registered guns

there is no Federal registration of non NFA firearms. (machine guns, AOW, etc are exceptions)

In fact, they are required to purge the records after a NICS check, although I doubt they do.

Some states have registration. Their penalties are widely varied. I do not believe that Mississippi is a registration state.

This is not to be taken as legal advice...but the NRA usually is up on such things

http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-laws/mississippi.aspx

Several answers:

1) TV is TV. It rots your brain and helps millions of people to know and understand things that are completely untrue. Many things happen in TV shows that are needed by the story writers to make the plot work.

Examples:
a) The TV cops need a charge on which to hold a suspect = voila, a random unregistered weapon violation.
b) The TV cops need to be able to be able to link up a bullet recovered with a particular shooter = voila, a "rare and unique" super special sniper bullet only fired by this one gun that was sold by one store to one guy ... and the cops have access to a database that tells them all of that.
c) The TV cops need to know that there's no way suspect "A" could have shot the victim because he's too tall, so they have a scanning machine that takes a 3-D image of the room where the body was found and projects the trajectories of all people moving and shots fired during the crime, and the computer comes up with a graphical readout with a big red "X" showing that it couldn't have been that guy.

2) Many crime dramas do take place in major metropolitan areas and some of our largest and most well-known major metropolitan areas do indeed have firearm registration laws and/or owner licensing schemes in effect, so it is possible that the law being referenced by a TV actor cop is actually in place, or similar to one in place, in the city where that show takes place ... though any such factual accuracy would be undoubtedly a product of the most random coincidence.

TV scriptwriters are raised in a social culture that just assumes there is gun registration. This may be true in places like NYC, etc.

Ever watch CSI Miami?
All the cars they kneel in front of have license plates in the front.

AFS

Alexander makes an astute observation.

Most television scripts are written in places like California where there are all kinds of onerous laws.

The writers simply do not know any better.

Ever watch CSI Miami?
All the cars they kneel in front of have license plates in the front.

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That, and they have a Hummer H2 (which, in reality, has all the acceleration rate of a diesel locomotive) that beats out the entire patrol fleet of Crown Victoria Interceptors as a pursuit vehicle...

No, OP, your firearms need not be "registered" by any Federal law, nor state law in Mississippi..

A H2 may be one of the only things on the road slower and handle worse than a Crown Vic.

Why we burden our cops with such things is a mystery. Even Glocks work well.

Just to frustrate the "your guns have to be registered..." myth...

In Arizona, gun registration is PROHIBITED BY LAW!

Can't ask for better then that...

In Arizona, gun registration is PROHIBITED BY LAW!

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Now just imagine if we had something like a Constitution that said something along the lines of "...shall not be infringed". Or something crazy like that! That would blow me away.

Oh, wait...

They show lots of stuff on TV regarding guns that's a little bit "off":

Revolvers that shoot 490 rounds before needing to be reloaded, for example ... or cops and bad guys never actually loading their semi-autos until they get REALLY MAD ... and then we get the hackneyed, dramatic SNICK-SNACK of the slide! :banghead:

To many who aren't intricately familiar with firearms laws it sounds like a reasonable thing. Even people who own guns - many figure that since they're filling out a 4473 then the gun is registered. Even my relatives (all of whom hunt and own guns) thought that once you got a CWP you had to go have a gun "registered in your name" in order to carry it.

With all that in mind, its not hard to make a TV show showing gun registration. Trust me, many other things on those shows don't work either.

My particular favorite is "Zoom in on this picture and enhance" and then the picture gets clearer. That is absolutely 100% completely mathematically IMPOSSIBLE. You cannot add data to a picture that is not there. You can smooth the pixels, and you can do a lot of effects, but you cannot "enhance" a zoomed in image to show more detail.

Many crime dramas do take place in major metropolitan areas and some of our largest and most well-known major metropolitan areas do indeed have firearm registration laws and/or owner licensing schemes in effect, so it is possible that the law being referenced by a TV actor cop is actually in place, or similar to one in place, in the city where that show takes place ... though any such factual accuracy would be undoubtedly a product of the most random coincidenc

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AND
they (actors, writers, producers)
are from said places, and assume that the rest of the country works like New York City or LA

Learning about firearms law from TV is like learning about cosmology from watching the third Flash Gordon serial.

TV scriptwriters...

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I thought this thread might be about local news programs but it looks like everyone is commenting on the fictional shows on TV.

Don't exclude the local or national news though, even in locales where registration does not exist.

When a report is broadcast about a shooting or a crime of interest, the news report will often include a statement along the lines of... "Officers found a handgun in his vehicle that was not registered to him".

It's just a simple and quick remark, but it does the same thing; it gives the viewers the impression that firearms are required by law to be registered in the owners' name.

learning about cosmology from watching the third Flash Gordon

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is that bad?

It is entertainment.

Any connection to reality is purely accidental.

is that bad?

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It depends.

Try walking on the surface of Mars in tights...

Most television scripts are written in places like California where there are all kinds of onerous laws.

The writers simply do not know any better.

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Both statements are true, I think - but California does not generally require that guns be registered.

That's distinct from the practice of sending make/model/caliber and purchaser information to Sacramento for handgun purchases through CA-licensed FFLs.

Long guns are not 'registered' at all (beginning 2014, same info will be sent to Sacramento on long guns as now is done for handguns).

See also the Calguns Foundation wiki article -- http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/Firearms_registration

Most states are already registering gun owners though such things as Permit to Purchase Firearm and Concealed Carry Permits.

Try walking on the surface of Mars in tights

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I don't want to do that anymore than anyone wants to see it done.

Most states are already registering gun owners though such things as Permit to Purchase Firearm and Concealed Carry Permits.

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Knowing that someone owns a gun isn't all that valuable. You've got a 25% chance of scoring a "yes" just picking randomly.

Besides, there are more gun owners without permits than with. Don't forget that hunting and target shooting are still major reasons for gun ownership, and even among those that own them for protection many are using it for home protection rather than carry.

I was contacted by the BATF in 2000. The BATF was following up on a crime scene in California. They found a .44 Caliber revolver that I had bought in 1970. The state where the gun was purchased did not have registration. I can assure you the Feds are not throwing out the 4477 Forums. I was interviewed 2 times regarding what I had done with the revolver.