"Unregistered" Guns?

If your license ever gets denied/revoked/suspended, you can expect the police to show up with a list. They'll give you a hard time about anything that's on their list that you don't "surrender". They'll also refuse to return anything that isn't "registered".

Could an attorney bust their balls on this though? There's nothing in MGL that makes registration compulsory.

-Mike
 
Could an attorney bust their balls on this though? There's nothing in MGL that makes registration compulsory.

-Mike
When the police have illegally confiscated property, and stubbornly refuse to return said property, the path of least resistance is to jump through the hoops demanded, and file a lawsuit against the police for various civil rights violations.
 
When the police have illegally confiscated property, and stubbornly refuse to return said property, the path of least resistance is to jump through the hoops demanded, and file a lawsuit against the police for various civil rights violations.

How does it work when they show up to take your guns for whatever reason? Do they come in and look in your safe, or is it like the army where they ask for your guns and you ask for a hand receipt first before turning anything in?
 
It varies by case. I had a fid revoked, they show up asked for my card, which i gave them.Then ask if you have any guns. I said no. They said they where going to come in and have a look around. I said no....they left.

If your a violent dick or accused of being one my guess is the cops wil be far more aggressive.

I cant speak for getting guns back in MA. In other states like AZ it is a painless process and it seemed they tried to treat my stuff with respect
 
I really can;t be bothered reading all these posts so I apologize in advance if this was covered.

There is no law in MA requiring registration of firearms.
I remember when I was nieve. What does the law have to do with what they require.

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If your license ever gets denied/revoked/suspended, you can expect the police to show up with a list. They'll give you a hard time about anything that's on their list that you don't "surrender". They'll also refuse to return anything that isn't "registered".

Cant you just say you left them all in NH with a friend? In fact I'd do that straight away if my license got suspended.
 
It varies by case. I had a fid revoked, they show up asked for my card, which i gave them.Then ask if you have any guns. I said no. They said they where going to come in and have a look around. I said no....they left.

If your a violent dick or accused of being one my guess is the cops wil be far more aggressive.

I cant speak for getting guns back in MA. In other states like AZ it is a painless process and it seemed they tried to treat my stuff with respect
A lot less to do with being a dick or violent and more to do with the department and the individual cops.
I'm truly surprised they would just walk away unless they knew you personally. There really isn't anything that will get your FID revoked that doesn't include at least an accusation of a crime or violence. Just an accusation will do it.

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Registration is irrelevant, as long as you handle it by the letter of the law. Like if you move here you're not required to register anything, but if you build a gun as a Mass resident you are. Just owning a gun that isn't registered is fine. But the state welcomes you to voluntarily register, of course.

As far as the eFA-10 sales records, those are messed up in all kinds of ways. As far as I know guns are never removed from a owner's record, just added. Not to mention all the paper FA-10s that were lost in the fire/floor/whatever that was 10+ years ago.

Correct. Quite a few blue cards were destroyed the result of a bad water leak. Hence, there are a lot of lost or inaccurate records.
 
I've always assumed that their uselessly inaccurate records would work in the gun owner's favor if it ever came down to it.
Yup. I've never heard of a prosecution for possession of an "unregistered gun" in the DPRM.
 
So is this why people are never really prosecuted for unregistered guns in Masss, despite being charged with it?

I believe the law states 18 months max with the possibility of a fine for the 2nd offense for being caught with a weapon without an LTC.
 
Correct. Quite a few blue cards were destroyed the result of a bad water leak. Hence, there are a lot of lost or inaccurate records.

30K destroyed per the FRB Director at the time it happened, from his mouth to my ear not a 3rd party discussion. There were >1 million records I'm told, so it's a very tiny number.

Inaccuracies IMNSHO come from trying to read the hen-scratch of the ~1000 FFLs and 100s of thousands of buyers/sellers on the old paper forms and typing them into a computer.


Yup. I've never heard of a prosecution for possession of an "unregistered gun" in the DPRM.

