Private party sale opinion

Sam1911 said:

I'd still like to know how many members here actually live in a place where the local police WILL call in an NCIC check on a gun you're thinking of buying. Lots of people mention it, but I don't think that's as common as we're lead to believe./QUOTE]

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Coming from someone who is authorized to use NCIC/ACIC, and does use it on a regular basis, I can tell you it is not.
I wouldn't even do it for myself.
It is a crime to use the system for a non-law enforcement/criminal investigation purpose. I don't know how seriously they take it or how often people who use it for unauthorized purposes actually get in trouble, but they harp on it so much, I'm not taking the risk, and I doubt many others would either.

As for the OP, I agree you may be over thinking a little, but at the end of the day if you're not comfortable with a gun deal for whatever reason, backing out is not the worst idea.

Jo Jo wrote:
something did not feel right to me so I backed out

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Not having been there to see what you saw and hear what you heard, all I can say is that if it didn't feel right, you did the right thing to trust that instinct.

Of course, I wouldn't give out the serial number of a gun before I met the buyer for the transaction. If I gave you the number, what would stop you from calling the number in as stolen and then threatening me with arrest if I didn't give you a lower price? As the seller, I don't trust you any more than you trust me.

Yes, you can meet at a police department and see if they would run the gun's serial number for you (our local department won't), but even if they do, it's really cold comfort since it is only of real value if the gun turns up as stolen. The gun could still be stolen and show up as "clean" because the rightful owner hasn't discovered it missing and reported it. Then, a month later you get pulled over for a traffic stop and your new-to-you Glock shows up as a stolen gun. Sure, you've got the bill of sale in the safe back at your house, but you're still taking the ride to the police station until someone can go get it for you.

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hdwhit said:

....Yes, you can meet at a police department and see if they would run the gun's serial number for you (our local department won't), but even if they do, it's really cold comfort since it is only of real value if the gun turns up as stolen.

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My one and only interaction with Frisco PD was on a firearm they had seized from a customer of mine at a traffic stop.
Rather than run the serial# through the ATF National Tracing Center, the Frisco detective decided to run it himself through NCIC....it came back as stolen from Virginia in 1997 I believe. The only problem with that was that the gun wasn't imported by Century Arms until 2010 or 2011. My customer bought it new from Atlantic Firearms and I did the transfer.

Bottom line.....NCIC information is only as good as the information submitted by the reporting agency.

Arkansas Paul said:

Coming from someone who is authorized to use NCIC/ACIC, and does use it on a regular basis, I can tell you it is not.
I wouldn't even do it for myself.
It is a crime to use the system for a non-law enforcement/criminal investigation purpose. I don't know how seriously they take it or how often people who use it for unauthorized purposes actually get in trouble, but they harp on it so much, I'm not taking the risk, and I doubt many others would either.

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People need to stop suggesting that law enforcement agencies could or would "run" the serial number of a firearm for any reason other than it was used in the commission of a crime, found in possession of a prohibited person or recovered from a crime scene or subsequent to a criminal investigation.

Arkansas Paul is stating it how it is. I will tell you that I have personal knowledge, over the years, of some who worked in law enforcement who got in serious trouble for using the various databases for personal reasons (or doing favors for friends or family).

Much as I'd have liked to be able to use NCIC/WACIC to run the names of all the guys that asked my daughters out for dates, I couldn't do that either.

As for private party sales, if one is in a state that does not require UBCs and the transaction to go through an FFL, the state law typically requires only the both the buyer and seller conduct due diligence, that might be as simple as asking each other if the firearm is legal, if the other is a prohibited person, etc. In my state, prior to I-594, we satisfied the requirement by showing each other our state driver licenses (to verify residency) and either concealed pistol license or commissioning card (to verify that background check had been done).

I have been asked to run the SN# on guns several times, to see if they were stolen. It is not illegal for an Officer to do a NCIC check on a gun as long as the gun is in his possession and he is able to confiscate if it is stolen. A simple report is all that is needed to cover the officers actions.
Call your local LEO Dept and ask them about making the transaction at their location and if they will do a NCIC check on the gun for you.

GunnyUSMC said:

Call your local LEO Dept and ask them about making the transaction at their location and if they will do a NCIC check on the gun for you.

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I believe that covers it. Rather than rely on a forum of people all over the country in hundreds of localities just call your local law enforcement and pose the question.

Ron

Gunny, I'm gonna have to disagree with you here. I don't know how your local administrator(s) interpret CJI policy, but unless it's stolen, lost or recovered (see my post #54) I don't know of any local agencies around here that'll just run a gun serial number to facilitate a private sale (which would seem to me to fall into the realm of providing NCIC non-restricted information for commercial purposes and is hence against the FBI's policy). Certainly there's zero "investigative interest" present to justify performing the inquiry into the gun file.

Back when I was into watches, a lot of buying and selling was done on the Sales Corner of an aficionado website. We had a saying, “Buy the seller, not the watch”. With transactions typically in the thousands of dollars, you didn’t deal with anything that seemed the slightest bit off.