Where can someone go to lookup a gun's transfer history?

[Durham68]

A gentleman I know asked me how to lookup the transfer history of a gun that was aquired through unusual circumstances. I called my favorite ffl but the part time guy working today didn't know the answer. From what I can gather online, it looks like this is a task reserved for LEOs and many of them want to have the guns in hand so they can take them on the spot if the the serial number comes up stolen. While that is always possible, I would be more concerned that the gun made it's way across state lines without a transfer. Can anyone outside of law enforcement look this stuff up or do you have to know an officer willing to run the serial numbers?

[NVGdude]

What you are talking about is called a "Trace".

Legally that info should be unavailable without a warrant.

If you are worried that it is HOT on the other hand, Law enforcement can do a stolen weapons check. Generally they want the gun in hand though.

[Catbird]

That would require a national firearms registry, which ostensibly doesn't exist. As I understand it, the police trace gun ownership with phone calls and shoe leather. They go to the last known owner and work backward or contact the manufacturer and work forward. If a gun has ever been involved in a crime, it's probably on some kind of permanent list.

I'm not law enforcement, however. Maybe they know something I don't.

[Durham68]

What you are talking about is called a "Trace".

Legally that info should be unavailable without a warrant.

If you are worried that it is HOT on the other hand, Law enforcement can do a stolen weapons check. Generally they want the gun in hand though.

Is a trace something that police can run on their own or do they have to go through the ATF?

That would require a national firearms registry, which ostensibly doesn't exist. As I understand it, the police trace gun ownership with phone calls and shoe leather. They go to the last known owner and work backward or contact the manufacturer and work forward.

It would be nice to know that they have to actually investigate for a trace, but I find it hard to believe they don't have a faster way.

[Steamforger]

When I was with the department, all we ever got back on a n inquiry was whether it was reported as stolen or not.

[randy]

It's quite possible that any previous transfers are recorded in an FFL dealer's bound book. If that dealer is still in business, there is no requirement or reason for it to be in any electronic database. Therefore, the process of using phone and shoe leather to work backwards from the current owner (or forward from the manufacture)

The ATF is not supposed to build such a data base, and since dealers are required to forward the books to the ATF if they go out of business, I'm sure no one at the ATF has input them into a database.

And even if such an illegal database did exist, it probably wouldn't be complete, and certainly not available to a private citizen, since it doesn't exist.

And there are ways a fire arm could be "transferred" legally across state lines without an FFL transaction. Such as some one moving into the state who already owned it.

This inability to easily trace a firearm's history is a feature, not a bug AFAIC. The extra work it makes for LE is very small price to pay in order to keep the .gov ignorant of, and scared of, the number of firearms out there they don't and can't know the whereabouts of.

[First Shirt]

Cops used to be able to run traces without having the gun in hand. Had to run it as a test, so if it came up hot, it wouldn't set off alarms from here to yonder.

Don't know if that's still an option, or not.

[MarkD]

I'd imagine there's a difference between checking for a stolen gun and checking for its sequence of owners. I ASSUME (yeah, I know) that there's a database somewhere of guns reported stolen, so if one is recovered it can be returned (I've read stories of guns being returned decades after they were stolen). Ownership? As others said, that would require a registry.

I have to ask though, what difference does it make if it was "illegally" transferred in the past? There are legal ways for a gun to cross a state line without a transfer, and it's legal to transfer a gun in a state without an FFL, so... I can understand concern of the gun being stolen, but beyond that I don't see the point in digging.

[PawPaw]

People watch too much TV, (such as NCIS) and believe that we can instantly trace a gun from one hand to another, across multiple decades. That ain't happening. Gun transfers are recorded on a 4473 and kept at the gun shop. The serial number doesn't go to ATF unless the dealer closes shop for some reason, and even then they are not electronically entered into the system. They usually stay on the same paper form.

In the vast majority of cases, the first time a gun gets logged on a searchable database is if it is stolen, reported, and listed on NCIC. The vast majority of states don't register guns, so there is no registry to search such a thing. And, even if such a database existed, the gun might not be on it. Let's say Grandad bought a gun in 1960, passed it on to Dad in 1980, and it got passed to grandson in 2000. It may never be listed on any piece of paper except the manufacturer's record.

Shoe-leather traces are often the only way to find the history of a gun, and even those are unbelievably labor intensive.

We don't have a national database of privately owned firearms, and we don't want one. We (gun owners generally) have fought long and hard to make sure that such a database is never constructed.

Short answer: Where can you go to look up a transfer history? Thankfully, you can't.

[Durham68]

I have to ask though, what difference does it make if it was "illegally" transferred in the past? There are legal ways for a gun to cross a state line without a transfer, and it's legal to transfer a gun in a state without an FFL, so... I can understand concern of the gun being stolen, but beyond that I don't see the point in digging.

It's a problem specific to CT due to a requirement that all handgun transfers since ~1989 (I think) have required an authorization number (read: background check and permission slip). Hypothetical example: Person from out of state moves in with friends here in CT and brings firearms with them. Upon moving out of town, said firearms remain with friends in CT. No one involved thinks anything of it until years later when the parties no longer have contact. If any of the guns is a pistol that has any record of ownership outside of CT post-1989, there is no way to legally be in possession of that gun without a CT state police authorized transfer. Admittedly, the likelihood of this ever causing any legal trouble is very small, but it would be nice to not have to dispose of the guns in order to eliminate the risk.

Shoe-leather traces are often the only way to find the history of a gun, and even those are unbelievably labor intensive.

We don't have a national database of privately owned firearms, and we don't want one. We (gun owners generally) have fought long and hard to make sure that such a database is never constructed.

Short answer: Where can you go to look up a transfer history? Thankfully, you can't.

I couldn't agree more. I only wish the same held true for my home state.