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Old February 9, 2013, 01:14 PM   #7
44 AMP
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Join Date: March 11, 2006
Location: Upper US
Posts: 28,677
There is an additional drawback to checking to see if a gun was stolen. And that is the state of the records that are going to be checked.

First off, there is no way any database can be considered all inclusive, as we have been having firearms stolen for as long as we have had firearms, and even if there was some requirement for all state & local jurisdictions to send the information to a central database, how could it include thefts reported prior to the "modern era"?

Second, and possibly more important to us as individual owners, the records of stolen gun are hardly complete or fully accurate.

Consider this example, a record states that J.Brown reported the theft of a pistol, caliber .38, S&W, Ser#12345 in 1976. In 2013 you go to check the pistol you want to buy from your friend, and find out it matches the record. But your friend bought his gun new in 1997!! How can this be?

It can happen, because significant other identifying information was left out of the original report. The stolen gun was a model 10, your friend's gun is a model 36, which just happens to have the same serial number. Sound far fetched? Sure. But it could happen, and likely already has.

Many firearms makers have used identical blocks of serial numbers, on different models of guns, over the years.

The database of people convicted of disqualifying crimes is far from complete or accurate, and this is well known by anyone who knows the system. Yet, this system is considered infallible by our politicians, and used as the basis for their demands for universal background checks!
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