Selling an Unregistered Handgun

[Nardo1895]

[kemasa]

From what I have heard, the CA DOJ doesn't seem to care about the past, just that current transfers go through a dealer. That could obviously change at any point in time.

There could be exceptions, such as it mentions that if you move to CA you had to report (aka register) firearms in 1998.

There is a calguns wiki that has the timeline for the CA laws.

http://wiki.calgunsfoundation.org/index.php?title=Time_Line_of_California_Firearms_Laws

If the person illegally transferred a firearm and is aware of it, doing a CA PPT could document that they had the firearm. There is the statue of limitations, but it still might need to be considered and that could involve lawyers.

[Mayor McRifle]

From what I have heard, the CA DOJ doesn't seem to care about the past, just that current transfers go through a dealer.

This is my understanding too. As long as the firearm doesn't come up as having been reported stolen, they don't care. They just register it now.

[RoundEye]

From what I have heard, the CA DOJ doesn't seem to care about the past, just that current transfers go through a dealer.

This has been my experience as well. All they care is that it isn't stolen, and that it gets into the system. Assuming that none of them are banned, he should not have a problem selling any of them in or out of California.

Now, on to the more important question. Whatcha got?

[Nardo1895]

Thanks for the input.

As to "Now, on to the more important question. Whatcha got?" I don't know yet. May find out today.

I did check out the Wiki on the timeline. That's where I got DROS starting in 1924 and all firearms through a dealer in 1991, but it doesn't say when actual handgun registration started. DROS of longguns started before registration of longguns so I assumed the same may have been true for handguns? Does anyone know?

[Librarian]

Thanks for the input.

As to "Now, on to the more important question. Whatcha got?" I don't know yet. May find out today.

I did check out the Wiki on the timeline. That's where I got DROS starting in 1924 and all firearms through a dealer in 1991, but it doesn't say when actual handgun registration started. DROS of longguns started before registration of longguns so I assumed the same may have been true for handguns? Does anyone know?

'Registration' is an artifact of transfer documents.

So, handguns transferred through CA gun dealers were reported to DOJ from 1924. It was paper only until the leg. mandated electronic; DOJ is slowly entering the paper info into the database - the earliest I've heard of here on Calguns is sometime in the 1970s, but likely they have progressed further.

The legislature required substantially all transfers to go through a CA gun dealer - FFLs since 1969 (GCA68) - in 1991, and also required Operation of Law docs for several kinds of transfers about that time. But transfers NOT through CA gun dealers before 1991 were not documented, and that's how the law was, so that's fine. 'Registration' is not a required attribute of a gun.

2014 was the date that DROS was changed to require and record the same info that had been, and still is, recorded for handguns. ETA the 'self-reporting' paperwork - OPLAW, New Resident, VOLREG, C&R report - all were changed to conform to collecting long gun info at that time.

[Nardo1895]

'Registration' is an artifact of transfer documents.

So, handguns transferred through CA gun dealers were reported to DOJ from 1924. It was paper only until the leg. mandated electronic; DOJ is slowly entering the paper info into the database - the earliest I've heard of here on Calguns is sometime in the 1970s, but likely they have progressed further.

2014 was the date that DROS was changed to require and record the same info that had been, and still is, recorded for handguns. ETA the 'self-reporting' paperwork - OPLAW, New Resident, VOLREG, C&R report - all were changed to conform to collecting long gun info at that time.

This may be straying a bit off topic but I'll ask anyway...

Based on the above quote from Librarian, is the same true with longguns? Is/has/will DOJ in effect "register" pre 2014 longguns based on prior DROS documentation? I thought that DOJ was not supposed to retain the longgun DROS records (before longgun registration went into effect). I recall discussions on this forum (I think) about whether or not DOJ really did retain them. Maybe I dreamed all this...

I get that "Registration" may be a somewhat meaningless term, its really what DOJ has documented.

[RoundEye]

This may be straying a bit off topic but I'll ask anyway...

Based on the above quote from Librarian, is the same true with longguns? Is/has/will DOJ in effect "register" pre 2014 longguns based on prior DROS documentation? I thought that DOJ was not supposed to retain the longgun DROS records (before longgun registration went into effect). I recall discussions on this forum (I think) about whether or not DOJ really did retain them. Maybe I dreamed all this...

I get that "Registration" may be a somewhat meaningless term, its really what DOJ has documented.

I recall there being some kind of audit that found the DOJ did not destroy the documents as they were "required".

[kemasa]

I recall there being some kind of audit that found the DOJ did not destroy the documents as they were "required".

A long time ago, I heard they got around it by copying the data and then destroying the documents as required, saying that there wasn't anything which prohibited them from copying the information first.