What to do with found guns?

[Len-2A Training]

im not sure how the OP is so adamant it was never used in a crime

I KNOW that many of my guns were used in crimes, horrendous crimes against humanity!

As a C&R FFL holder who has bought various K98s, MNs, etc. I am 100% certain that some if not all of them were used in horrific crimes.

 

[MAGG]

hey LenS speaking of that can you link to me your epic C & R thread please if you have a minute. Mine just came in this week and I searched on here in the engine and couldnt find it. thanks in advance

 

[BenDover]

Please clarify....

My understanding is that long guns just need to be (registered, reported, insert whatever word here) via fa10. I can buy a long gun from a nh FFL and just report it.

A handgun must be bought from an FFL In MA (of via FTF from another LTC holder). At the time of transfer the FFL (or buyer for FTF) does the FA10.

I've always ASSumed that a gun found on he side of the road needs an FFL. How do you fill out an FA10 without a seller?

Register the gun trough an FFL? What on earth are you talking about??!? *sigh*

 

[Len-2A Training]

hey LenS speaking of that can you link to me your epic C & R thread please if you have a minute. Mine just came in this week and I searched on here in the engine and couldnt find it. thanks in advance

It is the top-most Sticky under the "Gun Laws" sub-forum.

http://www.northeastshooters.com/vbulletin/threads/104-EVERY-SHOOTER-Should-Get-a-C-amp-R-FFL!

Please clarify....

My understanding is that long guns just need to be (registered, reported, insert whatever word here) via fa10. I can buy a long gun from a nh FFL and just report it.

A handgun must be bought from an FFL In MA (of via FTF from another LTC holder). At the time of transfer the FFL (or buyer for FTF) does the FA10.

I've always ASSumed that a gun found on he side of the road needs an FFL. How do you fill out an FA10 without a seller?

It's not a purchase, no FFL needed and an FFL won't "clean" a "dirty" gun. Read my post of last night! Your assumptions are faulty. Read the instructions on how to fill out an FA-10 carefully . . . they were posted here numerous times and it is on the back of every 3-part form they printed (until they stopped printing them).

 

[mac1911]

Found guns.
a few years ago I came across a list of guns in my dads old desk. I asked him about these guns. He said they where long gone. I already had possession of his known guns.
forward several years. Cleaning out his appartment after his death I found those old guns. All but 2 pre dated 1894. Ghee other 2 are from what I found out early 1900s.
I also found many items my dad basically forgot he had. Berried deep under 65 years of stuff.

 

[Marcus99]

As a C&R FFL holder who has bought various K98s, MNs, etc. I am 100% certain that some if not all of them were used in horrific crimes.

That is why I will never own any firearm that I have any reason to believe may have had any association with Nazi's during WWII. Yeah, I'd turn down a mint artillery Luger with snail drum if I thought it was used at Dachau.

 

[appraiser]

anyone remember the guy in Saugus recently? Pulled down a ceiling and found some guns, previous owner was a person of questionable character it seems.

Guns? What guns?

Put gloves on, clean and oil them, put them back for a rainy day.

 

[dcmdon]

If the guy owns the house it isn't found property, he owns those guns, period end.

-Mike

And if he's owned the house since before 98, he's owned the guns as well. No FA10 required, though he should get a FID if he intends to keep them. Otherwise, he should just bring them to a dealer and sell them.

There is no point in going through all sorts of self flagellation as a result of finding these guns. If he wants to keep them he should get legal. Otherwise he should get rid of them via a licensee.

 

[dcmdon]

1) STFU and get an LTC, register the gun thru an FFL

Why would he register the guns? They've been in his possession since prior to 98. No registration necessary.

- - - Updated - - -

what if the guns had been used in a crime? that might cause a problem one day?

VERY VERY highly unlikely if they've been in the attic for 40 years.

 

[namedpipes]

Overthinking things is one of my personal faults, but this thread reveals that my problems are mild...

(Toss them in his safe, tell him to get an ltc if he doesn't have one)

Sent from my chimney using smoke signals.

 

[Len-2A Training]

Why would he register the guns? They've been in his possession since prior to 98. No registration necessary.

VERY VERY highly unlikely if they've been in the attic for 40 years.

If you think that "registration" came about in 1998, you know a lot less about MA gun laws than you think you do. From what research I have done, it seems that the FA-10 form (looked different but same number) came about ~1968 and so did the legal requirement to register everything you brought in (or found in your house).

I wouldn't doubt for a second that guns couldn't be left buried in an attic for 40 years. I personally know of one such instance where the gun was hidden away for >30 years, especially war trophies from WWII (or earlier wars), where the owners didn't want their children to get into them (I suspect trigger locks weren't around in before the 1970s).

 

[dcmdon]

Sorry Len. I had a brain fart. I'm aware that there was some form of registration prior to '98.

but with all that said. MA's got kindof a registration process, but not a proper registry.

As I'm sure you know, the laws don't allow them to track guns coming into and going out of the state.
As such there is a hole you could drive a truck through in their record keeping.

I moved into the state with a number of firearms and chose not to register them. These firearms are "off the radar" and are perfectly legal.

This means that if you sell a gun that is not "registered" to you and put it on an FA10 for a sale, nobody will go

"Hmm. according to our records he didn't own that gun." In reality, nobody will notice.

This contrasts with a proper registry, like the one the ATF maintains for NFA firearms, where every gun legally in existence is on the registry and every transfer is tracked.

Again, sorry about that mistake.

One other question, what would the statute of limitations be on failing to register a firearm. I'm guessing its less than 20 years.

Don

 

[Kevlar]

...what would the statute of limitations be on failing to register a firearm.

Six years (MGL 277-63)

 

[OfficerObie59]

If the guy owns the house it isn't found property, he owns those guns, period end.

-Mike

Like Mike said!

Finding them in the house you OWN is a lot different than finding them under a bush out in the woods somewhere.

IANAL but personally I do NOT see a need to involve the police in the first case (assuming you have no reason to expect that some mob enforcer owned your house before you did), but I definitely would involve the police in the second case.

Not always, at least under the common law. If the property is real property--affixed to the land--you'd be right. However, different rules apply to personal property not affixed to the land or structures therein.

What matters is whether there was intent by the original owner to leave the personal property where it was. The intent determines whether the property is lost, mislain, or abandoned, all which have specific legal meaning and possibly different legal consequences for finders of property. Take the case of Hannah v. Peel, the case from WWII England, that every American law student reads their first year dealing with a situation involving a mislain broach. The finder was a solider in living in another's house (gotta love that 3rd Amendment) but got to keep the broach (or at least recover the value of it).

Nonetheless, the issue here would come down to whether the property is lost or mislain--it was clearly mislaid IMO, and you'd be right, it is his. I'm just pointing out the rule isn't as hard and fast as you guys make it sound.

 

[BostonFJ40]

First thing you do is, Dont tell any one you found them, Duooooooo

You know what they say...two people can keep a secret...if one of them is dead.

 

[Palladin]

You don't post on a public website that you found them!!