Are firearm purchases a matter of public record? Can anyone, anywhere find out who bought a gun & when?
Posted on August 1, 2009
Filed Under Law Enforcement & Police |
It’s a long story, but can someone go online and do a public records search or make a phone call and find out if a certain person purchased a gun, when, where, and what type of gun? More of a privacy issue than anything, I guess, and just curiosity.
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3 Responses to “Are firearm purchases a matter of public record? Can anyone, anywhere find out who bought a gun & when?”
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Not that I am aware of. The BATF form that is filled out at the time of a firearms purchase is maintained by the gun dealer and doesn’t go anywhere else. It may be possible that some states that require a separate gun registration may have a public record that can be looked at, but I don’t know of one. Also, some states have tried to make their lists of concealed carry permit holders public, but most (if not all) are not open for public record.
With regards to the second post, the police can’t access firearms purchases on any computer database. There is no such database. The police can request a trace of a firearm through the BATF, but that is a time-consuming process and the police have to have specific information on a specific firearm. Even then, if the firearm transferred hands in a private sale between two private citizens, the trace would end at the last person to purchase it from a federally licensed dealer.
I can go on line and get more information than most people realize and it only costs less than $50.00.
However law enforcement can get that information in a few minutes it is in their data base.
No. The only people able to do that through BATF is a police department. They have firearms trace forms the police dept fills out and it takes about 2 weeks to get the information back. You have to know the make model, caliber, type and some other things. BATF checks these from the Federal forms required for the gun shops to sell guns. Those records are where they will eventually get the information as well as the factory records. It will trace the original owner and if it was re-sold to a gun shop will track the new owner also. Private sales are not listed or even known.