Because the government has frightened people so that uninformed sellers think they have to. I had a gun shipped to a particularly ornery gunshop here last week because the seller refused to ship direct.

The gun was a Wilkes-Barre which went out of business in 1895. Once the gunshop had it in hand they refused to let me have it without filling out a 4473 and paying them a transfer fee. Aggravating!...Geo