did your gun commit a crime?: Weapon background self-check

[cpileri]

Is there any website or service that can run the background on a firearm conveniently?

i.e. besides running it down to the local police station and having them check it out?

a website database search perhaps? will any FFL dealer do it for a fee? (not in my area, anyway)

Any ideas?

Why? In all my days i have either bought from a FFL and thus presume a clean gun, or else used my own C&R and thus presume a clean gun- but i am moving to a free-er state (yay!) and do expect to buy some off-paper firearms at a show or privately, and would still like to check it -anonymously is nbot quite the right term, but in any case without 'registering' it anywhere- so i dont risk owning a weapon that could land me in the clink just for possessing it.

Thanks,
C-

 

[brookstexas]

Don't worry about it.

Unless it's an illegal machingun /NFA/ Class III etc. with no papers.
It's unlikely your gun was involved in a crime. If it was what's the chance a ballistic fingerprint (bogus technology anyway) can link your gun to it?
Now if it's reported stolen by serial number and you just want to do the right thing and risk losing what you paid have the cops run it. There are no anonymous services for doing that I'm aware of. On the slim chance you will ever get involved in something where the serail number is run a simple here is where I bought it should suffice unless you are a shady character....

 

[DMK]

or else used my own C&R and thus presume a clean gun-

Do you own any Mosin Nagants, K98 Mausers, Albainian SKS, Nagant revolvers, etc? What makes you so sure they are "clean guns"?

I'm not sure I want to know what my C&Rs did in their past life. All I know for sure is those days are over for them now.

As far as legal troubles, keep your receipts (obviously a necessity for C&Rs). If the crime was commited before you owned it, then you are in the clear.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I always give new guns the third degree interrogation treatment to make sure they've never commited crimes. I figure if Hoppe's No. 9 doesn't scare a confession out of them, nothing will.

I have no idea whether that's legal in Iraq.

 

[Wildalaska]

Ya nver know...I sold a gun back in 96 to a customer. We got it from another dealer, who got it from another dealer.

Gun just popped up as stolen in 1973.

Everytime I get a used gun in I run the ##s

WildncicAlaska

 

[Kooter]

will any FFL dealer do it for a fee? (not in my area, anyway)

i think you are assuming that when a background check is done on the person buying the gun that the serial number is also given. that is not true. a background check simply gives all your personal info to the FBI(or whoever does the checks in your state). they don't know if you are buying 1 gun or 300 guns, or even if you are buying any guns at all. they do know if you are buying a long gun or a handgun but that is it.

you would have to go through the local PD to have it checked to see if it was stolen. just go in there with the type of gun, model and serial number and tell them you were thinking of buying this gun, could you check it for me before i purchase it.

 

[Hkmp5sd]

Don't worry about it. Just make a book similar to your C&R bound book and log the ID of the person you are buying from. If down the road something happens and you find out the gun was stolen, you can point the cops in the right direction.

Probably 50-60% of my collection were private party transfers and to date, I haven't had one come up on the stolen list. Of course, it does help having a relative in law enforcement that can check for you. One of my guns was a crime gun, however. It was used in a murder and I acquired it from a LEO back in the days they kept guns after the trial instead of dumping them in the ocean.

I've wondered why ATF or the .gov doesn't create a website similar to ATF's FFL EZ check so we can run the serial number against the stolen list in the NCIC. Since most gun owners are law abiding citizens, the cops would probably recover a lot more stolen/crime guns once the firearm was found to be on the list.

 

[BluesBear]

I agree with Hkmp5sd. It would be nice if there were someplace we could go to double check.

My mother had three handguns stolen. We are convinced that it was a workman patching leaks in the roof. But she never could prove it. You'd think that sometime in the past 20 years at least one of them might have turned up. I suspect that after a certain time NCIC just forgets all about them.

I had an Electric Bass stolen in early 1994. Over a year and a half later, I walked into a pawn shop and lo and behold there it was hanging on the wall. The owner had known me since I was a teenager and returned it to me on the spot.
The pawn shop filled out the required police card on it and a check with the Louisville Division of Police shows that they ran it through NCIC in 1995 and nothing showed up.



If anyone ever runs across a 1966 Gibson Hummingbird Guitar with the serial number 161111, please let me know. It's been missing since 1976!

 

[sm]

I agree with Hkmp5sd. It would be nice if there were someplace we could go to double check.

Ditto.

Paperwork?

