How stolen guns can be sold at big box chain stores and buyers never know

[DudleySmith]

Interesting story; couple of years old but maybe a heads up for some.

UNION CITY, Tenn. (WSMV) - It was Thanksgiving weekend 2021 and Umon Moore had traveled from Minnesota to Obion County, Tennessee, to see some friends and do a little target practice.

He would ultimately end up in handcuffs.

The reason why exposes how easily stolen guns can sold from even big box chains stores, who then sell to customers who have no idea they’re purchasing a stolen weapon.
...
Moore was not charged as Scheels confirmed he bought it from the store, but the gun was confiscated.

As a result of being detained and the confiscation of his gun, Moore sued Scheels, claiming that the store should have known it was stolen.

But a judge ultimately dismissed the case as Scheels’ attorney successfully argued that firearm dealers in Minnesota do not have access to any database to trace firearms.

Anybody ever heard of this before? I think the store should refund the price.

 

[1srelluc]

I suspect it could happen anywhere used guns are sold.....A gun made/purchased before 1968 has no real paper trail other than possibly the manufacturer knowing what store it was shipped to at the time.

Many guns before '68 were not even serialized.....Utility shotguns and .22s in particular.

Even after '68 a serialized gun could have changed hands many times through face to face transactions with no reporting requirement.

Hell, I saw one of my former guns (Yugo Mauser) in a shop almost 100 miles away. I could tell it by the Bosnian stock art. I bought it at a yard sale and traded it off for something else soon after.

 

[para bellum]

I'm not a FFL, but the store must have recorded the serial no. when they bought the gun. If that database of stolen guns exists, it should be online, so that anyone can query it.

I think the cops are very lax in making those reports of stolen guns. I had a couple guns stolen, and was never even able to get confirmation the numbers were ever recorded in any database.

It really pissed me off because the thieves also stole a tablet computer. I tracked them for 3 days, but I could never get any police or sheriff's dept. interested enough to go chase them down.

 

[whitehall]

Not enough information or a bogus story. Retail outlets as well as the buyer are required to fill out a federal ATF form in a firearms transaction. If it's true it's more likely the guy purchased the firearm in the parking lot with fake papers.

 

[Augustine_]

But a judge ultimately dismissed the case as Scheels’ attorney successfully argued that firearm dealers in Minnesota do not have access to any database to trace firearms.

I wonder how the government was able to tell if it was stolen. Surely they are not preventing access to a database that could easily identify a stolen firearm.

 

[para bellum]

Not enough information or a bogus story. Retail outlets as well as the buyer are required to fill out a federal ATF form in a firearms transaction. If it's true it's more likely the guy purchased the firearm in the parking lot with fake papers.

The dealer does a 4473 at the time of sale. It was a handgun so there was a NICS check of the buyer. But the NICS check doesn't look at the gun, just the person buying.

When the dealer purchased the gun, he recorded it in his records, including the serial no. That record has to be maintained for ATF inspection. So they can find out who sold the gun to the dealer, but that seller may have purchased it from a private party, so that may be the end of the trail.

The dealer doesn't check serial numbers when he buys or sells the gun. There is supposedly a database of stolen guns, but it's like FBI and ATF access only, or something like that.

I tried to find it because I wanted to record the guns that were stolen from me. All I ever found was something that was for LEO's only, not the public.

National Tracing Center | Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) National Tracing Center (NTC) is the United States’ only crime gun tracing facility. NTC’s mission is to conduct firearms tracing to provide investigative leads for federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies. Firearm...

www.atf.gov

 

[whitehall]

It seems that we aren't talking about a so-called "big box chain store" but a firearm dealer who accepts firearms from questionable rather than legitimate sources. I expect some laws were violated by the seller and it's a rare occurrence.