IANA lawyer. I do hold a federal firearms license (FFL).
It would only be a crime if you shipped the firearm across state lines directly to a non-licensee. If you ship to an FFL you are fine, you can ship to a licensee in any state. If the ATF did ever initiate a trace all he would have to give them is the contact info for the FFL. The FFL will then have to show the ATF the bound book entry for the disposition of the gun.
In fact it is legal for an FFL in NY to have those guns and a host of other things that non-licensees can't, so that they can sell to local law-enforcement. It's just not legal in NY for the FFL to transfer those guns to a non-licensee.
There are/were a lot of solutions that look like they were never explored:
- Alex's local transfer dealer could consign the firearms for him, sell them out of state, and give him the money less whatever consignment fee he charges.
- IIRC for the 10/22 there are certain features that make it a ban gun - adjustable stock, pistol grip, threaded barrel, etc. It's child's play to swap parts to make a gun NY or CA legal, we do it all the time for buyers before shipping the gun into the state.
- Alternatively Mel could put the guns onto an auction site like GunBroker himself, sell them, and send Alex the money.