What Is the Straw Purchase Statute of Limitations?

Federal prosecutors have five years to bring charges for a straw purchase of a firearm. That deadline is the straw purchase statute of limitations, and it comes from the general federal statute of limitations for non-capital offenses rather than from any special firearms provision.¹ In real cases the picture is more complicated, because a single transaction can produce several charges with different start dates, conspiracy allegations can reach back further, and a suspect who runs stops the clock entirely.

Where the Five Years Comes From

Congress did not write a special, longer deadline for straw purchases when it created the modern straw purchasing statute in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022. The default five-year window for non-capital federal offenses applies to charges under both the straw purchasing statute at 18 U.S.C. § 932 and the firearms trafficking statute at 18 U.S.C. § 933.²³

If prosecutors fail to return an indictment inside that window, the case is time-barred. A defendant who does not raise the defense before trial, though, risks waiving it.

When the Clock Starts

For a standalone straw purchase charge, the clock starts on the date of the illegal transaction. That is the day the buyer walked into the dealer, filled out ATF Form 4473 with false information, and walked out with the firearm.² It does not matter when law enforcement discovers the purchase or when the gun turns up at a crime scene.

So a firearm bought through a straw transaction on June 1, 2025 starts the five-year clock that day, and the deadline to indict falls on June 1, 2030. This trips people up because straw purchases often come to light only years later, when the gun is recovered and traced. By that point a substantial piece of the window may already be gone, which is why federal agents tend to move quickly once they identify a suspected straw buyer.

How Conspiracy Charges Extend the Window

The straw purchasing statute criminalizes not only buying a firearm for a prohibited person but conspiring to do so.² The trafficking statute likewise covers attempts and conspiracies.³ For a conspiracy charge, the limitations period generally runs from the last act taken to advance the conspiracy, not from the original agreement or the first purchase.

That rule is the main tool prosecutors use to reach older conduct. A straw buyer who made a single purchase in 2021 is beyond the five-year window by 2027. But if that same buyer was part of an ongoing arrangement that included a final purchase in 2024, the earlier purchases can be folded into a conspiracy count that remains timely through 2029.

One Transaction, Several Clocks

Federal prosecutors routinely stack charges from a single straw purchase, and each charge runs on its own five-year clock from its own trigger date.

Straw purchasing under 18 U.S.C. § 932 covers knowingly buying a firearm for someone prohibited from owning one, someone who intends to use it in a felony or act of terrorism, or someone who plans to pass it along to a person in those categories.²
Firearms trafficking under 18 U.S.C. § 933 reaches the separate act of shipping, transporting, or handing the firearm to the prohibited recipient.³
False statement charges under 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(6) attach to the lie on Form 4473 and existed long before the 2022 law.⁴

The practical effect: even after the five-year window closes on the false statement charge (which runs from the day the form was signed), a trafficking charge can still be timely if the firearm reached the prohibited person at a later date. Prosecutors think in terms of the full timeline of conduct, not just the moment of purchase.

What Pauses the Clock

The five-year deadline is not always a hard stop. Federal law pauses it entirely in certain situations, and the one that matters most for straw purchase cases is flight. If a suspect learns of an investigation and leaves the country or goes into hiding, the statute of limitations freezes for as long as they remain a fugitive.⁵ The clock resumes only when they return or are apprehended. In practical terms, there is no statute of limitations for someone who runs.

State Charges Run on Their Own Deadlines

Federal charges are not the only risk. Many states have their own laws criminalizing straw purchases or related transfers to prohibited persons, and the deadlines vary widely. Some states set a three-year limit for general felonies, others allow up to seven years for firearms offenses, and a few impose no limit at all on certain felony categories.

State and federal cases can proceed simultaneously because they arise under separate legal systems. A person whose federal five-year window has closed may still face state charges if the state deadline is longer, and the reverse is also possible. The specific limit depends on how the state where the purchase occurred classifies the offense.

1
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3282 – Offenses Not Capital
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 932 – Straw Purchasing of Firearms
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 933 – Trafficking in Firearms
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 922 – Unlawful Acts
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 USC 3290 – Fugitives From Justice