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Old September 25, 2012, 10:06 PM   #9
Nickel Plated
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Join Date: January 17, 2010
Location: Brooklyn, NYC
Posts: 610
Quote:
A Glock 17 is sold to James J Jones, 1234 Main St., Anywhere, USA. But, gun store records/federal records do not indicate that specific Glock 17, serial #56789 being registered to a James J. Jones, just simply sold and left the store on Sept. 21, 2012. If that's true, how does LE trace a firearm used in crime back to an individual by running a trace on the gun serial number? If the serial number is traced to Big Bob's Gun Store, how can Big Bob tell LE who purchased the gun by name, address, etc? What am I missing?
When you fill out the 4473 at a shop. The gun's make and serial number is recorded on that. When the FFL calls it in to NICS he only really needs to tell them if it's a long gun, handgun, or other (bare recievers for example) simply because different rules apply to long guns vs. handguns. Beyond that FBI doesn't care whether it's a Glock or a S&W
Either way him calling it in is only to see wether you can buy the gun at the time. The info from that call is supposed to be deleted from NICS records after 72(?) hours.

However the 4473 which contains the model and serial # and specifically ties it to you stays at the shop for (I think) 20 years, after which the FFL can destroy it. Unless the shop closes in which case any 4473s that are less than 20yrs old are turned over to the ATF.

The way the cops find you if anything hoppens is this:

1) Find gun at crime scene, note the make, model, and serial #
2) Call up the manufacturer " Hey we got this Glock 17 here serial #56789, what can you tell us?"
3) Manufacturer digs through their records "Yeah we sent that one out to Guns R Us Distributing, call them"
4) Cops call the distributor "Got this Glock here, what can you tell us about it?"
5) Distributor checks their records "Sent it to Bubba Joe's gun shop in Middleofnowhere, TN, call them"
6) Cops call Bubba Joes gun shop "Hey got this Glock here, what can you tell us?"
7) Bubba Joe says "Yea sold it to Joe Shmoe living at this address call him"
8) Cops pay a visit to Joe Schmoe " Hey we got this Glock here and hear you were the original purchaser. Care to tell us how it ended up at a murder scene 2 states away?" at which point it's either:
-"Oh I sold it to so and so, talk to him" and the trail continues.
-"It was stolen, here's the police report. So catch the thief and talk to him"
-Or "YOU'LL NEVER GET ME ALIVE PIGS!!" mystery solved.

However there are many things that can break in this chain. If the manufacturer, distributor, or gun shop is out of business the LE is SOL. If the gun shop destroyed the 4473, the LE is SOL. If the owner sold the gun in a FTF transaction and didn't bother to keep records (because he doesn't have to) the LE is SOL. Among a plethora of other things that can break the trail.

So the 4473 and NICS check is not really a registration (or atleast not a good one) simply because it doesn't keep a complete record of everywhere that gun goes. This is ofcourse only federal. Some states have more strict systems that do (or try to) keep track of every step in the process.
But then, people who's guns tend to end up at crime scenes usually make it a point to avoid registering it.
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