How to find guns registered in one's name

What do you mean by "registered"? The US doesn't have firearms registration at the national level. Any "registration" would have to be at the state or local level. As far as finding out what guns are "registered" to you in a given jurisdiction would involve contacting whatever agency handles such registrations in your area and asking them. That would at the very least be a starting point. There is no universal database where you can actively search all jurisdictions at once to see what, if any, firearms are "registered" to you....nor would most firearm owners be happy about such a database

My state (NY) has registration of handguns. That said, I can't imagine (A) not knowing what handguns I own or (B) someone else registering a handgun in my name.

Not sure what problem you're trying to solve.

Wiki says:

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

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So I'd imagine you could try contacting the CA DOJ and asking if they'll give you a list of what's registered to you.

Otherwise, unless you've had the misfortune of living in one of the few other states which registers guns, OR if you own NFA weapons registered with the BATFE, there isn't any registry of what you 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?

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?

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I wrote this a while back:

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.

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Pretty much what I suspected, thanks.

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.

Lesson 2, if you sell a gun, get a bill of sale in case the purchaser is a crook.

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That's one of the reasons I like C&R's and why I have a FFL03. If the buyer or seller will not give me the information I need for my bound book (and let me copy it down) then there is no deal.

Years ago in Michigan

I got a call from a Sheriffs deputy I knew. He wanted to know if I still had my $23.00 Herter's single six revolver in my possession. I asked why. He said a gas station in town that only had girls working there pumping gas had been robbed. The robber was carrying a 22 revolver and had shot the gal in the leg with it.

Told the deputy I would have to go look as I had not had it out of the gun cabinet in a year or more. It was still there so I was in the clear.

I guess Michigan does keep track of who got a permit to purchase a pistol. My Herter's is registered as a Herter's Wasica. Wasica is the town where Herter's was before the tornado put them out of business not the name of the gun. I did not notice it when the gal at the sheriff's department gave me my permit.

As far as how many guns I have that are in the system it is few as most were private sales.

Let me get this straight... someone shot someone with a .22 revolver and they started calling local guys on record as having owned one?

(Hey, a guy was hit with a car. Let's call all the people we know with cars. That should narrow it the <flip> down!)



I think that pretty much sums up why these systems don't make any sense at all.

Fella's;

It's true that there is no national registration of firearms - yet. But, if or when that legislation is passed, the 4473 form that's filled out with every FFL purchase these days will be the starting point for amassing the registration data. The established fact that firearms can be traced via the 4473 starting point is proof of that. True, there are holes in the 4473 system that you could fly congress through at this time. But, closing those holes is only a matter of passing legislation to do so.

Perhaps the single most effective point available to us to prevent such legislation is the example of the late and unlamented Canadian firearms registration scheme. The compliance factor was, of course, unknown but best guess is perhaps 30 to (highly unlikely) 50%. The budgetary cost over-runs are a matter of public record and were huge, several hundreds of percent above projections. I don't have the figures at hand, but they're easily found. Therefore, in these times of thin Federal availability of funds, to propose a massively expensive national firearms registration act should be political suicide. But, if national media supports it without accurately presenting both sides, or giving both sides equal time, you can bet your last .22 round that there's a good chance it'll be put before our elected representatives with intent to pass.

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

cb900f said:

Remember, the second doesn't allow restriction of firearms ownership under any circumstances, as written.

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Your interpretation of the 2nd amendment doesn't seem to agree with the court's interpretation. Kind of like claiming that to you "red" is really "blue" no matter what anyone else says.

Kind of like claiming that to you "red" is really "blue" no matter what anyone else says.

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Now that you mention that, how is it that the Left Liberal Socialists politicians and the Left Liberal Leaning Media started getting Republican voting states and areas shown in red, the color of the USSR flag, Chairman Mao's book, and the color used to denote enemy forces in military maneuvers?

CB900F said:

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

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Yep, pretty much.

Jim Watson said:

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.

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Lesson 2, Bill of Sale: this can also open you up to problems.

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.

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If you do get that information, there are a couple of possible outcomes:

1. Their records match up with what you actually own. Great.
2. They show you owning guns that you no longer own. Now you have some explaining to do as to who you sold them to and why you didn't go through the "proper channels" when you sold them.
3. You own more guns than they show are registered. Now you have even more explaining to do in terms of buying an unregistered firearm.

Makes me glad I live in Utah.

I've never understood the bill-of-sale thing in terms of proving that you no longer owned a gun in relation to a police investigation. I've discussed it with several Detectives and one really good firearms Lawyer (all in Utah, other states may be different) and if it the chain-of-ownership leads to a non-restricted person who no longer owns the gun, there isn't a whole lot that they can do. It isn't up to the "no-longer-owner" to prove that he didn't commit the crime. The burden is on the state to prove that the "no-longer-owner" has committed the crime. On the other hand, if the person had a record of having sold the gun to a restricted person, it will open a serious can of worms.

Matt

Exactly - I do not do BOS on FTF private party deals. Cash talks, gun walks

Fella's;

And here's proof positive as to why our educator's separate reading skills and reading comprehension as two different categories. "remember the second doesn't allow restriction of firearms ownership under any circumstances, as written." Emphasis now added by me at this time.

It is quite true that several successive judgments rendered since the passing of the Bill Of Rights have absolutely changed the rights granted by the second amendment. But those decisions do not alter the original intent, only the current application. One of those judicial decisions now prompting the O.P. to have to ask a question that would not be necessary if the courts had not interfered with what the framer's of the second desired. Please read George Mason and research the Federalist Papers if you doubt me.

900F

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?

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Yup the same way it was done with Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle, using normal, pre-computer business records: manufacturer/importer to seller to buyer, before the GCA added an extra layer of paperwork to harass gun buyers.

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.

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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.

No one could register a gun in my name unless they got a hold of my permit and could alter the picture to resemble themselves before they go in to register the gun.

Indiana don't have no steenking registration!

> (Hey, a guy was hit with a car. Let's call all the people we know
> with cars. That should narrow it the <flip> down!)

You think?

One evening a deputy sheriff came and arrested my mother for a hit-and-run vehicle collision.

A witness had reported a white Ford van with a license plate that started with the letter "B". My mother's white Ford Mustang was evidently a close enough match to make an arrest.

My Dad had to hire a lawyer and make bail. Birthdays and Christmas were thin that year, and there was no family vacation the next year.

Lawyers and bondsmen cost money, and it had to come from somewhere.

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.

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AG has a form for that:
Automated Firearms System (AFS) Request for Firearm Records (BOF 053)

AFS is reputed to be incomplete and at times inaccurate. No long guns purchased before Jan 1 2014 will appear in what is returned, unless you voluntarily registered them; DROS did not collect that info until this year.