Beat me to that.Originally Posted by FXWG
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Beat me to that.Originally Posted by FXWG
Whenever I've purchased or been given a used gun, I ran it through NCIC.
How?
I called my local police department, told them I wanted to check the serial number before purchase, and they put me through to Dispatch.
No problems.
I am NOT law enforcement.
Most police departments will be surprised if you do this, but won't deny your effort to be law-abiding.
In fact, about 1983, I wanted to buy a Weatherby rifle off a guy in his home. I called the police with its make, model and serial number. The dispatcher came back and asked where I was.
Ten minutes later, two detectives who happened to be nearby showed up. The rifle was stolen. They confiscated it.
The man selling it, a backyard mechanic type, was not happy. He had taken it in lieu of cash, for working on someone's car. He didn't know anything about guns. Now, he was out the cash and the gun!
But he wasn't angry at me. He was ticked at the guy who gave it to him in trade.
I was pleased that someone got their stolen gun back.
Most police agencies are pretty agreeable if you call and explain that you're buying a used gun and want to run it through NCIC.
Would that more people did, so we could not only recover some stolen guns but perhaps get some thieves jailed as well.
This thread makes me think that police agencies are missing out on a HUGE opportunity. Is anybody in the ATF or FBI listening?
NRA Life Member
Being in the Pawn biz for the last 20 years and FFL I have often wondered how hard it would be to set up a system for the common man to check for stolen. The police where I live do not do checks for anyone. When I purchase something from a private person (gun show,paper,friend, ext) I always run it thru my shop. I make myself a 5 cent loan on it and get it run thru the data base that way.
Why could it not be a auto serial number search? No other data would be seen. Just a yes or no and who to call. Seems pretty simple to me.
To thine ownself be true.
Personal experience has shown me that they are more concerned about keeping their data confidential then they are about actually solving crimes.
I might mention that from personal experience I have also learned that if your record keeping is sloppy enough, you would want to keep your data confidential too.
ML
On this topic I have a question. I had a gun stolen a few months back. I reported it to the local police who took all the info. Since then I haven't heard a thing. Now my question. If I do a search of a stolen gun database by entering the make, model and serial number and it does, indeed, show up stolen, my fear is that I'll get a knock on my door within an hour from some authority who may have seen my inquiry and the hit it was stolen. They can then check my IP address and find out who initiated the inquiry and then assume that person has this stolen gun close by. Of course I am the original owner and have proof but I do not want the BATF, FBI or locals knocking on my door and detaining me and causing me to explain anything from an innocent inquiry on my own gun. This smacks of Big Brother and I have nothing to hide but on the other hand I don't wish to deal with a possibly over anxious agent looking for a name and promotion who would, undoubtedly approach me with gun drawn knowing I was "armed". No thanks. Am I being paranoid or, as the guy wrote above, it is a very real situation?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me!
The odds on a local LEO monitoring your inquiries are almost nil. The federal agencies are not interested in stolen guns unless they are the victim.
If the very improbable happens and someone contacts you about it, you are the victim and have every right to look after your stolen property.
I use online services to check the SN of all the firearms I purchase.
ML
It takes days or weeks to trace a firearm. ATF contacts manufacturer, they give the distributor. Distributor gives the dealer and or the FFL holder who inturn gives the purchaser. Thats the person who is the last legal registered owner. People sell guns all the time and do not re register them again. To ask the federal government to close all the nicks and crannies would just kill gun ownership. Because they don't believe we should own guns. The first place to close would be FFL holders by limiting them to people with actual store fronts only. No more C&R holders. They raised fees to try to do this half heartedly. The other big thing is every state has different local laws. And you can't make these laws uniform without stepping on states rights. And if they did do that I guarantee you we would all have California laws become the federal standard. And no thanks to that lets keep them out of our lives as much as possible to ask them to do more is just trouble that we don't need.
Just to let you know I have alot of experience with stolen guns. Not only from working for a dealer but personal. I have been trying to get two stolen guns back from Maryland for over three years. They don't want me or anyone to get them back they want to keep them for whatever. I had one gun taken and picked up by the Pa. local area police and I got that gun back in about six months. But Md. no way, no way. They want to test fire and do this and that and they are back logged. And if you never inquire they will not call you. You will just never see them again so just write them off. I have called and called and called. I think I will have to get a lawyer to get them back. I was the victim first time when stolen and now buy a very poor bureaucratic state system.
This would also reduce the number of guns stolen, as attempt to sell it could result in their arrest.Originally Posted by dakota1911
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