davethedog
Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2022
- Messages
- 60
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.
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.