Police Running the Numbers on a Gun

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rhoggman

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I have heard that in the state of VA your CHP is "linked" to your driver's license, that if pulled over you will be asked if you have a gun, and if you do have a gun the police will run the numbers.

What exactly is the point of this? In VA friend to friend transfers are legal, consequently, many guns I own are not traceable to me. The only thing I can think of is if someone reported the weapon "stolen" that the serial numbers would hit.

One more question.... what is the legality of somone else carrying a firearm that they do not own. For instance if I let my girlfriend carry a one of my firearms, and she gets pulled over.
 
I don't think it is a standard to practice to run the serial number during a stop, I think that is just a particular cop's personal thing that they want to hassle you. It would only be to see if there was a report of it being stolen as there is no database, VA state or Federal of who has what gun.

Loaning a firearm is perfectly legal. So long as she is carrying it in a legal manner. You can even loan firearms private party to private party across state lines whereas it is illegal to permanently transfer it across state lines.
 
What exactly is the point of this? In VA friend to friend transfers are legal, consequently, many guns I own are not traceable to me. The only thing I can think of is if someone reported the weapon "stolen" that the serial numbers would hit.
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That is exactly the point. It is not to see who the gun belongs to, because guns aren't registered, thank God. It is simply to make sure that the gun is not stolen.

One more question.... what is the legality of somone else carrying a firearm that they do not own. For instance if I let my girlfriend carry a one of my firearms, and she gets pulled over.
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As long as it is not reported as stolen, you can carry anything you are legally allowed to carry, regardless of who it belongs to. It is the same as having your friend's DVD player at your house. There is nothing illegal about that, unless it is at your house because you stole it from him.
 
I have been pulled over twice since I had my permit...never asked whether I was armed. I wonder if there is probale cause to run the serial number as a result from the traffic stop? I tried to have the sherrifs office run a number for me on a gun I wanted to buy from another individual and was told no.
 
The purpose of running a gun's serial number is to check whether it has been reported stolen.
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Yes because we know that members if the single most law abiding segment of our society routinely "roll with hot gats". :rolleyes:

The purpose is to put you proles in your place. How DARE you try to take care of yourselves ... you MUST be a criminal if you aren't willing to depend on the police for 100% of your protection.
 
Having been a cop since 1974 to present common sense tells me that if I am dealing with a CCH/CCW holder, then most likely if they are at that moment armed it would be with a legally posessed firearm, not a stolen one.

All the arrests I have made over the years that involved a "stolen" firearm I can say that in my experince none of the offenders had a CCH/CCW permit.

I am sure there may be some exceptions but they are not the rule.
 
yes, if you are going to steal a handgun, you arent likely to tell everyone that you have one, it just brings unwanted attention. better no one knows about it then if someone might get curious.
 
They can run the numbers, but from what I understand they normally don't unless they get a bad vibe from whoever they're dealing with, or if they have a record, a "known" drug dealer who hasn't got busted yet, a drunk driver, etc.

If the officer disarms you, you can bet the numbers get ran. Getting disarmed, of course, varies wildy from one city to the next, and in some cities, one officer to the next. Thankfully its not too popular in my area.

The only time I could think of that carrying someone else's gun would be problematic (or illegal) would be in states that have handgun registration, or in CA where your carry permit has the guns listed that you're allowed to carry.
 
Some jurisdictions (not mine) issue permits to carry a particular gun. And they have the serial number of that gun. Carry the wrong gun concealed, and you are guilty of carrying a concealed weapon. Then you lose your permit.
 
It was proposed that MD put in the auto registration data base if the person owned guns (regulated firearms). A cop explained to me in a very nasty manner that if they had that info, they could assume the driver was armed and then "we can just machinegun the car and not take any risks."

Don't you love our "protectors"?

Jim
 
Once again, a forum topic goes into "cop bashing land" and diverges from point. See above: "Don't you love our protectors?". I'm sorry you got a bad taste in your mouth from your interaction with this officer, but that doesn't belay my point......

PLEASE don't let your person to person, one time exposure to ONE individual law enforcement officer be representative of the rest of us.

I've said it before, and I'm sure I'll say it again. I don't care if you love me, hate me, or anywhere in-between, but the bashing the boys-in-blue crap really gets old. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only one here that is getting tired of it.

I'll ask the Mod again, isn't there another forum these folks can go to?
 
It was proposed that MD put in the auto registration data base if the person owned guns (regulated firearms). A cop explained to me in a very nasty manner that if they had that info, they could assume the driver was armed and then "we can just machinegun the car and not take any risks."

Don't you love our "protectors"?

Jim
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If this is true, its not bashing.

Franconian, remember Maryland has one of the highest Brady Ratings.

Its possible the cops there aren't very nice people.
 
I don't see this thread as cop bashing. Franconianlocal you must have some very thin skin.

Now this might be considered "cop bashing"

I think there's a legitimat greivence here, if I'm up front enough to tell you I am armed (something I ,quite frankly, never do unless I have no option) why do you need to treat me like a thief and check to see if my handgun is stolen? My cell phone has a serial number why is it not checked? What do you think would be the reaction if every time a citizen with a cell phone was pulled over the phone was (briefly) confiscated and checked against a list of stolen property? The citizenry would be enraged. Why is my firearm any different? Absent any indication of a crime no citizen should be treated as a criminal.

Don't you love our "protectors"?
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The police act in a reactionary role. They prevent very few actual crimes, although one might argue that they prevent many potential crimes when ever they take a criminal off the streets. At least for a few hours until the court system spits him back out.
As such they are not our protectors.

They're more a revenue generating arm of city/county/state government, and I can assure you that as the economy worsens you will see all traffic enforcement (revenue generation) stepped up.
 
"why do you need to treat me like a thief and check to see if my handgun is stolen?"

Maybe the precinct is running a contest - run the most numbers this month and win a weekend for 2 at Colonial Beach.

Who knows why the government comes up with things. I've worked for the Commonwealth since the end of 1974 and they're still surprising me with some of their bright ideas, er, time-wasting foolishness, er, management tools.

John
 
Who knows why the government comes up with things. I've worked for the Commonwealth since the end of 1974 and they're still surprising me with some of their bright ideas, er, time-wasting foolishness, er, management tools.
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Since the time being wasted here is mine, I reserve the right not to mention that I am armed unless I am required by law or circumstance to do so.
 
I'd guess this is not considered unlawful search, but it certainly feels like it. I would think they should have probable cause for this search, but oh well.
 
I have heard that in the state of VA your CHP is "linked" to your driver's license, that if pulled over you will be asked if you have a gun, and if you do have a gun the police will run the numbers.
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You've heard? Who did you hear this from? Do you have a policy form some PD that verifies this, or are we just throwing the excrement against the wall to see what sticks?

When you can provide me with some verifiable information that this is policy somewhere in VA (or anywhere else in the US) PM me and I'll reopen this thread. In the meantime there is no sense getting everyone all worked up about rights being violated until we know that it's happening.

In 22 years I never once ran any property through NCIC that I didn't already have a suspicion that it was stolen. What a waste of time and resources it would be to run every gun, stereo, CB radio, TV or anything else you encountered in a day........
 
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