AZrailwhale
Diamond Member
What did you think happened? Did you think the government had a database of all gun serial numbers? In some cities that have mandatory registration, the city has a data base of all registered guns. But all that does is link any recovered gun to the person who registered it. Records of background checks to clear purchasers are supposed to be immediately destroyed by the government and gun stores are required by federal law to maintain paper records of all gun purchases as long as they are in business. If they go out of business I believe those paper records go to a depository somewhere to rot away. Tracing a gun is not a simple matter. One of my guns was bought nearly forty years ago in a county that I didn’t live in because it was on sale, another was bought over thirty years ago, I’m sure both stores are long out of business. My ex-wife talked me into selling my pistol before we divorced and stole my scoped hunting rifle during our serperation before we divorced. I later found out she gave it too her felon brother in law so I suppose if he used it in a crime it could eventually be traced back to me.
The way I think tracing serial numbers works is that the police go to the manufacturer, find what gun shop bought the gun, then go to the shop and if possible go through the paper records, then go talk to the original purchaser to see if he still owns the gun or who he sold or gave it to. It’s a lot of work, so cops usually don’t bother going through it unless it’s a high visibility crime.
