swilliams
6.5 Creedmoor
This is something I've been meaning to post for a few months now. As most of you know, we have two houses; one in New Jersey and one in Pennsylvania. Thanks to NJ's stupid laws, you can only bring a gun into the state when you move. Other transport is only allowed directly to and from a range or gunsmith. So, with the law (at that time) being 15 rounds max., and me being the wonderfully law-abiding citizen that I am, I decided to bring the 1911 to NJ. (It's my least-favorite gun to fire, and I knew I wouldn't be going to a range here.) The only other handgun I have that fits NJ's bill is the SP-101, and I wanted to keep that one in PA because it's .357 Magnum and it's my hiking gun.
Fast forward a couple years. My daughter does something amazingly stupid, and the local NJ police show up on my doorstep. She's not home, so a brief questioning ensues, and they leave. A couple days later, we're told to bring her down to the station. Here's the interesting part - for lack of a better descriptive word.
While they're asking questions, the detective asks me, "Do you still have the Beretta?" I was taken completely unaware. Not expecting that, I didn't even come up with an 'I sold it'. Made worse, the detective is one of my youngest son's football coaches, and I would have had a hard time telling him to fuck off. So I answered 'yes'. Anyway, that's not the point, other than to say that you should run over a couple potential scenarios BEFORE shit happens, so you don't look like a lying idiot if you decide to lie.
The big issue here is... how did the local cops in NJ know about a gun I purchased and keep in PA? Couple possibilities occurred to me. One, PICS - PA uses their own system, not NICS - actually records what you buy, and shares with other states and agencies. Do we have any PA FFLs here who know if type of gun is given when a PICS check is done? Two, ATF came in and copied the 4473 at some point. We know they do it, even though it's illegal. Three, Gander Mountain, where I bought it, turns over their records to some agency, who then makes the info available to police. Fourth, they saw it on social media. It was the first handgun I'd ever bought, and I was pretty excited about it.
I think option two or three is most likely. The didn't seem to know about any of the other guns I have. The Beretta is the only gun I bought at Gander, so it seems like however this happened it's specific to that gun/store.
I shouldn't be surprised. Do we really thing government is going to honor any laws when it comes to the one thing that puts regular citizens in any position of power? A huge reason to fight tooth and nail to preserve private sales.
Fast forward a couple years. My daughter does something amazingly stupid, and the local NJ police show up on my doorstep. She's not home, so a brief questioning ensues, and they leave. A couple days later, we're told to bring her down to the station. Here's the interesting part - for lack of a better descriptive word.
While they're asking questions, the detective asks me, "Do you still have the Beretta?" I was taken completely unaware. Not expecting that, I didn't even come up with an 'I sold it'. Made worse, the detective is one of my youngest son's football coaches, and I would have had a hard time telling him to fuck off. So I answered 'yes'. Anyway, that's not the point, other than to say that you should run over a couple potential scenarios BEFORE shit happens, so you don't look like a lying idiot if you decide to lie.
The big issue here is... how did the local cops in NJ know about a gun I purchased and keep in PA? Couple possibilities occurred to me. One, PICS - PA uses their own system, not NICS - actually records what you buy, and shares with other states and agencies. Do we have any PA FFLs here who know if type of gun is given when a PICS check is done? Two, ATF came in and copied the 4473 at some point. We know they do it, even though it's illegal. Three, Gander Mountain, where I bought it, turns over their records to some agency, who then makes the info available to police. Fourth, they saw it on social media. It was the first handgun I'd ever bought, and I was pretty excited about it.
I think option two or three is most likely. The didn't seem to know about any of the other guns I have. The Beretta is the only gun I bought at Gander, so it seems like however this happened it's specific to that gun/store.
I shouldn't be surprised. Do we really thing government is going to honor any laws when it comes to the one thing that puts regular citizens in any position of power? A huge reason to fight tooth and nail to preserve private sales.
.. not a lie .. correct ... then see what the next question is ..