Guy wants to run serial number?

[Hardtarget]

I live in Nash. Tn. and checked with a officer friend. He said he could run it ...but...he had to have possession of the firearm. If it showed stolen...he would keep it to be turned in at the property room. This was on a gun I was thinking about buying. Of course, if I lost the gun, we'd be looking for the seller!

Mark

 

[PBR Streetgang]

If I'm not mistaken FL. has a hotline for the private person to call to check to see if a firearm is stolen.

 

[fatcat4620]

This is all in TN and buyer never said anything about research, just to check if it us stolen. Thanks for all the feed back. I can see all the logical reasons why out should be no problem but I just dont like it. By the way turns out this guy had been using multiple email addresses to contact me.

 

[MachIVshooter]

I was told some years ago, don't ever give out a serial number..some unscrupulas people have been know to take the number and then report the weapon as stolen, from them...

I actually had a guy try that with a truck I was selling. Unfortunately for this numbskull, I had title. Elbert County Sheriff was very annoyed.

 

[whenindo]

Something sounded a little odd about some of the responses here so I checked with my son, a LEO here in CO.

In Colorado (at least and I would think elsewhere) you can call your local police department and they will run the serial # for you and tell you clean or a problem.

You don't need an FFL, Boy Scout Honor Badge or any other credential to do it.

I have never bought a used gun but if and when I do, I would consider it odd if the seller didn't want to give me the serial #. It's really no different than the VIN # on a vehicle. Accordingly, if I were selling a gun I'd have no issue giving the buyer the serial #.

Now, as far as getting a serial # from somebody and claiming it were stolen from you - there are a whole lot of easier/safer ways to make a buck than something like that. There is a trail on every registered gun and its going to take the police about 15 minutes to figure somebody is lying (if it were stolen from you, were is the police report when it was stolen?)

I have the paperwork on all my guns and could prove in a New York minute they are mine legally.

So I think much ado about nothing. If the gun is yours clean and legal the serial number is a non-issue.

 

[hermannr]

Thats an old internet myth...........I would love to see actual proof that this ever happened.

Filing a false police report is a crime itself. I can also imagine the resulting civil suit would be quite expensive for anyone being stupid enough to do that.

I'm not sure this is what happened here, but I do know of a pistol that was sold through an FFL that was reported stolen 6 months AFTER the sale.

Anyway, why would you think that someone that would scam a weapon by reporting it stolen, would worry about if doing so was illegal? You forget, criminal minds do not care what the law says, they will do what they will do anyway...if they get caught, oh well, if they get away with it...well, that is why they do those things they do,,,because the consequences are not a strong enough deterrent.

 

[One_Jackal]

In NC & MS if you have connections in law enforcement you can get a serial number checked, I don't know if gun shops can run serial numbers. My best luck has always been with game wardens. Game wardens are federal officers and have access to the national database.

 

[BlkHawk73]

A FFL cannot do that, police can and will. Personally, I see this as the potential buyer being on the up-and-up and wanting to cover their butt. Wouldn't bother me at all. If it's such an issue, perhaps there's some reason to worry.

 

[22-rimfire]

Here in Tennessee there is no waiting period to take posession of a firearm after purchase after the NICs (or TICs) check is run. That did not used to be the case.

I was informed by a pawn shop that if they take a transfer from an individual they will hold the gun 21 days prior to transferring it to the new buyer. I assume that this means that these firearms are checked by police to determine if they have been stolen based on available information.

This is not something that I have personally expereinced. So I feel sure that I am only being provided a piece of the puzzle rather than the whole puzzle information-wise. They refer to a "pawn shop" law.

 

[Sam1911]

police can and will

Police can and SOMETIMES will, depending on which system they're using for their checks, what state they're in, and what their department policy is on running a check.

As some have said, police in their state will run a check through their state's database simply with a phone call. (Or even a web site!) As others have said, their LEOs have a strict protocol for logging into NCIC and will not risk losing that resource by using it for unauthorized checks.

Some will say, "Sure! Just bring it down here and we'll run it for you." Then they've got it in their hands and will be keeping it if it comes back with a hit (and can spend some quality time asking you a few questions about where you got it).

You'd just have to call your local police or state police and ask.

 

[garyh9900]

ATF does run the "gun trace" when a firearm is recovered at a crime scene. They contact Glockchesterwesson and ask who did you ship this gun to?....Glockchesterwesson then tells them the distributor, who in turn tells ATF the dealer it was shipped to. The dealer will then pull the 4473 and give ATF the info on the buyer. ATF will then contact the buyer in an effort to find out how it arrived at the crime scene. ATF "traces" typically end at the first "private" sale of that firearm because Federal law does not require the seller to keep a record of the transaction.

The FBI maintains several databases, the NCIC is the one that includes stolen firearms. They can try and run the serial number against the database, but it is not uncommon for typographical errors to occur when the stolen firearm is entered or when a gun is recovered:
example:
Stolen gun: "Ruger 10/22 rifle caliber .22 long rifle serial #555-12345"
Firearm being checked: "Sturm, Ruger 1022 rifle caliber .22 serial # 55512345"

Although the information is nearly the same, the missing special characters in the model name and serial number may be enough to mess up the search. ATF mentioned this last year in the FFL Newsletter.

I just run the serial #, then sort through the make/model/caliber info of any hits that come back to avoid not making a match do to wrong info(unless the serial # is wrong)