I was called once by ATF in regard to a handgun I had sold an individual. Gun was stolen and reported to the Authorities. Some years later used in a "crime" out of State [ATF didn't volunteer - I didn't ask]. I had bought it from a guy going through divorce who bought it new and did the paperdrill.
All Legit, the guy I sold it to had collected the insurance money back whenever.

 

[ksnecktieman]

We need a place to check to see if a gun is stolen. I had a guy come to my car repair shop, and tell me he was unemployed and needed to sell some guns to pay his rent. I told him I would give him more than a pawn shop, and I bought four guns from him for 400$. Two weeks later the police came to my door and announced that they were stolen, the seller was a four times convicted felon, and he told the police I told him to go steal them for me. ( I have no criminal record.) I was charged with recieving stolen guns, and they drug the charges out for a year before they dropped them. In the course of the year they reduced the charges multiple times, trying to get me to plead to a lesser charge.

FWIW,,,,, In Kansas a simple burglary gets "presumptive probation" so this guy was back on the street in less than three days. Even with four previous felonies.

I WOULD check the numbers if I was offered a gun for sale. It might not keep me from buying a stolen gun, but it would prove good faith that I had checked.

 

[HowardC]

I'd like to know also.....

I incurred a rash of burglaries in the mid 90's. I wore out my welcome at the local police dept. dinging them about any results on some guns I lost. I suppose they are out of the state, or languishing in some closet. After a while, I got tired of checking with them. I do go to most of the shows around here, and check racks and cases pretty close. Although, I'm not sure they would show up at a gun show. I've been to most of the pawn shops, too, with no avail.

I did get one back, it had been used in a gun play/suicide, however you believe the story. Interesting thing is, they were back to me within a day of the shooting; so much for the 4473 info not being disseminated. Decided yup, I did want the gun back; but didn't get my reloads back. Decided not to ask them how the loads performed, though..........

Such is life......... -Howard

 

[Kooter]

Interesting thing is, they were back to me within a day of the shooting; so much for the 4473 info not being disseminated

didn't you report them stolen? seems like they would have gotten the info of who the owner is from their system when they entered the serial number. not from some imaginary registry of 4473s.

 

[manwithoutahome]

I've got a "funny" story.

I had a S&W 9914 that was stolen from me, I told the cops and even left a message for the ATF stating the S/N and everything.

I got the gun back within the year, I confronted the person who took it and they gave it back saying that "they forgot they had "borrowed" it". I don't think that they would have given it back if I hadn't told them I had called the cops and the feds to report it stolen.

Anyway, years later, I gave it to my uncle. I had forgotten in that frame time to un-report the gun stolen. It was re-stolen from my uncle and turned up in a crime (actually, it was a good crime, the felon shot himself with it while stoned ).

The cops and the ATF showed up at my doorstep to ask me about it. Seems that the gun had been reported stolen in GA about 3 years ago (now is 4 years after that 3 years) and how the heck did it end up in Oregon, where I happened to end up, and then got stolen again.

I then explained that I had recovered my property and had forgotten to call and update the police/atf. They took my information, my uncles information, etc.. and left.

My uncle did get the gun back.

So, a call to the atf may help if the gun was called in as stolen. I can only assume that when I called them to report the gun stolen, they actually kept a record of it (the atf) because I was 3000 miles away from the police station that I had reported the gun stolen.

The trouble with most people is that they do not have an inventory of their guns or serials. I have three. One is on my computer (well dummy, you are saying, your computer will be stolen also, and right you are), one is in the hands of a person that lives clear across the US from me, in PA as a matter of fact, and the third is in a safe at the local shooting range.

When I buy a private firearm, I make out a bill of sale and have them put their DL info on it, and I put my DL info on their copy. Some will say that this is "bad" due to I wouldn't do it but with me giving them my DL info. they think that I am protecting them, more then myself, which I'm actually protecting myself more then them.

M.

 

[morganm01]

My best friends Glock .45 was stolen from his house. REcovered by LE a year later. He got it back another 9 months later.

They would not tell him WHO the gun was found on. Who was arrested, or anything but..."come pick up your gun."

No one was caught for the burglary either.

 

[HowardC]

Actually Kooter,

You are correct, that is likely where the information came from. I had forgotten that fact. I was just surprized at the rapidity of contact. It was the next day following my breakin. There was never any ill will expressed. In fact, the officers involved with the shooting were more than professional and sympathetic to my situation. It occurred in a different jurisdiction. -Howard