That is not actually in evidence as the article states Bloomberg enlisted the help of Rep Gifford's staff. There isn't evidence from the article that an out of state person purchased a handgun. Bloomberg has pulled this type of stunt before and got his hand slapped hard when he used out of state purchasers. Based on that and what was mentioned in the article I might surmise he attempted to use a state resident to do the purchase but focused on a non-dealer to make the case that the federal law provisions are inadequate.