buying private gun from someone, how to check the serial#?

[cb1000rider]

Trivial for the antis to randomly add guns that aren't stolen.

Not a database that anyone can modify. Not wikipedia. Think about the same concept as the sex offender registry. You and I can read from it, but we can't add people...

[anygunanywhere]

Trivial for the antis to randomly add guns that aren't stolen.

Not a database that anyone can modify. Not wikipedia. Think about the same concept as the sex offender registry. You and I can read from it, but we can't add people...

If more government is the answer it is a bad idea. Whatever permissions you give to the government they will eventually use it on you. Opening up a database to allow private transfers to see if a firearm is stolen is a small step towards requiring all sales go through FFL and background check. This is what the antis want.

[Texsquatch]

Trivial for the antis to randomly add guns that aren't stolen.

Not a database that anyone can modify. Not wikipedia. Think about the same concept as the sex offender registry. You and I can read from it, but we can't add people...

If more government is the answer it is a bad idea. Whatever permissions you give to the government they will eventually use it on you. Opening up a database to allow private transfers to see if a firearm is stolen is a small step towards requiring all sales go through FFL and background check. This is what the antis want.

Bingo. Sounds like a great idea until you get cornered into mandatory documentation for searches on a private sale. Then, the data on the clean gun you just bought is going to forever be stored somewhere.

[chuck j]

I don't want any more hoops to jump through just to buy a gun , system in place now is a pain enough .

[treeman]

Has anyone looked at Hotgunz.com ? Ran across this private site a few weeks back where they have started a listing of stolen guns by serial number and zip code. Think it was started in 2009 and supposedly now has 9 or 10,000 stolen guns listed. Is free and anyone can check a serial number or list a stolen gun. Obvioulsy not a very large database so far, but is a start.

[carlson1]

If more government is the answer it is a bad idea. Whatever permissions you give to the government they will eventually use it on you. Opening up a database to allow private transfers to see if a firearm is stolen is a small step towards requiring all sales go through FFL and background check. This is what the antis want.

Bingo. Sounds like a great idea until you get cornered into mandatory documentation for searches on a private sale. Then, the data on the clean gun you just bought is going to forever be stored somewhere.

I don't want any more hoops to jump through just to buy a gun , system in place now is a pain enough.

The left needs no more ammunition. When you start doing more than is required by law then it will not be long before the liberals make the extra law. Then what? More extras?

[cb1000rider]

If more government is the answer it is a bad idea. Whatever permissions you give to the government they will eventually use it on you. Opening up a database to allow private transfers to see if a firearm is stolen is a small step towards requiring all sales go through FFL and background check. This is what the antis want.

I don't see it as more government, I see it as more transparency.
No requirement changes. No doc changes. Just the ability to check a serial number, like we can for vehicles.

[anygunanywhere]

If more government is the answer it is a bad idea. Whatever permissions you give to the government they will eventually use it on you. Opening up a database to allow private transfers to see if a firearm is stolen is a small step towards requiring all sales go through FFL and background check. This is what the antis want.

I don't see it as more government, I see it as more transparency.
No requirement changes. No doc changes. Just the ability to check a serial number, like we can for vehicles.

You trust government more than I do. Transparent government is an oxymoron.

[cb1000rider]

You trust government more than I do. Transparent government is an oxymoron.

I don't trust the government at all.. I supposed you could trust it less than not at all.

Why should data on which guns are stolen be restricted? Makes no sense to me. Seems that exposing the data would make stolen guns a whole lot less marketable and would make my chances of buying one that is stolen a lot less...

Then again, it might expose a data trail on stuff like fast and furious...

[cb1000rider]

Silly darn idea, just begging to be abused.

Explain how it can be abused as a read-only database?

[rotor]

Silly darn idea, just begging to be abused.

Explain how it can be abused as a read-only database?

I tend to agree with cb here.
If a gun is stolen, can LEO instantly check a database to see if it is a stolen weapon? If so, I don't see why I shouldn't be able to safely have access to that info before buying a gun from an individual because 1, if I do buy the gun and am ever stopped by the police the weapon will be confiscated if it is a stolen weapon and I will have to prove that I didn't steal it and 2, it will be returned to the rightful owner and I will be out the money I paid for the gun and maybe court costs too. I don't see this as a step to registration, only a listing of stolen property.

[chuck j]

Explain how it can be abused as a read-only database?[/quote]


Kind of hard to believe you asked that .

[anygunanywhere]

Silly darn idea, just begging to be abused.

Explain how it can be abused as a read-only database?

Explain how exactly you are going to ensure that the state maintains that database correctly? Explain exactly how if two digits are transposed or some sausage fingered bureaucrat enters the wrong data and some poor innocent citizen suffers the consequences what is their recourse?

I can see lots of problems and I am sure there could be many more that we can not come up with here.

Like I said, when you give the government permission to do something they will eventually use it against you. This is one of the truths of government.

Be careful for what you ask for.