Only by innuendo in the media and PD press conferences making a big deal out of it, which convinces the sheep that all guns must be registered to the person in possession in MA. Many of us know this is untrue, but if you (PD/media) tell a lie often enough it becomes the defacto truth.
 
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As anyone who has ever checked can tell you, when you run your name through the system to see what guns you own, there are usually discrepancies.

Guns I have sold via EFA-10 are still listed as belonging to me and guns I have bought are not listed.

Is there anyway that someone can get jammed up for carrying a gun that is not "registered " to them? Are there any cases of this happening? I tried to google it but didn't find anything.

It seems to me that the whole system is useless.


The FA10 system is not an accurate inventory system, and was never intended to be that. It simply records transfers that are required to be recorded per the law. You can't look at what the FA10 system has in its database and assume something is legally registered to that person or not.

You could legally be in possession of firearms that were never recorded with an FA10. An example are firearms that you may have owned prior to the FA10 requirement went into effect.
Or, you moved into Mass from another state and got your LTC within the time frame. In this case you can bring all your firearms into the state and none require an FA10 be filed.

if you sell a firearm to someone out of state:
If that particular firearm was FA10'd to you, that transfer will remain as such in the system. The out of state sale does not require an FA10, so no recording of this would exist. If you look at your name all that you would see is the firearm was transferred to you. This doesn't necessarily mean that you are still the owner.

It is a useless system, but once the anti's got this in place, it makes it that much easier down the road to argue that revisions to the FA10 law need doing in order to close all the loopholes that the original law missed. When they spin how the "gun registration" system has all these loopholes the general public will just jump on board.
 
A lot less to do with being a dick or violent and more to do with the department and the individual cops.
I'm truly surprised they would just walk away unless they knew you personally. There really isn't anything that will get your FID revoked that doesn't include at least an accusation of a crime or violence. Just an accusation will do it.

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They have to just walk away. If you don't have any firerarm efa-10ed, theyre records are blank. So coming in to look around isnt an option without consent. Or thats the way it's suppose to work.

I didnt have many guns at that point, it would be a total shit show now.

All it takes is one accusation and one dick cop...at the same time the officers i dealt with i was known too. They know im not going to go badshit crazy, or i wouldn't be getting back my fid/ltc.
 
Here is a quick story that made me post this thread to begin with:

My buddy's dad had a handgun stolen from him many years ago. He filed a police report and that was the end of it.

About ten years later, 2 detectives knocked on the door because his stolen gun showed up at a shooting scene.

He luckily had kept a copy of the police report which he showed them and that was it.

I can't help but wonder if a gun you transferred was used in a crime, what would happen if you didn't have your FA-10 copy?
 
After 10 years? probably nothing.
If i hadnt sold it and it was stolen id be asking for it back after the case is closed.
 
Wait, I'm more confused now that at the beginning.

So I DON'T have to register a gun that I bought but I DO have to register a gun that I build.

That doesn't sound right. Someone please set me straight.
 
If you buy one from an FFL they do all paperwork for you.if you build it you need to efa-10 it. If you built it from a receiver you bought from an ffl, they may or may not have done the efa-10.Your supose to do it after you build it, some ffls just do it and put 16" down as the barrel length.alot of people wouldn't even know to efa10 it, or would choose not to
Guns aren't "registered" in ma. They "record the transfer of firearms"
 
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Friend of a friend had a nosy doctor (his fault) call the police on him as a potential suicide recently.
Cops showed up, no 72 hour hold, but they asked permission to take his firearms for a week. He and his family obliged (dumb).

One of the firearms taken was a freshly built AR, not registered to anyone. He got everything back at the end of the week (lucky), and they paid the unregistered AR no mind. They were much more interested in a pre ban, legit Norinco AK47.

When the friend called me during the middle of the ordeal, I told him his friend would be lucky to get anything back and was probably ****ed 7 ways to friday, all of which were his fault.

Moral of the story - No one knows. The one cop that pays no mind could easily be the super cop that does. They could charge you with something that makes no sense or they could miss the three things youre actually guilty of. The best advice I ever got was to stay the **** away from them and dont put yourself in a situation theyre looking at you to begin with.

this.
 
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