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Originally Posted by paull
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Absent a bill of sale, plan on not only losing the weapon and the purchase price, but being cited or even arrested for possession of stolen property.
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Seeing that this is a "gun-board", and most, if not all members are gun-owners...
Let's have a show of hands of all the folks who have had their property confiscated and then were cited or arrested....
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I don't know if it's happened, but I do know what the law is. And in general under the law one can not acquire a right of ownership of stolen property.
So if you have bought a gun that has been reported stolen, you don't really own it. The guy from whom is was stolen still owns it. When police find stolen property, they routinely take it as evidence, and it is often ultimately returned to the guy who reported it stolen.
The law also takes a dim view of possessing stolen property. Having stolen property in your possession raises the inference that you either stole it or bought it knowing it was stolen. That kind of makes you a "person of interest", and personally, I'd rather not be one of those. Proper documentation of your innocent acquisition of the stolen item, will usually cause the police to lose interest in you; and I think that's a good thing.