JamesCanby
Activist Member
Under a strict interpretation, you have no legal burden to determine whether or not the other person is legally prohibited from receiving your firearm. (I say "your firearm" because that covers both prohibited persons and interstate sales.)
However, it is important to keep in mind that a strict interpretation isn't necessarily the one that you will face if the CA decides to come after you. The CA could easily argue that by not even asking the questions you were showing reckless disregard for the legal restrictions, and so you must have at least suspected that the other person couldn't legally receive your gun. (I'm not saying that they would be right, only that they could easily argue that. It still drags you into court, which can get expensive.)
As a practical matter, it is relatively trivial to verify that the buyer is a resident of the same state, and the act of asking them if they are prohibited gives you legal cover by making the burden of proof even higher for the CA. It's a rather insignificant cost to prevent a significant potential liability.
Given the advice that the questions should be asked we should probably have the voice or video recorder running during the transaction, yes?