What is the difference between federal and state gun laws?
In these gun laws pages, we refer to both “federal gun laws” and “state gun laws.” The major difference between the two has to do with who makes the law, who prosecutes someone who violates the law, and what the penalty is for breaking the law. If you are calling the police because you believe the abuser has violated a gun law, it will not really matter to you if he violated federal or state law (in other words, you do not need to be able to tell the police which law he violated). The local police would likely arrest the abuser for violating either law and then after he is arrested, the police would hand the case over to the state prosecutor or the federal prosecutor to bring the criminal case against him. If he is breaking both state and federal laws, he might be prosecuted in both state and federal court. The reason why it is important for you to know that there are these two sets of gun laws is so that you can understand all of the possible ways that the abuser might be breaking the
