imported post
When a Federally Licensed Firearms dealer sells a firearm the following has to take place:
When the dealer receives a firearm the following happens. The Manufacturer records the disposition of the firearm in it's Aquisition and Disposition record book (A&D Bound Book). The manufactuerer records all the indentification information of the firearm, the dealers business address and the dealer's FFL number. On receiving the firearm the dealer records the acquisition of the firearm in his/her A&D record book. The dealer enters the make, model, caliber, type of action, serial number and address of the person the firearm was received from. The record book is kept on the dealer's premises for 20 years or until the dealer goes out of business, at which time the A&D book is transferred to the ATF. If the dealer purchased the firearm from a private party the dealer may or may not have a receipt of sale and of course the private party would have no A&D record book to record the sale in but never the less the dealer must record the purchase in the A&D record book.
When a person purchases a firearm from a dealer the buyer must fill out ATF form 4473. The 4473 form records a great deal of personal information concerning the legal status, address and character of the buyer. The dealer retains the 4473 form at his location (subject to on site audits by the ATF). The dealer then determines if the sale is a handgun or a long gun.
In Wisconsin:
If the firearm is a long gun the dealer contacts the FBI and by using the National Instant background Check System (NICS) requests a background check on the buyer. If the background check is OK the dealer receives an OK to proceed transaction number and may instantly deliver the firearm to the buyer. The dealer must then enter disposition information into the A&D record book. The FBI by law can only keep a record of the tranaction for 18 months.
If the firearm purchased is a handgun the buyer must fill out ATF 4473 form as well as Wisconsin DOJ form DJ-LE-FH2. The dealer then contacts the Wisconsin Department of Justice instead of the FBI and the DOJ runs a background check on the buyer. If all is normal the DOJ assigns a transaction number to the sale. The dealer must then hold the firearm for 48 hours after approval by the DOJ before giving custody to the buyer. After delivery the dealer must make an entry of the disposition into the A&D record book.
In regards to Hugh's co-woker's question concerning a private sale to another individual the answer is two part.
First: If the sale is to another private person there may be no record of the sale. The only known record of sale might be the last sale made by a licensed dealer. That may or may not have been the co-worker. Trace back becomes rather complicated in this case.
Second: If the co-worker purchased the firearm directly from a dealer then there definitely is a record of the sale as decribed earlier. If the firearm is used in a crime it is realtively easy to trace back to the co-worker.
Yes the dealers records can be supoenaed. Yes the dealer is required to co-operate with law enforcement when tracing weapons used in crime. I have been asked a few times to review my records to determine if I had sold a specific firearm. I was asked just three months ago to do so.
As mentioned in Hugh's post there is no U.S. registration requirements of firearms. In fact, the NICS laws specifically forbid the U.S. from requiring registration that is why there is a time limit set as to how long the FBI can retain firearm transaction records. However, there is no such restriction placed on the individual states. You can bet that the State of Wisconsin keeps a permanent record of the sale of handguns. Is that considered registration?
Because of all this gobbledy gook it is extremely important that when a firearm sale takes place between two private individuals that the seller fills out a very detailed receipt, including, the make, model, caliber, type action, serial number, date (and even time) as well as the name and address of the buyer.
Hope this helps.