Ever worry about where guns you sold/traded off are now?

So I'm 26 right now, and I've been a handgun owner/user since I was 21. I think many of us go through the buy it/trade it off phase when handgunning. I've only bought and sold my guns at a total of 2 gun shops, both local, and they've been in business for decades and decades, so they obviously have their paperwork and whatnot straight.

I've had all my current guns for at least 3 years or more, and they're staying with me for the time being. That said, a few of the guns I traded off for store credit only appear on my paperwork of the new gun purchased as the brand and model, without the serial number. Needless to say one or two of these guns were sold so long ago I don't have lost the original sales slip, and their serial numbers are forever lost to me.

I trust that the gunshops I trade with screen their customers properly, but you never know where a weapon will end up once you sell it or what it will be used for. Obviously, if something bad is done with a gun I sold years ago I won't be responsible. I guess I just wished I had better documentation of these first two guns and the exact month/day that I sold them.

Am I being paranoid? I hear about people just selling guns to private parties at gun shows all the time, but I wonder how anyone knows the gun has transferred ownership? Especially given the extreme laws that dems have pushed through and are proposing nationally, it's simply a cover your ass issue.

 

An inanimate object you used to own but legally sold a while ago is somehow bothering you today?

What about all the cars you used to own? Ever wonder if they are being driven by a criminal to further their crime spree? Or, a cell phone or anything else you used to own?

Seriously, there's a lot more important stuff to worry about.

 

Evan, philosophically, I'm right there with you. But given the strange laws being proposed and the democratic senate/house/president, I guess I just want to hedge my bets.

 

No, not concerned at all...
Every handgun I've sold (only a few) went through a gunshop, hence the buyer got the background check.
Of the two rifles I've sold, one was through a gunshop (consignment), the other I sold FTF. But I had a good feeling about the buyer (since he was well dressed and brought his wife along for the transaction).

 

Why?

Ever worried about where books you sold/ traded off are?

 

The cops aren't gonna do a trace of a gun found at a murder scene, find out you once owned the gun, and arrest you. There is more to it than that.

 

1) In answer to your question rarely, but it has occurred. Mainly after one of my guns had been stolen while in shipment to a 'smith and about a year later the police called me asking about it. No problem, I told them that the gun had been stolen and proplerly reported both to local and the FEDs. The said fine and I never heard another thing.

2) Just a suggestion you have been into firearms for 5 years

and you also state

I'm presuming that the word "lost" is a typo

You might want to check your state laws, in some states you have to keep sales records on firearms for a specified period, in Illinois it is 10 years.

You also state

I definetly agree with you there. But unfortunetly in the firearms world one of the best ways to hedge your bets is keeping all your paperwork in order and forever. Yeah I hate it as well and am not perfect but I sure do try. And yes it is stupid but so are a lot of Laws/Regulations/Rules that we have to follow.



Best wishes

NukemJim

 

I'm sure that Al Qaeda is attacking buses full of schoolchildren with the well-worn 34" trap single I sold, as we speak.

 

No.....but a gunshop that is now closed, was a place my brother traded alot with.
Then after 3 times being contacted by law inforcement about new guns he had bought in the past an traded to the gunshop...he quit going there...I take it, they had been used in crimes an they were tracing them...?...my brother had to point to the gunshop as the last people who he knew had the guns....like I said, its closed.

 

.No.

 

When I was in the Army, I bought and traded a bunch of guns at local gunstores in the Ft. Knox area.

Years after I got out of the Army, I got a letter from one of those gunstores via the Army Locator Service. They'd been contacted by the BATF because one of the guns which I'd traded them had been reported stolen in California years before I bought it at another Kentucky gunstore. The BATF wanted to know where they'd gotten it and they in turn wanted to know where I'd gotten it. I called them up and told them that I'd bought the gun on a 4473 at a well known gunstore. End of story. I haven't heard a word about it in more than twenty years.

 

Not me. Anything sold to a gun store is documented. Anything sold to an individual I have them sign a bill of sale. If they choose not to sign, that's fine..I don't care...I just sell it to someone else. I rarely ever sell handguns to individuals as the documentation is more "defined" in law. Here in NC there are really no requirements on a long gun, but I still get a signed bill of sale.

 

+1 Nope.

 

About the only one is a Remington-made Mosin-Nagant sporter I sold about 30 years ago, because there was no inexpensive way to shoot it (no milsurp in the cold war, and Norma was the only game in town at 4X the price of 30/06). But it was accurate as hell, and I want to have it back!

 

What laws?

You're worried about nothing here.

 

I've never sold a gun, but I don't imagine it would even enter my mind. I don't worry about what the new owners of my old cars are doing with them.

 

Nope, but I do wish I had them all back!!

I have learned one thing over the years: NEVER SELL A GUN.

 

Because we all know that criminals don't wear suits or associate with women.

I've bought and sold about a dozen guns in the last couple years. I don't keep paperwork since it is not required here in NC. I DO always make sure to see a DL and Purchase or Carry permit in case it's a "sting". But, I figure it would take a lot more than prior ownership to pin a crime on me if it came to that.

 

Don't worry about guns, but somebody stole my gal, and I'd forgotten to write down her Social Security Number, but that's why she kept moving around. She figured she'd get a higher level of social security with the next guy. Never sold a gun. I always wiped them rill rill clean before I went out on my gas-station route in the evening; then I'd just throw them down at the site. It's worked so far.

 

I don't worry about firearms I have sold. Any misuse is on the owner, not on me.

 

+1 ! ! ! ! !

 

I'm with blackbeard.... Have not sold one yet.... That reminds me, I need a bigger safe.... Only acquired my first guns in 1996.... My oldest is a 95 year old 1911, that will stay in the family as it has since 1940! Don't offer!

 

Could care less what is going on with guns I've sold... If I cared about them that much, I wouldn't have sold them.

Not sure what "legislation" you are talking about, but to affect you, it would need to retroactively make it a crime to have ever owned a gun that was used for something bad.

Same law applied to cars would mean if you ever owned a car that was used by somebody else as a "getaway car", you would be in trouble. I think in context it is clear that that scenario is not even a little bit realistic.

They need evidence you committed a crime to convict you of something, and a 4473 with your name on it is not evidence of any crime.

 

There is no legislation pending. I guess I'm just hyper-vigilant when it comes to the the preservation of my fundamental rights given the current administration and my worry is perhaps not completely rational.

More of it is just kicking myself for losing two original bills of sale in various moves/house cleanings, as I have all of my other paperwork. It really doesn't matter, as if any problems arise, I can simply say: Yes, I sold that gun in the Fall of 2004 to XXXXXXX's Gun Shop and it has not been in my possession since.