony, punishable under section 775.082 or 775.083, for a buyer to willfully provide false information or fraudulent identification during a firearm purchase. Section 790.065(12)(d) goes further and separately criminalizes knowingly acquiring a firearm through purchase or transfer intended for someone who is prohibited by state or federal law from possessing one (Florida Statutes § 790.065). That means a Palm Beach County resident caught in a straw purchase can face state and federal charges arising from the same transaction, prosecuted by whichever office gets there first.
Florida’s three-day waiting period, also under section 790.065, runs alongside all of this and doesn’t exempt anyone from the actual-buyer question. A concealed carry license holder skips the wait, not the certification.
Why ATF Picked This Corridor
Cekada’s number at the launch was 47,000 firearms recovered from domestic trafficking cases where guns purchased illegally were meant to end up with someone with criminal intent. That’s not a Palm Beach County figure, it’s a national one, but the campaign geography tells you where ATF thinks the pipeline runs hot right now: Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, three counties that sit on major interstate corridors and have no shortage of licensed dealers. Straw purchased guns don’t stay put. A gun bought at a counter in Delray Beach can be in Fort Lauderdale by dinner and change hands twice more by the weekend, and once that happens, everyone who touched the chain has exposure.
I don’t think most people who end up charged set out to arm a criminal. Most of them just wanted to help a friend who got turned down, or wanted to save a few bucks by using a relative’s discount, and never thought through what they were actually certifying on that form. That’s not a legal defense. Ignorance of Form 4473 has never worked in front of a judge, and it won’t start now.
Before You Say Yes to Anyone
If someone asks you to buy a firearm and hand it over afterward, the honest answer to question 21.a is no, and that ends the conversation at the counter. If you want to actually give someone a gun as a gift, buy it with your own money, keep it in your own name until you decide to give it, and don’t let the recipient pay you back in cash, services, or a favor later. Family discounts and “I’ll pay you back” arrangements both cross the line the same way a stranger’s cash would.
This article is for education, not legal advice. If you think you’re already in a gray area on a past purchase, talk to a Florida firearms attorney before you talk to anyone else about it.
I teach concealed carry and home defense classes out of Boynton Beach, and I cover Form 4473 and straw purchase law in every class because it comes up more than people expect. If you want a Florida-specific breakdown for your situation, call me at (561) 213-2974 or email Mike@suburbanprotector.com.