Hi Bruce, I should have been more careful in distinguishing between buying through a licensed FFL gun store and the second option of a private sale. In the first few sentences I was referring a transaction where I buy a handgun down in Florida from an FFL gun store.
In the second transaction a private transaction in Florida can go as you describe in your transaction in Ct. (even easier, there is no state approval required). The problem is that any transaction, FFL or private, is supposed to meet not only the state law in the transaction state but when involving a non-resident buyer (me, Ct.) the transaction is supposed to meet all of the laws and regulations of the buyer's state. This is a Federal law as I read it.
When in Maine I also had a situation where the Ct. regulation issue was ignored. The sales person in the gun store said he could sell me any long gun and after background checks I could take it with me. I was looking at a rifle in 6.5 Creedmore but I did not buy it. Later the Federal regs indicated that the Maine seller should have checked the Ct. regs and asked for my Long Gun Certificate or Ct. CCP allowing me to buy long guns in Ct. Then he could have transferred ownership in Maine and I could have left with the gun. As it was, if I did the deal with his guidance I would have violated the Ct. laws. Any audit of the gun store by the state of Maine could have discovered this error and now I am exposed if they pass the info to the Ct. State Police.
Transactions within a state by a state resident are fairly direct and easy to understand but by a non-resident buyer from a highly regulated state like Ct. it is a mine field. It demonstrates to me that having a Ct. CCP is virtually mandatory for any gun buying resident.