Don't ever say it couldn't ever happen to you. Arrested.

I really apologize for the long first post but i need some answers and advice quickly as my trial date is three weeks from now. I was arrested recently and charged for "possession of a stolen firearm". I bought it in 2005 brand new in the box unfired with all the paperwork, from a FFL at a gun show and filled out form 4473 and background check. It was my concealed carry weapon and i had been carrying it around for 17 years when the numbers were ran at a DL checkpoint. I have a Concealed Carry permit but I was informed it was reported stolen, handcuffed and taken in despite my insistence it was legal and i was the only person who ever owned it. May i remind everyone i'm 69 years old with no criminal record of any kind, not even a traffic ticket.
Okay, here's the kicker. After i got out and started investigating i found it was reported stolen from a FFL dealer in 2003, a full two years before i purchased it brand new. I checked with the manufacturer and it did have a 2002 production date and most certainly is the same gun. Now if it had been stolen by a criminal it wouldn't have shown up two whole years later new in the box in the hands of another FFL dealer. Okay so how does this even happen? I am telling the truth. This story is so bizarre no one could make it up. It was reported to the ATF and to the local SO in 2003. Of course 19 years later they can't find the original file much less who it was stolen from. I now know the name of that dealer but he may have died in the years since. Not in business for years. I have no idea where the original receipt and box went so i don't remember the dealer i purchased it from although it would have been in state(no handgun sales across state lines).
I contacted the ATF, met with them last week and they are working on it or so they said. I have a really bad feeling they probably didn't believe me are not going to pursue the tracing any further or provide me with any information. I bought another firearm at the same gun show dealer a few months later so the ATF could trace that one for sure. It was 1 of 5 stolen so there may be 4 more people carrying around a weapon they would have no idea had been reported stolen. So here's what i'm saying. If you carry a weapon please have the local PD run the numbers even though you bought it legally. You just never know if someone entered a number wrong or there was some giant SNAFU involved. Now i'm going on trial for a felony with a 5 year sentence i absolutely had nothing to do with.

I live in a gun friendly state. I might have that same opinion if i lived in California or somewhere like that.

I have already requested a continuance of the trial myself in order for the ATF to finish their investigation. They had originally set the trial 10 days from the charges being brought! I have not yet retained an attorney. I'm waiting to see what turns up to determine what kind of attorney i would need. It may be that i can prove ownership. I'm thinking it was a lost shipment from a distributor and reported stolen, then recovered, resold and never taken off the NCIC. For right now am doing all the legwork an attorney would do. I had a FFL 03 for 15 years. I know how the system works. I realize i have no real chance of being convicted. The state has to prove i willfully and knowingly possessed a stolen firearm. No one in their right mind would carry a stolen firearm with a concealed carry permit. The only justification for a prosecution would be that at the time of my arrest i did not state i didn't know it was stolen, only that it WASN'T stolen. Considering i am the only retail owner of the firearm i believed that to be true at the time.

No confiscation so far but my phone has been acting funny lately.

I have had a FFL tell me sloppy records may be the case. There were two of us on motorcycles and we had rode 550 miles that day and we were tired. It was a multi-agency DL check. I had a radar detector and one guy started loudly demanding answers to his questions as to where we had been and where we were going. I don't answer questions like that. We were pulled to the side and had the drug dog run around the bikes. Neither of us had anything illegal on us. I produced the firearm willingly as i have a concealed permit. I wear a body camera while riding for incidents just like this. We were only 50 miles from home and i had already taken it off. They must have thought they had caught a Sons of Anarchy international firearm trafficking ring. Basically we were pulled to the side for looking suspicious and not answering questions. I have no criminal record and not even a speeding ticket. They are not willing to provide me with an arrest report, even though i am entitled to one. It may take awhile and a trip down there to fill out the request but i will get it.

Actually getting arrested 50 miles from home may have been a blessing. I have carried that compact 9MM around a lot for the last 17 years all over the country where my CCP was accepted. Hate to think what a nightmare that would have been if it had been ran 1,500 miles from home. I have always had the numbers ran on everything that i didn't purchase new but i would have never ran that one. I also carry a Type 52 Chinese Tokarev made in 1952 that i bought "new" about 30+ years ago. I'm going to have the numbers ran on that one just to make sure.

I'm not going to mention the state as the case is still pending.

I was going to post this on the BMW Motorcycle Owners Association forums but i figured they would boot me off for being a criminal and giving BMW riders a bad name
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If the ATF decides not to help i might could try to track it myself from manufacturer to distributor to FFL dealer but they probably wouldn't give that information to an individual. I've got to contact the ATF tomorrow to see what they say. The agent i talked to at the local field office seemed like a decent sort of guy and talked like he was going to help.