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Pa has no gun registration, the federal government has no gun registration. Right, wrong, or indifferent you have the gun. Depending on when the sale happened it could have been illegal with no transfer paperwork. However, no federal or state paperwork of origin is required to possess or own a handgun. I have handguns I bought used and new, in and out of state a long time ago. No one knows I have them and it is all legal.
I had a robbery a few years ago and 5 handguns were stolen. I had the serial numbers for them and submitted it to insurance and PSP. The PSP could only find 1 of the serial numbers in any records. This also happened to be 1 of the 2 guns that were later recovered. But the serial number did not match, make, model, or caliber in their records, someone got the entry screwed up years ago. So they asked if I would ID the gun as one of mine that was stolen, I did, it was. They asked if I wanted it back and I refused because insurance already paid me full retail for it.
You have the gun, it may or may not have been stolen, it may or may not been properly transferred depending on date, but you are under no obligation to go and give somebody serial numbers of the guns in your possesion. We don't live in Canada.
The NCIC only records a persons name, no gun numbers. By law the PSP can ONLY maintain records matching serial number to a successful NCIC check number (verifies this gun is in the hands of "some" qualified individual), it is illegal for PSP to record a serial number to a persons name. The only person that matches a serial number to a name is the FFL in their personal records, they report only the serial number and NCIC check to PSP on a prescribed interval. Of course in an investigation the PSP will take the serial number and then go to the tranferring FFL to get only the info for that serial number. If the FFL lost the data it is gone forever.
Carry permits in Pa do not list individual guns.
I had a robbery a few years ago and 5 handguns were stolen. I had the serial numbers for them and submitted it to insurance and PSP. The PSP could only find 1 of the serial numbers in any records. This also happened to be 1 of the 2 guns that were later recovered. But the serial number did not match, make, model, or caliber in their records, someone got the entry screwed up years ago. So they asked if I would ID the gun as one of mine that was stolen, I did, it was. They asked if I wanted it back and I refused because insurance already paid me full retail for it.
You have the gun, it may or may not have been stolen, it may or may not been properly transferred depending on date, but you are under no obligation to go and give somebody serial numbers of the guns in your possesion. We don't live in Canada.
The NCIC only records a persons name, no gun numbers. By law the PSP can ONLY maintain records matching serial number to a successful NCIC check number (verifies this gun is in the hands of "some" qualified individual), it is illegal for PSP to record a serial number to a persons name. The only person that matches a serial number to a name is the FFL in their personal records, they report only the serial number and NCIC check to PSP on a prescribed interval. Of course in an investigation the PSP will take the serial number and then go to the tranferring FFL to get only the info for that serial number. If the FFL lost the data it is gone forever.
Carry permits in Pa do not list individual guns.
