Inheritance Questions...

[delfinskee]

A female friend recently inherited her fathers gun collection. I lay out the facts and ask for comments.
1. Lives in Oceanside, Ca. and the guns are in Phoenix.
2. She is a flight attendant, so has a place to keep them in Phoenix until she knows what her options are.
3. Her father was either a collector or a dealer. She isn't sure.
4. She sent me pictures of the guns (some good, some bad) that do not show enough info to determine if some of them are fully auto. She doesn't know how to tell if they are full auto or not. I am willing to send the pictures to others in the hope of ID'ing if they are full auto. I personally have never seen the weapons. But I have pictures...
5. The weapons range in age from very old shotgun to AR-15.
6. She has never heard of the Tax Stamp paperwork and all paperwork she might have gotten when her father died is gone, after her estranged husband left her and took some of the weapons. He may or may not have the documentation, but chances are more likely the paperwork is gone.
7. She is not a gun buff and will want to sell all of the weapons as soon as she is clear on what she can legally sell.
8. I'm not going to be acting as a go between, I'm just trying to help someone get her inheritance in order so she can sell them for the cash she can actually use.

Questions:
1. First and foremost, is there somewhere she can go to see if her father properly registered any of the full auto weapons? Can she get a dupicate copy to enable her to sell the weapons legally?
2. How would she go about getting realistic values on each of the weapons?
Quick list of weapons/ammo:
- Sten Gun with instruction book
- Military grade .45 ball ammo
- Appears to bandolier of .30, 8 round magazines
- Misc 9mm ammo
- 4 magazines for Thompson .45 sub machine gun
- Auto Ordnance Thompson .45 sub-machine gun. (Can't tell if it is full auto from picture. Did they make a semi auto?)
- Colt AR-15 A2 Sporter (Should be semi since it only has safe and fire positions)
- Springfield Armory M1 .30
- Springfield Armory M1A 7.62
- Side by Side, double barrel shotgun, Old, Percussion
- .30 M1 Carbine
- Finally a mystery weapon. It appears to be a tripod mounted heavy machine gun. Picture is horrible. Barrel looks like an air-cooled .30, but could be larger.
3. Obviously she should sell from Az, since the laws are more seller friendly. Is she required to bring the weapons for any reason to Ca. since this is her legal residence or can she keep the weapons in Az.?

Any help will be greatly appreciated by me and the owner. If I have posted this in the wrong forum, please point me in the right direction. But I figured FFL's would be the best place to start since they know the law better than most. Thanks again for any help.

Steve

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by delfinskee

6. She has never heard of the Tax Stamp paperwork and all paperwork she might have gotten when her father died is gone, after her estranged husband left her and took some of the weapons. He may or may not have the documentation, but chances are more likely the paperwork is gone.




1. First and foremost, is there somewhere she can go to see if her father properly registered any of the full auto weapons? Can she get a dupicate copy to enable her to sell the weapons legally?

if it is determined that there are NFA firearms in the estate, and no paperwork can be found (ATF registration, military "bring back" paperwork, etc), then the best suggestion is to have her contact an attorney, who can contact ATF on her behalf and check to see if ATF has their copy of the paperwork. unfortunately, even if some of those firearms were NFA registered, ATF's records are known to be inaccurate and they might not have their copy anymore (it has been documented that, in the past, ATF employees shredded documents instead of filing them).

if ATF has their copy showing the father as the owner, they can give the executor of the estate a certified copy and then they can be legally transfered to a new buyer.

if the ATF has no record, and the father's papers are gone to the wind, then they would ahve to be destroyed or turned in. But, you might be able to disassemble the firearm into a parts kit and then just deal with the unregistered receiver.

[delfinskee]

That's what I thought might happen. I'll pass the word. Thank you for the fast response...

[kemasa]

Originally Posted by delfinskee

- 4 magazines for Thompson .45 sub machine gun
- Auto Ordnance Thompson .45 sub-machine gun. (Can't tell if it is full auto from picture. Did they make a semi auto?)

It is only a sub-machine gun if it is full-auto. Yes, there are semi-auto versions of the Auto Ordnance Thompson. The safety/selector would indicate if it is full-auto or not. Most likely I would guess it is semi-auto based on the other items you mentioned.

[delfinskee]

Thanks Kemasa...