gun not registered to you

In most of the US, the dealer doing the background check does not call in the make, model, and serial number of the firearm to the feds. He gives your personal info and whether the gun you are purchasing is a long gun or a handgun. That is all. The feds have no central data base of which gun belongs to who. Even the fact that you bought any gun must be destroyed by the feds after a short period. The dealer is the only one who has a record connecting a purchaser to a specific firearm.

That said, the law can still follow the trail of crime gun to the person who purchases a gun from a dealer. They do this by contacting the manufacturer who tells which distributor received the gun. The distributor then gives up the dealer, who then can give up the purchaser. The trail becomes much harder after that if that gun was legally or illegally transfered to someone else.

In most states you can sell or give a gun to a legal recipient without doing any paperwork at all. The receiver can then do the same, and so on. Some guns can get pretty far removed from the original dealer purchase due to multiple legal paperless transfers. To be on the safe side, it is always a good idea to get/give a bill of sale with any transfer.

Some localities may have more restrictive requirements, but most states now have preemptive laws prohibiting local gun laws. California, Illinois, and others are exemptions.
 
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to answer your question exactly as it applies to PA...

Yes it is legal here in PA. The gun was given (handed down) which is legal. There is no registration to the gun in PA. If it's a long gun, you may sell it face to face, without going through an FFL. (ie. yard sale, add in paper, sell to friend, co-worker, etc.)

If it is a handgun, it MUST go through an FFL dealer for the transfer, and the new buyer will have HIS/HER background checked (4473). You will need to sign as "seller" on the PA State Police form.

bownut
 
Originally Posted By: Brasshound Feds do not register, but they can get all the information by taking my record book.
And like I mentioned Calif. knows, hence the state run assault weapons band. How are they to know what it is if they do not run the numbers?
As far as the police not having the numbers, if they did, honest officers would start letting the cat out of the bag..
That state keeps this information for our safety, you know what I mean?


Are you saying Cal. records your name to ser. no. of every gun you own with your name attached??? ed
 
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