Opinion ID: 1443711
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Transfer in the Context of the Regulated Firearms Subheading.

Text: While the Regulated Firearms subheading does not specifically define the term transfer, it does use the term several times throughout its various sections. Section 441 provides the definitions for the subheading. In particular, § 441(f) states that: `Dealer' means any person who is engaged in the business of: (1) Selling, renting, or transferring firearms at wholesale or retail. (Emphasis added). Transfer, as used in this section, obviously concerns transfers for consideration (wholesale and retail are business terms). Section 441(t) states that: `Rent' means the temporary transfer of a regulated firearm for consideration where the firearm is taken from the firearm owner's property. (Emphasis added). Finally, § 441(w) states that: `Straw purchase' means any sale of a regulated firearm where the individual uses another person (the straw purchaser) to complete the application to purchase a regulated firearm, take initial possession of that firearm, and subsequently transfer that firearm to the individual. (Emphasis added). This section also obviously concerns transfers for consideration. In all of the above instances (except where Rent is specifically defined and delineated as a temporary transfer for consideration) the word transfer is used in the sense of a permanent exchange of title or possession of the regulated firearm for consideration. A dealer is a person engaged in the business of permanently exchanging title or possession of a firearm. In the context of § 441(f), transfer logically means a permanent exchange. In the case of a straw purchase, there is a sale of a regulated firearm to the strawperson, who then transfers (permanently exchanging possession of) the firearm to another individual. The use of transfer in § 441(w) also contemplates permanent exchange of possession for consideration. Section 442, entitled Sale or transfer of regulated firearms, utilizes transfer in several instances, including subsection (d), the subject provision in the case sub judice. Subsection (b)(3)(i) states that [a]n application[ [9] ] to purchase or transfer a regulated firearm shall be completed by the recipient and forwarded to the Secretary within 5 days of receipt of the regulated firearm.... Reference to the application form itself (MSP 77R-1) is reflective of transfer having a permanent exchange connotation. The form is entitled: MARYLAND STATE POLICE APPLICATION AND AFFIDAVIT TO PURCHASE A REGULATED FIREARM. The first section provides instructions, which begin: The transferee (purchaser) or voluntary registrant must complete Part 1 of this application prior to completing Part 2. [Italics added for emphasis]. The rest of the page composes Part 1 of the application and, following the instruction block, fifteen questions are listed with yes or no (and sometime N/A) circles to be filled in by the applicant, along with a space for the applicant to initial for each question's answer. At the bottom of the page there is a signature box. The box is labeled Signature of Transferee /Voluntary Registrant and Transferor. [Emphasis added]. Two lines are provided for signatures: (1) labeled Transferee /Voluntary Registrant and (2) Dealer/Transferor. [Emphasis added]. The second page of the application composes Part 2. Located at the top of the page are four check boxes, respectively labeled: Dealer Sale, Secondary Sale, Gift, and Voluntary Registration. Below that is an instruction box which states: The transferee ( purchaser ) or voluntary registrant must complete Part 1 of this application prior to completing Part 2. Licensed dealers or transferors ( sellers ) must visually inspect an official document provided by the transferee to verify that the transferee has either completed a certified firearms safety training course ... or an official document that indicates that the transferee is a current law enforcement officer.... [Italics added for emphasis.] Following the instruction box, the page is broken into six sections with section two composed of an A and B. Each individual section is entitled as follows: 1. TRANSFEREE ( PURCHASER )/VOLUNTARY REGISTRANT INFORMATION, 2a. DEALER INFORMATION (  For Licensed Dealer Sales Only  ), 2b. TRANSFEROR ( SELLER ) INFORMATION (For Secondary Sales, Gifts, and Voluntary Registration Only), 3. (THIS SECTION FOR MARYLAND STATE POLICE USE ONLY), 4. GUN INFORMATION (Must Be Completed By Transferor ), and signature blocks 5. Sign upon Application or Voluntary Registration and 6. Sign upon Transfer of Firearm. [Italics added for emphasis]. It is evident that the application, referenced by § 442(b)(3)(i), to purchase or transfer regulated firearms was only designed for permanent transfers of such firearms. [10] In fact, the only options available, as indicated at the top of the second page of the application, are for Dealer Sale, Secondary Sale, Gift, and Voluntary Registration. With the exception of Voluntary Registration, each option evinces a permanent exchange of title or possession between two individuals. Voluntary Registration is indicative of an individual already in possession of a regulated firearm, not of any type of exchange. Section 442(d)(2) states: As an alternative to completing a secondary sale of a regulated firearm through a regulated firearms dealer, the prospective seller or transferor and the prospective purchaser or transferee may complete the transaction through a designated law enforcement agency. This section provides an alternative to § 442(d), the pertinent section in the case sub judice. The use of transfer in § 442(d)(2) distinctly refers to a permanent exchange. This is evident through the introductory language of the section, As an alternative to completing a secondary sale .... § 442(d)(2) (emphasis added). Transferor (in conjunction with seller) and transferee (in conjunction with purchaser) in this context is concerned with completing a secondary sale (permanent exchange) of a regulated firearm through a designated law enforcement agency rather than through a regulated firearms dealer. Section 443, entitled Regulated firearm dealer's license, states in subsection (a), that [n]o person shall engage in the business of selling, renting, or transferring regulated firearms unless he lawfully possesses and conspicuously displays at his place of business, in addition to any other license required by law, a regulated firearms dealer's license issued by the Secretary. (Emphasis added). Again, similar to § 441(f), the use of transfer in the context of a person engaging in the firearms business provides a connotation of permanent exchange of title or possession generally for consideration. The context in which the term transfer is used in the Regulated Firearms subheading's statutory scheme as a whole must be harmonized with its use in § 442(d). Kushell, 385 Md. at 577, 870 A.2d at 193 (citing Navarro-Monzo, 380 Md. at 204, 844 A.2d at 411; Deville, 383 Md. at 223, 858 A.2d at 487). Section 442(d) states, in pertinent part: (d) Sale by other than regulated firearms dealer.  (1) A person who is not a regulated firearms dealer may not sell, rent, transfer, or purchase any regulated firearm until after 7 days shall have elapsed from the time an application to purchase or transfer shall have been executed by the prospective purchaser or transferee, in triplicate, and the original copy is forwarded by a regulated firearms dealer to the Secretary. (Emphasis added.) The Court of Special Appeals found that the context in which `transfer' appears does not comport with the narrow definition [that of permanent exchange of title or possession] [petitioner] would have us give the word. Chow, 163 Md.App. at 503, 881 A.2d at 1154. The court expounded upon this, stating: Section 442(d) refers to three forms of firearm exchange: `sell [or purchase],' `rent,' and `transfer.' `Rent' is defined in § 441(t) as the `temporary transfer of a regulated firearm for consideration where the firearm is taken from the firearm owner's property.' `Sell' and `purchase' are not defined in the subheading, but we assume they carry their ordinary and popular meaning, and contemplate a permanent transfer for consideration. `Transfer,' then, must contemplate something different from `sell' or `rent'; otherwise, those terms would be surplusage. We strive to `read statutes so that no word, clause, sentence or phrase is rendered surplusage, superfluous, meaningless, or nugatory.' See State v. Pagano, 341 Md. 129, 134, 669 A.2d 1339 (1996) (quoting Montgomery County v. Buckman, 333 Md. 516, 524, 636 A.2d 448 (1994)). Chow, 163 Md.App. at 503, 881 A.2d at 1154-55. We agree with the Court of Special Appeals that sell and purchase contemplate a permanent exchange for consideration. [11] We have discussed the use of rent, which is specifically defined in § 441(t). We disagree, however, with the Court of Special Appeals' analysis that transfer must be construed with a broad meaning to avoid being considered surplusage. To the contrary, it is when transfer is considered in its broad meaning that surplusage language is created. If transfer includes everything then the words sell, rent and purchase are surplus words. The Court of Special Appeals' apparent presumption is that a gift [12] is the only form that a permanent exchange of title or possession can assume. See Chow, 163 Md.App. at 504, 881 A.2d at 1155 ([W]e cannot ascribe to the term, as it is used in § 442(d), a narrow meaning restricted essentially to `gift'....). The Court of Special Appeals argues that transfer cannot simply mean gift. The court stated: Elsewhere in § 442 itself, the General Assembly used `gift' to exclude (with certain conditions) those forms of exchange from the prohibitions against straw purchases. See § 442(b)(2), (3) (providing that `[t]he prohibitions of this [straw purchase] subsection do not apply to a person purchasing a regulated firearm as a gift,' so long as there is compliance with the application requirement). Had the General Assembly intended to limit its meaning of the verb `transfer' in § 442(d) to making a gift, we expect that the Legislature would have used that word. Chow, 163 Md.App. at 503-04, 881 A.2d at 1155. We, however, disagree with this reasoning. Transfer, as defined at the time of the enactment of § 442(d) and read in harmony with the rest of the Regulated Firearms subheading, has the meaning of a permanent gratuitous transfer, rather than a temporary transfer. And we will not `construe the statute with forced or subtle interpretations that limit or extend its application.' Kushell, 385 Md. at 576-77, 870 A.2d at 193 (quoting Price, 378 Md. at 387, 835 A.2d at 1226); County Council v. Dutcher, 365 Md. 399, 416-417, 780 A.2d 1137, 1147 (2001). Transfer can be ascribed the meaning of a permanent exchange of title or possession and not be rendered surplusage, superfluous, meaningless, or nugatory. Each term in the litany laid out in § 442(d) has its own meaning. The term sell contemplates a permanent exchange for consideration from a seller or transferor of a regulated firearm to a buyer. Conversely, the term purchase contemplates a permanent exchange for consideration to a buyer or transferee of a regulated firearm from a seller. Rent, as discussed above and defined in § 441(t), contemplates a temporary transfer for consideration. None of these words, sell, purchase, or rent can be defined to include the permanent gratuitous transfer of a firearm. That type of permanent exchange is covered by the word transfer and that is its purpose in the statute, i.e., a permanent gratuitous transfer. Read in context with the rest of the Regulated Firearms subheading, the term transfer, as used in § 442(d), is distinguishable from the words sell, rent and purchase in that it means any other permanent exchange of title or possession of a firearm even if it is without consideration. [13] This covers situations of permanent exchange that the other terms fail to address, i.e., in the case of a gift or bequeathment. Therefore, transfer, as used in § 442(d), is not surplusage, superfluous, meaningless, or nugatory. It is the Court of Special Appeals' interpretation that makes the other language of the relevant litany surplusage. While modern day definitions of transfer may, in some instances, attribute to the word a broader meaning, they also provide a more narrow definition. That narrow definition of permanent exchange of title or possession is more in harmony with the statutory scheme of the Regulated Firearms subheading, as a whole. Thus, we attribute that narrow meaning to transfer as it is used in §§ 442(d) and 449(f).