Guns as gifts?

[ProtectorOne]

Hi all. I live alone in California. A few years ago my girlfriend's granddad gave me a handgun as a gift. He was a lifelong collector gave it to me as a memento before he passed away.

The gun was taken for 'safe keeping' by the police in a search of my apartment. It was in a leather gun case in my closet and the investigation has since been dropped.

To my knowledge, the gun was not registered to me by granddad. Now I'm curious as to whether or not I should pursue getting it back or is this a potentially bad situation? I never even considered registering the gun and, though I'm sure he kept it in good working order, I don't know if it even functions.

Thanks for any advice.

[xxINKxx]

Aren't you only aloud to have guns passed down to you from family? Like grandpa, dad, son, grandson in that order. If you admitted it wasn't even your relative that may be a no go..Im not a 100% sure on all the laws I'm sure more experts will chime in soon.