Center fire
Member
Is there away to findout what guns are registered in my name?
All handgun serial numbers and sales are recorded by the state (registered) in the Department of Justice’s Automated Firearms System. As of January 1, 2014 Long gun serial numbers are now recorded, where as previously only the sale was recorded. While there is no requirement for California residents to register previously owned handguns or firearms with law enforcement, §12025 and §12031 enhance several misdemeanor offenses to felonies if the handgun is not on file in the Department of Justice’s Automated Firearms System
How are firearms traced back to the owner when used in a crime? I assume it is traced from the manufacture, to the gun shop, then to the original owner...am I correct?
The firearms registration trace that so many people have been programmed by television to believe is a matter of one phone call really works like this:
1) IF the police come into possession of a gun, let's say a gun dropped at a crime scene, they know what kind of gun it is and have a serial number.
2) They take it back to HQ and can run it through the FBI's NCIC database to see if someone had reported that gun as being stolen. (Guns are only in the database if at some point a legitimate owner has reported a gun theft and their local police put it into the database.)
3) If no hits with NCIC, they call up the manufacturer and ask them to look up the serial number of that gun. The manufacturer calls them back when they've got the info and tells them, "That gun was sold in 1987 to G&A Gun Distributors, in Boise, ID."
4) They then call G&A Gun Distributors and asks them to find the records on that gun.
5) G&A calls them back later and says, "That gun was sold in 1988 to Bob & Jane's Gun Shop in Cedar Rapids, MI."
6) Then they call old Bob and Jane. Now, 1988 was more than 20 years ago, so Bob and Jane can legitimately say, "We burn all our records after 20 years and don't have that info." End of line. --OR-- Bob and Jane say, "Yes, we found the 4473 on that gun. It was sold to Jim Smith, who lived here in town, on August 27th of that year."
7) THEN, the investigators can try to call Jim Smith. Now Jim may have died. He may have moved out of the state. He may have sold the gun to a private party who's name he doesn't recall. All of those are more or less complete dead ends.
8) Maybe though, Jim sold that gun to a guy named Ed who still lives at 123 Street Rd., Townsville, MI. Or maybe he sold it to a gun shop somewhere. So the trail may still, perhaps, be warm.
But each step make the likelihood of the gun being traced to subsequent steps less and less probable.
Lesson 2, if you sell a gun, get a bill of sale in case the purchaser is a crook.
cb900f said:Remember, the second doesn't allow restriction of firearms ownership under any circumstances, as written.
Kind of like claiming that to you "red" is really "blue" no matter what anyone else says.
I have no problem with breaking the 4473 chain whenever I can do so. If you won't sell to me privately because I won't provide you with a driver's license number, so what? The next guy will get my money and we'll both be happy and supporting the idea of the second amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America as written IMHO. Remember, the second doesn't allow restriction of firearms ownership under any circumstances, as written. And it effectively says that that wide open right shall not be fooled with either. Or, Wyatt Earp in Dodge City Kansas was a Federal felon.
900F
When Arthur Bremer shot George Wallace in 1972, steps 1 - 5 traced Bremer's gun to Bremer in very short order.
Lesson 1, if you are an assassin, do not buy a gun in your own name.
Lesson 2, if you sell a gun, get a bill of sale in case the purchaser is a crook.
In my state, CA, registering the gun is part of the purchase steps one must go through. I asked the question because I wanted to know if I can confirm for myself what is out there in the records against what I actually own.
How are firearms traced back to the owner when used in a crime? I assume it is traced from the manufacture, to the gun shop, then to the original owner...am I correct?
CA must be different from NY in that regard. Handgun owners in NY have paperwork in their possession that lists all handguns currently registered to them. You have to carry it, along with your permit, when you're carrying a handgun. I'm supposed to contact the sheriff's office when I sell a handgun, in order to get it "off my permit." I always do that ASAP, for obvious reasons.Center fire said:In my state, CA, registering the gun is part of the purchase steps one must go through. I asked the question because I wanted to know if I can confirm for myself what is out there in the records against what I actually own.
In my state, CA, registering the gun is part of the purchase steps one must go through. I asked the question because I wanted to know if I can confirm for myself what is out there in the records against what I actually own.