But we’re talking about a different topic, so I’ll leave it at that. That’s actually a good thing believe it or not, and it worked fine centuries before we started licensing and checking backgrounds. Many states allow the private sale of a firearm without a background check and require no registration or official records. Primary indicators are, buying a gun in suspicious conditions, and for an unrealistically low price. In order to be charged, a prosecutor should prove you to have known or should have known that it was stolen. Will I go to Jail if I Bought a Stolen Gun Unknowingly?īuying and Possessing stolen guns are crimes. I wrote an article on what police do with a stolen gun and if you will get your stolen gun back. Licensed dealers do refuse to buy guns from someone they don’t trust. Besides the paperwork and legalities involved, gun store clerks are very good at reading into a person’s character. If you bought a gun from a licensed dealer who follows state and national laws, chances are next to nill that you bought an implicated gun. Otherwise, they will usually hang on to it until the propper owner has their gun recovered. If it comes back clean, you get your gun back. Police will confiscate the gun and run a double check to make sure it’s actually stolen. They’ve been through this before and generally work it out with you smoothly. You don’t need to tie up a line on 911, instead, call the actual police or Sherrif office and calmly and clearly explain what you think is going on. Don’t go hide it or destroy it, call the police. If you have reason to believe you are holding a gun that is actually stolen property, you need to act quickly and responsibly. What Happens if My Gun Ends up Being Stolen Property? But, if a cell phone was found at a garage sale, nobody questions if it’s hot or not, even though cell phones are stolen more than guns in the US. Many people would see a gun laying in the woods and assume it was used in a crime when in reality it was left by a careless squirrel hunter. If the integrity of a buyer or seller is genuinely questionable, you can refuse. If something doesn’t feel right about a sale, walk away. Where some put the responsibility on the government, I put the responsibility on the people. Unless given a reason otherwise, it’s safe to assume a gun is clean, and a buyer is legitimate. Would you want to do a stolen property check on anything you bought at a garage sale? It’s somewhat the same thing. It’s just interesting how some people have an unrealistic fear of buying a stolen gun. I do want to interject here that it’s generally not necessary to do this. And if you are buying, Being sure the seller isn’t a known criminal means the gun likely isn’t stolen. If you are selling a gun, it may be worth your peace of mind. Generally for around $15, a gun dealer is willing to run a background check on the buyer and seller in a private sale. what a gun store or FFL can do is oversee a Private transaction of firearms. Apparently that’s privileged information. They cannot look up a gun in the national database and see if it’s stolen. Gun Dealers, or FFL’s, do not have access to the NCIC Stolen Gun Database. Can Gun Dealers Check a Gun’s Serial Nuber? Law enforcement tells us that most people don’t know and can’t find the serial number of guns stolen from them. it also requires you to know the serial number. Its main weakness is that it requires people to self-report a stolen gun.Īlthough simple to do (just input a serial number) most people don’t use it, mainly because they don’t know about it. ![]() ![]() These are all run by user-submitted information but do have a good track record of not being abused. It would be neat to just be able to type in a serial number and see if it’s legit before completing a sale.Ĭurrently, there are several websites offering a public use database with a serial number lookup for firearms. The only ones I know of are Ohio and Florida, but there will probably be more soon. Now, there are some states that do have their own public use Stolen Gun Database. However, outside of law enforcement and federal agents, no other person has access o this database. The NCIC database is accessible 24/7 by any law enforcement agency. Guns officially reported stolen are entered in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Stolen Gun Database. Want to learn how to check your gun’s serial number, or avoid the situation altogether? It might come in handy. is a public database, but the information is user-supplied and not official, meaning it’s not related to crime reports. ![]() Some states have their own stolen gun database, open to the public. Any law enforcement officer can run the check. Guns can be checked against the NCIC Stolen Gun Database. Ever been wary of buying a gun from an individual because you don’t know if it’s clean? While rare, it can happen.
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